Question
When we submit our non lucrative Spain visa document package to our Spanish consulate here in the U.S. (in our case, San Francisco), is there a field on the application where we state the date WE choose for the non lucrative Spain visa to be effective? If there isn’t a place on the application, is that a request that we can make on a separate document when we submit our non lucrative Spain visa package to the consulate? The reason I ask is because we will want to book our flight to Spain way before we submit our package to the consulate. Or is it the consulate that decides the date that the visa is effective?
Answers
These are the answers of Spainguru’s Facebook group members:
“I can only share with you my experience. Insurance has to be approved before sending application and my health insurance can be future dated for so many months. I summit my application package on October 21st, date I requested to be in Spain January 1st ON application. Consulate technically has 3 months to get back to us. I bought my flight for January 25th. They do give us 90 days from our requested date to enter Spain Jan 1st to April 1st. The date you request to enter Spain also can’t be that far in advance like 4, 5 months from application date.”
“in one of the forms it does ask you the date that you will like to Spain for, so they try to work to give it to you by then, but not always 100% reliable.”
“You can ask for a date on the National visa application, but I’d never buy tickets before if they are fully changeable. San Francisco consulate went in strike and we had someone take 14 months and 3 applications to finally get through their nonsense last year (2022) when it all went down.
We submit tons of applications there. Most recent was January and it took 6 weeks, but we also have someone from November still processing there too. It’s a crap shoot.
They grant the date if it’s after approval. So if you apply in April and they approve it on May 16th and you asked for June 1 visa they will fulfill that date, yes.”
“When I had my appointment in November at the Los Angeles consulate, I was asked when I want it to start, and that was the date posted on my visa.”
“They ask you when you’d like to arrive in Spain”
In conclusion, it seems that there may be a field on the non lucrative Spain visa application where you can choose the date you want the visa to be effective. However, this is not always 100% reliable, and the consulate may grant the date if it’s after approval. It’s important to note that the processing times can vary, and it’s not recommended to book flights before receiving approval of the visa. It’s best to check with the specific consulate where you are applying and follow their guidelines.
