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Guide for American Families Applying for the Spanish Non-Lucrative Visa
- Brooke
- Nov 23, 2021
- 11 min read
We have searched the web and found little in terms of resources for families wishing to apply for the Spanish Non-Lucrative Visa. Having a large family comes with its own challenges, but add on a Report of Birth Abroad, Apostilles from various states as well as Custody Paperwork and it was even more of a headache. We hope you find this post comprehensive and helpful. We had so many questions and faced a variety of obstacles/challenges that were completely avoidable if we knew EXACTLY what was required in the beginning. It took us nearly 6 months to obtain all of the necessary documentation during a pandemic, but it could have been so much less time-consuming if some of the details were provided at the start.
If you have done any research on applying for a Spanish Visa up to this point I am sure you have noticed the inconsistencies, especially between each consulate within the United States. According to our research and experiences, each consulate interprets the requirements differently which makes posts like these challenging for families because they are typically location dependent. We also reached out to a Spanish Legal Service who assisted us in this interpretation and they also stated that the requirements vary by location. This post is going to go over the requirements and process as we experienced them while utilizing the Miami Spanish Consulate. I did use the Los Angeles website for reference many times and based on conversations we’ve had they seem to be very organized, efficient, and consistent with their requirements.
This webpage outlines the requirements to apply for a Residence Visa for Non-Profit Purposes, otherwise known as the Non-Lucrative Visa. As of today (November 2021), they are not allowing walk-in applications, you have to mail the application in. I recommend you save this link in a Google Keep note somewhere on your phone as you will refer back to this several times. I also recommend that you start saving everything in a Google Drive Folder to keep you organized. I share those tips here.
We were able to find a pretty comprehensive blog post on Ashley Viaje's website detailing her experience applying for this Visa in NYC. Her guide included a checklist and was originally posted on this blog. We tweaked it a bit to fit our needs and ours can be found here. Her experience was applying as an individual in NYC, but I will lay out here what we did and how we did it as a family of 6 in Miami.
To begin, you need to locate the appropriate Spanish Consulate and make sure that you are allowed to apply there. In our case, we were located in Florida and were required to utilize the Miami Spanish Consulate located in Coral Gables, FL. You have to apply while still living in your home country and before you try to enter Spain. You can NOT apply for your initial Visa while already living in Spain.
What documents were needed and how much did they cost our family?
This is the official list of requirements from the Miami Consulate & it can be found here:
Two Recent Passport Photographs ($15/person)
Passport ($110/Adult)
Drivers License (MUST be from the state you are applying from)
Consular Fee ($153.00 money order for each member of the family)
Private Health Insurance (About $7800 a year for our family of 6 to use globally)
Certificate of Criminal Record (FBI: $18/adult)
Translations (Vary. We paid $150/document for FBI Check)
Accreditation of the Family (Copies varied from $25-50 per document and Apostilles varied $2-$25/document depending on the state)
Timeline
Our timeline will likely vary from yours as our particular circumstances will be different from each other, but here is what it looked like for us. I won’t detail all of the dates because we moved from Maryland to Florida prior to submitting our application and had a few family emergencies along the way.
June to October: Apostilles varied from 2 weeks to 4 months.
July to September: Birth Certificates varied from 2 weeks to 3 months.
July: FBI Background Check took 2-4 Weeks
July: Florida State background Check took 2 Weeks and was translated
July: Obtained Medical Insurance through Sanitas and it took less than a week
August: Obtained Medical Certificate
September 21, 2021: Mailed out Visa Application.
September 30, 2021: Received Response from Consulate via email outlining what we needed to do within 10 working
days. We got an extension because of the apostille issues.
November 15, 2021: I email copies of the documents we needed to the consulate
November 16, 2021: We received an email from the Consulate stating that we were approved and that we needed to be
at the Miami office that Thursday, November 18th at 11 am to pick up our Visas.
November 18, 2021: We arrived at the consulate. No line. Ricardo was called out to help us. He was kind, fast, and very
thorough. In and out with Visas in Passports in less than 30 minutes.
Step-By-Step Checklist found here:
Make sure your identification is in order. You need your passport, current driver's license, and two passport photos.
Get everyone’s official birth certificates, marriage certificates, and court documentation if there is a custody agreement. They need to be reprinted if they are older than 5 years.
