Tag Archives: Applying for Residential Visa in Spain

Ten Year Spanish Residency Renewal

5 Jun

I recently completed my 10 year Spanish residency renewal, which was fabulously easy, with apparent decreasing regulation the more years you have been residing in Spain. I will provide links to my initial non-lucrative Spanish residential visa, and the steps involved. I did my initial non-lucrative residential long-term visa in San Francisco (California), but keep in mind that when I did mine in 2013 Spanish embassies who processed them in different cities in the U.S. sometimes had different procedures, even differences between the embassies in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

I had always completed my initial, one year, two year, 2nd two year, and five year non-lucrative Spanish visa renewals myself, but for my 10 year, I decided to use a gestor or gestoria (administrator, manager, consultant who helps people to negotiate the particulars of the sometimes difficult to understand legal requirements) to assist with the process as it involved getting a Spanish criminal record check. In my area of the Costa Blanca, in Altea and Albir, I found a gestoria who confirmed I already had a long-term duration visa, but I still needed to renew it as my other 5 year visa (NIE) was expiring. I was given an appointment a few days later for which I was asked to bring my visa renewal application form, passport, NIE residency card, health insurance, tax paid, and padron (your registration in your town with your current address.) The gestoria simply asked me to send a photo of the aforementioned docs. (The links above to my prior blog posts about my Spanish residential visa and renewal applications had some expired links which I hoped I have removed.)

When I arrived, she had all the needed forms completed and I just needed to sign and pay what I felt was a reasonable fee for this quick, convenient process (133 Euros), done in less than 10 minutes. A few days later, I received notice from her office of my appointment to have my fingerprints taken at the police in Benidorm to complete the process, which was just a few days later. (I had heard of many complaints from people having difficulties securing appointments with the Benidorm police for the fingerprinting, but my gestoria apparently had magical or well-connected powers.) I just had to take a current regulation photo, which I was able to have done next door to the Benidorm police visa office, but you can get them in advance anywhere that does them for visas. After that fingerpriinting, I was told to return on a specific day four weeks later within a four hour time period, no appointment needed, to retrieve my new NIE card, which I did. Both police appointments were quick and efficient. Interestingly, with the 10 year visa, I am now allowed to work (not a chance), and there are other new perks, that didn´t apply to me.

Tags: , , ,

How to Apply for Non-Lucrative Visa or Residence Visa for Retirees for Spain as US Citizen

11 Jun

Due to popular demand, I am re-posting my series of blogs about how to get a “non-lucrative (retirement) visa to live in Spain. I have just completed my second renewal, which was considerably easier than my initial application, mostly owing to my experience at submitting  the correct documents. Here is my most recent visa, with personal info redacted:

Spanish visa/NIE card

 

 

At the time of my first post in July 2015 about the process of  how, as a U.S. citizen, to apply for a non lucrative residential or retirement visa to reside in Spain when I discovered this excellent and informative blog post by Jed on www.bucking-the-trend.com on February 17, 2014. So with his permission, I instead posted his blog, and then added my experiences where they were different. I was surprised to learn the requirements vary depending on which Spanish consulate you are required to apply. Here is Jed’s post:

How to Apply for Non Lucrative Visa for Spain as US Citizen – Bucking the Trend.

MY EXPERIENCES IN APPLYING FOR A “RESIDENCE FOR RETIREE” VISA

The process for applying for a non-lucrative visa to live in Spain as a U.S. citizen varies with which consulate you are required to go through. WHAT??? I thought the process would be the same since it is a national visa, but with some research online, and then personal experience, I was surprised to learn the requirements were sometimes different.

 

My first inkling about this came when I tried to inquire from the Spanish consulate in Los Angeles about the requirement of providing documentation of having a place to live in Spain, yet having to be in the U.S. to apply for and wait for the visa.  I had read a number of stories about the capriciousness of whether or not visas were issued by the Spanish government, so I was reluctant to rent a place in Spain without an assurance of being issued a visa. Moreover, I did not want to pay for a place which would sit empty for many months or possibly until the lease expired. When I initially contacted the L.A. consulate and naively asked how I was supposed to be in the U.S. yet have a permanent address in Spain, I was simply told I had to do everything required on the application.

 

When I inadvertently got on the San Francisco Spanish consulate website, there were different requirements, with no mention of the need for documentation of housing ahead of time. I wrongly assumed that the requirements would be the same across consulates, so I again contacted the Los Angeles consulate, (my mandated consulate based on living in San Luis Obispo County), noting that the San Francisco consulate did not have the housing requirement so did I have to at the L.A. consulate, to which I received the same response as my first contact with them, that I must do everything required on the application. They added that the requirements can vary depending on the consulate.

 

So I “relocated” to the San Francisco Bay Area with my son, and with my new address in Marin County, I submitted my visa application, sans documentation of a place in Spain to live. Interestingly, after booking my appointment via internet to submit my visa documents, when I showed up for my scheduled appointment, the man asked about my housing documentation. In my best, albeit slow Spanish, I smiled and explained that I did not yet have a permanent place to live in Spain because I would do that as soon as I arrived. Apparently, that was acceptable to him. Although it should go without saying, bring patience and politeness to your appointment at the consulate. I have seen curt and even rude people, whose behavior interfered with achieving their goal of getting a visa.

 

Also, on the San Francisco consulate’s website, they had a specific application “Residence Visa for Retirees,” which the L.A. website did not, although the requirements are largely the same with the exception of the variation between consulates. There are additional documents required to submit for those with a spouse and/or children.

 

There is a requirement to have all documents translated into Spanish. Living in California with many translators, I thought that would be easy. However, as with any time one deals with the Spanish bureaucracy, things were not that simple. I inquired as to whether a certified Spanish interpreter in California would qualify, and was told, it depended. The Spanish government may or may not accept the translation. As there were many documents that needed translation, including the reasons you want to move to Spain, criminal history check, medical certificate, medical insurance with no deductible, proof of minimum retirement income, with some documents requiring notarization, I tried to find a translator who was certified by the Spanish government. The first person I found was located in Spain, and after she learned I was in the U.S., she said she could not do the translation. The Spanish consulate website had a link to interpreters, but it was not working. I finally got someone at the consulate to send me the list of certified translators. One was conveniently located in the San Francisco Bay Area, and we exchanged documents by mail. She was fabulous, quick and met all translation requirements.

 

There were also some deadlines about how long you had to retrieve your visa from the consulate once notified of approval and to travel to Spain. One has to show proof of flight/travel arrangements when retrieving your visa, and the travel has to be scheduled within a short time, which generally means high flight costs. I got my notice of approval of my visa just shy of three months after I applied, and was required to pick it up within a few weeks. My flight to Spain was two months later.

 

In my next posts, I will discuss taking a pet to Spain, the procedures required once in Spain to actually get your Residential Visa/NIE card, and the first renewal of my Spanish visa.

 

Tags: ,