So you want to live in Spain? For many people that involves obtaining a visa while still in your home country. Most often you will need to make a Spain visa appointment at the nearest Spanish Consulate or Embassy.
If you want your Spain visa appointment to go smoothly, follow our top tips listed below. it doesn’t matter if you are applying for the retirement visa, the non-lucrative visa, a Schengen visa, entrepreneur visa, golden visa, or family reunification visa when it comes to paperwork in Spain be prepared.
Spain Visa Appointment Must-Dos!
It all seems so simple. You just need to fill out a few forms, gather a few documents, translate them, organize them, and just show up to your appointment. Well, if it were so simple it wouldn’t be the hot topic of conversation on so many forums, blogs, and social media. It is almost as if there is an abundance of information available, but it just tends to confuse matters when you find out the subtle little differences for each consulate or applicant.
Organize your Spain visa application paperwork by applicant!
Each person is applying for the visa, so have your paperwork organized by person. If you are a family of 4, don’t have all of the medical certificates together and then a bundle of applications and so on. Have each of the required documents in the same order for each person.
Translate required documents!
There is nothing more frustrating than to gather all of your required documents and attend your appointment, only to find you forgot to have something translated. Or even worse, you tried to do it yourself using Google. Stick with the Sworn Translator list provided by Spain.
Arrive to your visa appointment early!
When you are in Spain, you will certainly get frustrated with people running a bit late or waiting around. That said, don’t be “that person” when you are the applicant. Be ready and available when they call you back.
Seek help from the right sources!
Be very cautious of advice from expat forums and social media groups. Many people feel they have hit the motherlode of information when they find the expat groups who have already made their move to Spain.
You must remember that each situation may be slightly different because they applied at a different consulate, applied for a different visa, or maybe even just a different person at the desk for the same consulate. It can be frustrating if you go to the trouble of attending your appointment only to find, you didn’t have things right!
We have an updated ebook, Live in Spain, which walks you through each and every step of the non lucrative visa or retirement visa application process. This book has helped several hundred families, couples and singles all move to Spain successfully. Often with praise from the consulate as to how organized they were. Each consulate requirements are explained in detail and it allows you to get rid of the “noise” and focus on what should matter to you.
Timing is everything!
Our Live in Spain ebook provides the right resources, tools, & tips to make the process as smooth as possible. The timing of each of the documents, with your appointment and your move dates, can get a bit tricky too. We also provide a detailed checklist to step you through the timing and the process.
Come live your dream life in Spain!
We are here to help you every step of the way. If you want to do it all yourself, use Live in Spain for accurate and up to date information to guide you through the Spain non lucrative visa and retirement visa process.
We also offer consulting to answer those random questions, provide you advice on where to live, taking a family gap year, and we even hold your hand the entire way, when moving to Costa Tropical.
More of our products to help you move to Spain.
This is a new requirement for only some of the Spanish consulates in the USA, so we didn’t have to deal with this. That said, we sold our home and didn’t have a mortgage anyway. I will leave the comment to see if any of our readers have something they would like to contribute to the conversation.