Obtain your Criminal Background Check
Get your translations done
Obtain your Apostilles
Obtain your Medical Certificate
Secure your Spanish Medical Insurance and Print out Medical Letters for each member of the family as proof
Obtain your Proof of Income
Write your Letter of Intent
Fill out your National Visa Application
Fill out your EX-01
Fill out your Modelo Impreso 790 Form
Get a $153.00 money order for each member of your family. ($140.00 Visa Fee + Initial Temporary Authorization Fee of $13.00)
Make a copy of everything for each member of your family and organize it into a binder.
Mail out your application and wait!
Official Document Breakdown
Accreditation of The Family
Apostilles: The Hague Convention Apostille is a procedure that legalizes the documents to verify their authenticity and make them valid internationally. They are specific to the country that you request them for, so our Apostilles are in both English and Spanish. They come with a detailed document that is stamped with an official seal. . This document is attached to the document you are apostilling and must remain attached to it or it invalidates the apostille. Make sure you do not separate the two while making copies.
All apostilles have to be done at the State and Federal levels. The consulate will NOT accept apostilles from places like Apostille.net. We paid $300 to find out the hard way. Please do NOT utilize a third-party site for these if they promise next-day delivery, it will not be accepted. The Report of Birth Abroad can ONLY be apostilled by the U.S. Department of State in D.C. Each person’s birth certificate can ONLY be apostilled by the State it was certified in. For example, if I was born in Kansas I would have to contact the Secretary of State for Kansas' office of Authentications to obtain my apostille.
The Report of Birth Abroad took the longest (Jun 8th - Oct 8th). We mailed out a notarized written request to obtain an APOSTILLED copy of a Consular Report of Birth Abroad. It needed to include a Notarized copy of my driver's license. The apostille itself is $50 plus $17.56 for 1-2 Day Delivery (I mailed one check for $67.56 for this and it was accepted) and notaries were $10 each. $87.56 plus overnight fees. I detailed how that worked out here.
State Apostilles varied. Maryland was $2.00 a copy and was a same-day walk-in service. For Washington we were able to request a Birth Certificate via VitalChek, it took 2 weeks and cost about $50. Washington called us the day after we submitted our request and asked if we wanted it apostilled and we paid over the phone. California took the longest at 8 weeks and it was $20 a copy.
Birth Certificates/Marriage Certificates: This process will be much easier if you could go to your local office and grab everyone’s fresh copies; however, being prior military our children were born all over the country and one was born overseas. It was not easy. Vital Chek was the easiest to use and the costs varied from $25-45.00 per copy.
Court Documentation for Custodial Situations: We received a response from the Consulate after our initial application was submitted that requested all court documentation be dated within the last 90 days. We contacted the Clerk of the Court for the County that issued the court order and requested a current certification for the court order. We were able to get an official digital certification with a current date emailed, as well as mailed out to us in less than 3 days. We sent those documents to the Secretary of State to get them Apostilled as required. They did not need to be translated.
Drivers License: Must be from the state that you currently reside in. It must also correspond to the appropriate Consulate for that state.
Consular Fees: According to the L.A. website, the fee for a Non-Lucrative Visa is $140.00 + $13.00 Tax. This payment can be made with a money order made out to "The General Consulate of Spain Miami" for the total amount of $153.00 and is not refundable should your Visa be rejected for any reason.
Proof of Financial Means: We printed off the front page of our bank statements for the past year. This was sufficient enough to prove that we had enough money in the bank to meet the requirements. As of today November 2021, the requirement is €2,259.60 Euro and then 564.90 Euro for each additional person. For our family of six, we needed: € 2,259.60 + (€564.90*5) = €5084.10 Euro per month. Annually this equated to €61009.20 Euro or $68,829.49 USD annually. This income source must be in a checking account and not spread out between investment accounts, bank accounts, and retirement accounts.
Other forms of proof of financial means are also possible: Annuities, Disability (VA), Retirement, Social Security, Pensions, etc. As long as the amounts meet the minimum requirement for you and your family. If you choose this route, you will need a certification of funds from the source of the income.
PLEASE NOTE: If you are intending to work remotely while living in Spain, it was our experience in Miami that you are not allowed to use this type of Visa. According to the legal team we spoke with, this is their interpretation of the law; however, once you get there it "doesn't matter." Use that opinion at your own risk/discretion. It is REQUIRED for a person to submit a notarized letter stating that they would not work while in Spain or submit a termination letter from their employer if they didn’t meet the financial requirements. We didn’t need to do this because we met the financial requirements.
