Last Updated on March 18, 2026 by Bruno Bianchi
Question
It’s been 2-months since the SFO Consulate took possession of our passports (2). Of course this consulate does not offer the online tracking or the appointment date. Question – can they deny our application for non lucrative Spain visa after keeping our passports over 2 months or even 3 months (I am led to believe that they can only hold our passports for 90-days)?
Answers
These are the answers of some Facebook group members:
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Start the Moving to Spain Hub →“If you don’t qualify for some reason, they can deny the application. No matter how long they’ve had it. Also as an FYI, San Francisco has been understaffed for several months. I think most are waiting in the 4-5 month range. If you need to travel internationally while you wait, you can get a second, short-term passport. Since they process student and emergency visas as priorities, and with the huge backlog of applications, I think the timeline for us NLV-types is a crapshoot. We applied just after you did and I’m on pins and needles!”
“We had to wait almost 3 months at the Chicago consulate just to be told one paper was incorrect and we had to fix it and send it in and then a couple weeks later be told the same about about paper. They had our passports from mid-January until June for my husband and July for me. We were told that, if we needed them, we could come and pick them up. We would have had to have taken them back when we picked up our paperwork”
“I recently asked about this and they said instead of the passport you can include a copy and submit the passport for the visa when it is approved .”
“We submitted our application in June. No one has replied to a single email I have sent asking for our passports back.”
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