Visa services for a Spanish residence application

Two purchases, not one

Two different things are usually in play here, and it helps to keep them apart from the start.

The first is help with the application itself. That work is done by one of two visa-processing services in our group, Platinum Legal Spain and My Spanish Visa. Both may be recommended equally and their prices are the same, so there is nothing to compare on cost.

The second is private health insurance. The routes below name health insurance among their requirements, and the wording differs from route to route. That is what we arrange.

Visa-processing assistance is charged separately from insurance. You can arrange cover with us without buying visa help, and you can use one of the partners without arranging cover here. Neither is a condition of the other.

First application or renewal?

This is the first fork, and it matters more than people expect, because the two are different transactions made in different places.

A first application is generally made before you move, from outside Spain. For the non-lucrative route the regulation puts it at the Spanish consular office, and the visa application carries the residence application with it.

A renewal or extension is made once you are already living in Spain, under an authorisation that already exists, rather than at a consulate. Where it goes differs by route: the non-lucrative renewal and the student extension go to the immigration office, while the digital nomad route is handled by a specialist unit. The non-lucrative renewal and the student extension each have a filing window written into the regulation.

The digital nomad route is the exception to the neat split: it can be started either from a consulate or from inside Spain, and which applies to you changes the shape of everything that follows.

Which route?

Non-lucrative visa. For living in Spain without carrying out labour or professional activities. The regulation describes it in exactly those terms, and extends it to family members.

Digital nomad visa. For working remotely, from Spain, for a company located abroad. It sits under different legislation from the non-lucrative route and asks different things.

Student visa. For studying in Spain for longer than ninety days, with study as the main activity at a recognised institution.

When help with the application may be worth it

We are not going to tell you that you need it, and filing your own application is a reasonable choice if your situation is straightforward. Help tends to be worth considering when something about your situation is not standard: income that is awkward to evidence, a family applying together, documents issued in more than one country, a previous refusal, or simply a timetable you cannot afford to get wrong.

If you have time to read the official requirements carefully, nothing here is designed to talk you out of doing it yourself.

What we handle, and what the partners handle

We arrange the private health insurance. We can explain what each route asks of a policy, arrange cover that meets it, and issue what you need for the file.

The partners handle the application. Anything that involves judging your case belongs with them: whether you qualify, whether your evidence will do, and questions about the application itself.

We will give you both partners rather than one, and we do not describe what either of them does beyond what we have confirmed: both handle initial non-lucrative visa applications and renewals, initial digital nomad visa applications and renewals, and student visa matters, at the same prices, charged separately from insurance.

What we do not do

We do not decide whether you qualify, assess a difficult case, or act for you in any way on the application. We do not say how long anything takes, and we do not promise that any document will be accepted.