Private Health Insurance: Our family chose to use Sanitas Expat Health Insurance. The rates will vary according to your family’s needs, but our annual fee for 6 people is $7759.19. According to the Spanish requirements, your plan must have no deductible and no copay. The particular plan that we chose included health insurance internationally as we intend on traveling quite a bit while we are abroad. Once you pay the premium you will get a signed and stamped letter from the provider for each family member and this document has to be submitted as proof of insurance with your Visa Application. It is already in Spanish so no need to translate.
Our point of contact was Diana and she was available during American business hours and was extremely helpful. You have to pay this entire premium upfront for the entire year prior to submitting your application. We were able to have the start date coincide with our intended month of entry (January). We were told that if our application was denied, we were eligible for a full refund.
Availability of Address for Proof of Accommodation: We did not have to provide this at the Miami consulate, we simply stated in our Letter of Intent where we desired to live in Barcelona and why we chose that location. We did not have to provide any document proving our accommodations when we picked up the Visas either. We modeled the same letter that Ashley typed up in her blog and tweaked it a bit. Since it is not an official document we did not notarize or "officially translate" this. Instead, we had a friend translate it for us. They accepted our document as it was. Here is what the English version of our letter looked like.
Medical Certificate: This form can be found here and given to your Healthcare Provider. We requested that our Physician either fill out both the English and Spanish section or just the Spanish section. This eliminates the need to pay for translation services.
Certificate of Criminal Record: We chose to obtain an FBI background check and it required our fingerprints. We followed the instructions on this website, paid the $18 fee, and then went to a post office on the list they provided to get our fingerprints taken. This could be done in one day if you start early. They email you a confirmation and you take that to the USPS office. Once they get your fingerprints it takes about 7-10 days to receive the letter in the mail. This letter needs to be translated by a third party prior to being Apostilled by the U.S. Department of State. The Apostille takes about 3-4 weeks to get back.
For the State Level, we requested our Florida State criminal record check here. It costs $24.00 per person, everything is done online, does not require fingerprints and we were able to get it translated at the same time. We were not able to use it because we had not lived in Florida for the past 5 years. This document needs to be apostilled at the state level should you choose to use this.
Translations: We used the Spanish Group and for our FBI background checks it cost us $150 per copy. I believe it was because it was a certified federal document and other translations might cost as much. For next-day service, it would’ve been $300 per copy. From submission to translation in the mail, it took less than a week. The translation also came via email.
Application Forms Breakdown
National Visa Application: This is a general application found here that is required for every member of your family. It must be signed prior to sending it to the Consulate. For minors, the parent signs.
For Principal Purpose of Journey, select “Residence without work permit.”
For Number of entries requested, select “more than two.”
For Applicant’s address in Spain, you can write your address if you already have one (whether it’s permanent or AirBnB). If you don’t have housing arranged yet, you can write the city and province you will be living in.
You can skip steps 24-26.
Form EX-01: This is the application for the non-lucrative visa found here that must be filled out for each member of the family. It is in Spanish and here is how we filled it out:
For Estado Civil: C is for Married. S is for Single.
“Nombre y apellidos del titular” Your name in the box on top of page 2 & 3.
Part 2: Blank
Part 3: “DOMICILIO A EFECTOS DE NOTIFICACIONES” Telephone Number and Email
Check “CONSIENTO” to receive email communications.
Part 4: Check “Inicial” if it’s your first time applying.
Date in Spanish. Example: Miami, a 21 de Octubre, 2021
Sign in the box where it says “FIRMA” (Parent signs for child)
Modelo 790 Codigo 052. This is a tax payment form found here that must be filled out for each member of the family. There is a website that allows you to generate a PDF with a special tax code that can be found here, but we were not successful in using it. The webform only allowed us to fill in certain boxes, here is how we filled it out:
Ejercicio: Current year (We left this blank because the form would not allow us to edit)
N.I.F. / C.I.F. / N.I.E.: Leave this blank, you get this when you get your Visa.
Apellidos y nombre o razón social: Name in format - Last, First Middle
Nacionalidad: Estados Unidos
Autoliquidacion: Check the box “Principal”
Declarante: Must sign the section that says “FIRMA” on each page. For minors my husband signed.
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