The process
How a Spain visa application works, start to finish
Six stages, whichever visa you are applying for. Three of them run on our estimates and we label those. The rest run on deadlines written into Spanish law, and we link the law.
What differs between the two visas is the paperwork and the office that decides. Read what the Non-Lucrative Visa asks of you or what the Digital Nomad Visa asks of you, or see the two visas side by side.
Spanish bureaucracy, translated.
Check your eligibility
Who does this stage: YouSix questions, no email address asked, and an answer on the spot: which visa fits and what your file will need. If you would rather write, email us where you live, what you earn, who is coming with you and when you want to be in Spain.
How long: About a minute. Email gets a reply within one business day.
Open your file
Who does this stage: YouCreate your account and answer the intake: six short steps, about ten minutes. Your package is paid by card once, up front, at step 3 of the intake, and your document list, built for your consulate and household, appears the moment you finish.
How long: About ten minutes, start to finish.
Document preparation
Who does this stage: TogetherThe long stage, and most of it happens in other people's offices: criminal-record certificates, apostilles, the medical certificate, proof of income. We give you the list for your country, the order to do it in, and a date to have each one by. Documents get checked as they arrive, not at the end.
How long: Two to six weeks, our estimate
Translations, where needed
Who does this stage: Plain SpainWe confirm which documents need a Spanish translation and whether an exemption or accepted official alternative applies. Where translation is needed, we coordinate it and check it against the complete original before it goes into the file.
How long: One to two weeks, our estimate
Filing, and the wait
Who does this stage: TogetherYou file: in person at the consulate for a visa, or electronically to the office in Spain on the routes that allow it. The legal clock starts the day after. We track the file, answer what the office asks for, and tell you what silence means on your route, because it does not mean the same thing on both.
How long: Set by law, not by us. The windows are below.
The decision, arrival, the card
Who does this stage: TogetherIf the answer is yes, you collect the visa, book the flight, and land. Where your route needs a residence card, we prepare that appointment with you: the tarjeta de identidad de extranjero, the foreigner ID card everyone calls the TIE. Then you are done with us, which is the point. If the answer is no, we read the refusal with you and tell you what the appeal window is; running the appeal itself is a lawyer's job, and we introduce you to one.
How long: The card deadline is one month from entry, set by law
The clocks that are not ours
These windows come from Spanish law, not from us, and each one links to the text it comes from. They all start once the file is in. None of them covers the wait for an appointment beforehand, which is where most of the real waiting sits.
- Non-Lucrative Visa, decided at the consulate
- The legal period is three months from the day after you file, and the consulate may extend it if it asks for an interview or further documents (Consulate General in New York, non-lucrative residence visa).
- Non-Lucrative residence authorization, decided in Spain
- On the consular route, the office in Spain has one month from the day it receives your file from the consulate. If that month passes with no answer, the law counts the silence as a refusal (Royal Decree 1155/2024, art. 63.4).
- Digital Nomad Visa, decided at the consulate
- The law gives the consulate ten working days from the day after you file to decide and notify you (Law 14/2013, art. 75.5). Read it as the deadline the consulate owes rather than a forecast of your own case: it does not apply where your application goes through the prior consultation under art. 22 of the Visa Code, and the Ministry's own consulate pages state that the period can be extended when additional documents or an interview are requested.
- Digital Nomad residence authorization, decided by the UGE
- The UGE, the large-companies and strategic-groups unit that handles this route inside Spain, has about twenty working days from your electronic filing. Silence here runs the other way: unresolved at the deadline means approved (Law 14/2013, art. 76.1).
- After approval, the card
- On the Non-Lucrative Visa you apply in person for the TIE within one month of entering Spain (Royal Decree 1155/2024, art. 63.5). The Digital Nomad Visa itself carries no card; the residence authorization granted inside Spain does, because it runs longer than six months (Law 14/2013, arts. 75.4 and 76.2). The law counts in months, so a month from 31 January is not thirty days later.
What you do, what we do
The short version: you produce the documents only you can produce, and turn up in person where Spain requires a person. Everything else is ours.
| Stage | You | Plain Spain |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Check your eligibility | Take the check, or email us about your situation. | Answer on the spot, or by email within one business day. |
| 2. Open your file | Open your account, answer the intake and pay for your package. | Build your document list from it the moment you finish. |
| 3. Document preparation | Request your certificates and gather your own paperwork. | Give you the list for your country, the order, and a check on every document. |
| 4. Translations, where needed | Nothing. This one is ours. | Commission the sworn translations and check them against the originals. |
| 5. Filing, and the wait | Attend the appointment and hand the file in. | Assemble the file, brief you for the appointment, and track the decision. |
| 6. The decision, arrival, the card | Fly, and turn up to the police appointment. | Book the card appointment and prepare what you bring to it. |