Last Updated on June 3, 2026 by Bruno Bianchi

Visit to Chicago BLS

We started getting our documents together in December 2025 for our target appointment date in early May 2026 — being mindful not to move too soon for the documents that have a “maximum of X months old” requirement.

Once I signed in to the BLS website to check out appointment dates, I found that there is a substantial amount of information required for each family member set up, so I’m glad I did so before I was ready to book the appointments. After a few months, for some reason our data was lost and I had to do it again. Not a big deal, but again, it was worth signing into the website every once in a while to check. To get the date I wanted, I waited until April 1st and booked the slots right away in the morning we chose in May. This seemed to be the best idea.

No family appointments were available, so I booked four separate (prime time) appointments online. I had some issues on the website and was unable to make payment for the second appointment, but after waiting for around 30 minutes it was resolved. This happened again for the fourth appointment. I spoke with tech support, which was OK. They had the ability to help book all appointments but, in my case, it wasn’t necessary — good to know they are available if you’re having issues, though.

We arrived around 15 minutes early to our 8:30 appointments. For a family of four we booked four prime-time appointments: two at 8:30 and two at 8:50. It was straightforward to find the building and, once inside, we had no problem getting to their office.

Around the scheduled appointment time, our BLS agent called us into her office and we began the appointment — all four of us sat in on the appointment together.

We were initially a bit nervous because we’ve heard that if you aren’t perfectly prepared, it can be frustrating, but we did not have that experience. We started with the primary applicant and collected each of the documents. After the primary applicant documents were submitted, we went one-by-one through the remaining adults, then children.

• IDs (driver’s license and passport) and the copies of each
• Forms EX-01, 790, and Long-Term Visa Application
  • Long Term Visa application — Primary applicant completed the top half of page 3 of the form to ‘sponsor’ the spouse and children (left blank on primary applicant’s application)
  • We should have waited to sign and date these upon arrival — we had to fix this on every application.
  • Form 790 should have had our Spanish address rather than US.
  • Both adults needed to sign each form for each of the kids.
• Health Insurance Proof (Asisa via Innoinsure was our choice, very good customer service, but the cost was higher than some other options)
• Bilingual Medical Certificates (physically signed originals were required, so I’m glad I got these) on the most up-to-date template.
• FBI Background Checks (adults only) — apostilled and sworn translated
• Financial Documents — we skipped translations for these and it seemed OK
  • Notarized declarations we won’t work while in Spain (ChatGPT drafted Spanish/English document for us). Notary was not a spanish-speaker and this was not a problem.
  • Employer letters saying we have resigned from our roles (maybe not necessary to do this before our appointment, but it worked for us and de-risked the visa from our perspective). Not translated or notarized.
  • Most recent three months bank statements
  • December bank statement (added upon request from BLS)
  • Letter from our financial institution stating our balances from the past year etc (BLS website has requirements for this, but note that our financial institution was not willing to stamp or wet-sign it, but this didn’t cause any issues, at least with BLS)
• Proof of relationship: each apostilled/sworn translated
  • Marriage certificate
  • Birth certificates

They did NOT request nor accept the following:

• Prior 3 years tax returns
• Proof of accommodation
• Final page of the 790 forms
• $13 money orders for form 790s (they added the cost to my debit card instead)
• Proof of our children’s school enrollment

There was one document (prior December bank statement) which we didn’t have ready to go. They allowed me to go into my phone and download the PDF and send it to them. They printed it for me. I believe there was a small charge for this (~$4). In all cases where I had made an error, the agent used a white-out tape to mark it out and allowed us to make the corrections on the spot. She also made a few photocopies for us in cases where we did not have them ready.

Our agent was calm and professional, patient with us as we made corrections and, overall, it was a good experience.

The entire process for our family of four took about an hour, and could have been much quicker if I hadn’t had to make the corrections in our documentation. The cost was:

• $105 per person for the prime-time appointment (I don’t believe any other types exist anymore) — paid online in advance
• $210 per person at the appointment (debit card) for the visa fee and some misc costs to BLS, including courier costs to UPS our passports back to us when the visa is approved.
• Total cost just for appointments: $1,260
  • Plenty of other costs for the Documentation (FBI, Apostilles, Marriage/Birth certs, color copies, and sworn translations (~$40/page)

Why we feel we were successful:

1. We had every document prepared in a portable document organizer so we were ready to pull each out as she asked for it.
2. We had more documentation than was required
3. We respected their rules (no electronics, etc)
4. We were over-prepared documentation-wise
5. We had an agent who remained respectful with us throughout the process and we were as well.

We will need to wait 2 – 3 months to see whether we have any feedback from the consulate regarding our applications!

Update (June 2026): Visas Approved

As an update to our Chicago BLS experience, our visas were granted with no questions from the consulate. We were notified about 3.5 weeks after our submission to BLS that our passports were being mailed back to us.

Bruno Bianchi CEO & Spain Immigration Expert

Bruno Bianchi is the founder and CEO of Spainguru, Spain's largest expat immigration community with 150,000+ members. Since 2014 he has helped thousands of people relocate to Spain through expert guides, webinars and vetted professional services covering visas, residency, taxes and life in Spain.

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