Question
I wanted to know if anyone has been in this situation. My husband and I have been in Spain on a Spanish Non Lucrative Visa for 2 years and our passports have our Spanish Visa in it.
My husband needs to renew his passport this year. What happens to his visa that is in his present passport? Is it needed when you travel outside Spain and you want to return?
Answers
These are the answers of Spainguru’s Facebook group members:
“The original visa in the passport was your permission to enter Spain in order to apply and obtain the TIE residency card. It has no relevance now.”
“Just make sure you have a scan of that passport before you replace it in case you don’t get it back!”
“It’s not a problem. The Visa in your passport is just a temporary visa good for 90 days to get you into the country. When you get your new passport, they’ll return your old passport with a hole in the cover.
You’ll need to make copies of that as well as your new passport for your renewals, so be sure save it. The easiest way to renew your passport is by mail at the Madrid embassy. It only takes a couple of weeks. https://es.usembassy.gov/adult-passport-renewals/“
“Your Visa is only good for 90 days. It’s worthless after that.”
“What’s really important is that you grab a scan of all of the pages of the passport including the front and back cover for your renewal just in case you dont get your old passport back.
As that passport is always handy to upload when you do do your renewal because as you mentioned your Visa stamp is in there. That initial Visa stamp is just a temporary stamp which will be out of date by now your residency for your Visa and the dates associated to it are the ones on your TIE card.”
“The initial visa entry was to grant you access to Spain for 90 days to allow you to obtain your TIE. Once it expires it is no longer relevant, you effectively reapply for your next TIE on the back of your existing one. Your passport however does hold proof of your dates spent in the country so if you intend to apply for Larga Duración after year 5 you need to retain this to prove the latter.”
Conclusion
For Spainguru members under a Spanish Non Lucrative Visa, renewing a passport does not affect the validity of their residence. The original visa serves as entry permission, while the TIE card holds the residency status.
It’s essential to scan and save the old and new passports for records, especially for future renewals or applications like the Spanish Larga Duración residence permit.
This process underscores the importance of understanding the administrative requirements and keeping comprehensive records of your immigration documents.
