Last Updated on March 18, 2026 by Bruno Bianchi
Los Angeles Consulate – non lucrative Spain visa
We had our non lucrative Spain visa appointment with the Los Angeles Consulate today! It went great. A couple things for everyone to know about LA:
- They only wanted 3 months of bank statements. We had our banks write a cover letter with our total funds and translated the cover letters only. We did not translate our bank statements, but we did get them all stamped at our bank. We also had our bankers write a one page letter (stamped on letterhead) with all our current account information. We had those letters translated.
- We were asked for the letter of intent. We wrote a one page letter with the reasons why we want to live in spain, and reiterating that we will not work. We also wrote an affidavit stating that we will quit our jobs if accepted. We had both of these notarized then translated.
- The fees changed on Monday Oct. 3rd 2022 to $151. The website says $140 + $12 but I think it’s now $140+11. A few days before our appointment, we received an email with a consulate link. Follow the link and double check all the requirements. The webpage was slightly different than the cached version we had been visiting.
- For the taxes, you only need the 1040 (2 pages) form. Get that translated by an official translator.
- Our FBI Apostille didn’t make it to us in time, but we kept our appointment in hopes it was ok (we sent our Apostille to DC on August 23).
This morning (October 6th 2022), our Apostille company sent us an email confirming that the Apostille was finished and shipping TODAY. We had our guy take a scan of the Apostille and we showed the digital version at our appointment. That worked for us! We were told to bring the original to our pick-up appointment since Spain needs that for the TIE.
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Start the Moving to Spain Hub →- Our whole appointment took 45 minutes (they processed me and my husband back-to-back).
- The appointment was EARLY! By 15 minutes! Good thing we got there early.
- Overall, great experience. Keeping our fingers crossed for approval. We were told to expect about 6 weeks.
November 10th 2022 Update
We got APPROVED!!!!
Los Angeles Consulate Timeline:
10/5/22: Appointment
10/19/22: Approval Email
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Explore Cities →11/4/22: Picked-up our non lucrative Spain visa / passports
1/9/2023: Move to Spain!
Our Visa start date is our requested date in January. We need a few months to sell our car and wrap up our jobs (plus, we didn’t expect our approval to happen to quickly). We’re moving to Ourense, Galicia so we can walk a lot of Caminos and soak in the hot springs between walks.
Author: Lainey and Shawn from www.dayswespend.com
Check out Lainey and Shawn’s youtube channel here
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