Last Updated on March 18, 2026 by Bruno Bianchi
Question
Have any US Citizens gotten a second passport in order to travel to Spain while their passports were unavailable (aka with the consulate) due to the non lucrative Spain visa process?
Our passports have been with the SF consulate for over 2 months and we have had no success getting anyone to communicate with us in order to get them back.
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These are the answers of some Facebook group members:
“My daughter did this last year. The second passport was valid for a shorter term, but a second one is possible. She was waiting for her student visa and had other int’l travel planned. She travelled using the temp one since the consulate kept her ‘real’. As I understand it, you want to be sure the passport (numbers) you used on your application is the passport you use to enter Spain after you’re approved.”
“didnt think that was allowed before unless you had dual citizenship or something.”
“We went to the consulate and picked ours up. Drove down from Portland area. We are now in Spain and will most likely have to travel back home to get our visas. We emailed them (not expecting a response) and said we were going to be there the next day. Didn’t even wait for a response and just showed up. They tried to tell us no, but I told them we drove 10 hours straight and we weren’t leaving until we got them. It took them maybe 5 minutes to get them for us.”
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Explore Cities →“We just applied for our secondary passports, and for the same reason. SF Consulate has had our passports for over 2 months, and will not respond to emails from us or our lawyer. We expedited the passports, and should have them in 4-6 weeks. I’m not sure a secondary visa is a guarantee, so we’re keeping our fingers crossed. I’ll post updates when we hear from the US Dept. Of State.”
“Did you have to send them with all the other paperwork? Miami says just a photocopy of each page. However, each consulate has their own process. Miami doesn’t hold your passports while they process your visas. San Francisco does, and requires you to send it in along with the rest of your application.”
“I am told by an immigration lawyer that you can request to have your passport back.”
“So we are in the UK and used the London consulate, the other UK based consulates give you your passports back, London won’t return them and if they do they cancel your visa. Which quite frankly doesn’t even seem legal as we have a right to our passports.
Now I was keen to order 3 new passports as we have a fast track option in the UK but as the visas will be in our original passports we were told by people online that this would make our visas (when they finally arrive) null and void. Are you sure this process would work for all you guys?”
“I dont know what US passport rules are, but I know the UK wont allow you to hold another passport unless its for work reasons, a ton of evidence needs to be provided along with letters from your employer.”
Read this First-hand experience: Applying for my non lucrative Spain visa at San Francisco’s Spanish consulate, and learn how this Spainguru member obtained a second passport to travel while their NLV visas were issued!
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