Spanish Visa Posts

For the past several years, I’ve heard rumblings of a new visa type here in Spain that would be targeted towards digital nomads: people who typically work remotely and travel abroad at leisure. I’m not entirely convinced this visa will ever come to fruition, since I rarely see any new articles about it that add anything new to the discussion (or show what I consider a reasonable launch date), but I thought I’d try to give some information about what I know. There are already many digital nomads living and working in Spain remotely. Some likely come to Spain under […]

For many people who want to move to Spain, the non-lucrative visa provides the best option: it’s relatively easy to obtain (assuming a person has enough savings), and can usually be acquired in less than three months. The downside of course, is that the non-lucrative visa doesn’t allow any lucrative activities, such as work. That means a person must came to Spain with the intention of living off a passive income stream (or savings), and cannot perform any activities within Spain such as working for someone else or working for his or her self. But what happens if a person […]

About six months ago I stumbled across an article here in Spain that basically indicated that it is possible to renew most non-resident visas online, including the non-lucrative visa. I found that interesting since most of my friends here on the non-lucrative went into the office in person or hired lawyers to help them with their process. Despite scouring the internet on the subject, I couldn’t find any other accounts of people attempting to renew the non-lucrative visa online, so I’m going to assume I’m one of the first (at least one of the first with a website). If you’re […]

Well it’s hard to believe, but I’ve been in Spain nearly ten months now. My original non-lucrative residency is valid until August 30th, 2019, but the rules stipulate that a person can start the renewal process up to 60 days in advance, which means I can start the renewal process on July 1, 2019. The renewal process is significantly less involved than the first application – you don’t need any criminal record checks for example, and the fees are basically administrative in nature. So I’m mostly looking at this as a formality. Compared to the original visa though (which was […]

I’m currently in the process of applying for a non-lucrative visa to come live in Spain for a year. While there are many different visa options you can apply for to enter Spain – such as a work visa or a student visa – the non-lucrative visa is great for people who want to enjoy Spain without being a student or working locally. The name, “non-lucrative”, basically refers to the fact that you can’t earn any money with it. Unfortunately what that means is a bit confusing (as are many other things about Spanish visas in general, but we’ll get […]

Yesterday I received my passport back from the Spanish consulate in Toronto – inside was my non-lucrative visa, which contains my NIE number that I’ll need in Spain. It’s possible to obtain a NIE without getting a visa (for example to buy a house), but they are issued automatically with your visa as well. I started assembling my documents In May, and mailed my application at the end of June. It took roughly six weeks for them to process the application, and approximately one more week to send them my passport and for them to mail it back. When I […]

Just the other day I received notification from the Spanish consulate in Toronto that my visa had been approved. Since Toronto is three hours ahead, I received the notification while checking my email messages from my bed in the morning – what a great email to wake up to! In total, it took about 42 days from the time they received my application in Toronto until I received the approval notification. While I was purposefully trying not to bug the consulate with emails, I did send one at the two week mark just to make sure my application was around […]

Two days ago I picked up my new passport from the office in Surrey, BC, Canada and updated the last bit of my non-lucrative application. Afterwards I went across the street and made two full copies of the entire application, one for me and one to include in the application (since most consulates say you should include duplicates). One thing I didn’t do is submit my entire passport with the application: instead I opted to just send in a photocopy of the primary page and said in my application I will just mail it overnight as soon as they require […]

One of the last tasks a person needs to do before sending in their non-lucrative visa application is to pay for the process and the resulting residency. If you look at the Toronto embassy’s website, they have this really informative paragraph: You must pay a fee. Look for it in this page: [ link] Please, ONLY money order or certified cheque payable to the Consulate General of Spain in Toronto will be accepted. So, they ask that you go to another page, and then figure out the fees there. But which out of all those options are the ones you […]

As part of applying for the Spanish non-lucrative visa, one of the requirements is a negative criminal record check from the country you reside in. In my case, that’s Canada, so as soon as I arrived back from Spain I made a point of trying to decipher what exactly I needed to supply. Once again, different consulates seem to have different requirements. For example, the Toronto consulate says the following: Negative criminal record (not applicable for minors), issued by the authorities of the country or countries where you have lived during the past five years, including Canada. They are issued […]