Spanish immigration procedures and applications: Impact during COVID -19

How the Situation with Coronavirus affected to Spanish Immigration Procedures?

Due to the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, all countries are trying to take measures that will help to protect the health of their citizens. In order to organize these measures in Spain, the government declared State of Alarm, which is renewed every 2 weeks. This is necessary to restrict the movement of citizens, control the work of private businesses and public institutions. These measures are taken to limit the spread of the virus in order to guarantee the ability of the healthcare system to provide the necessary medical care for all citizens living in Spain.

When Spanish Government declared the State of Alarm it affected on work of all government offices. All appointments that were already organized in the immigration and police offices are cancelled. This means you will not be able to bring documents to apply for or renew your residence card, make fingerprinting, return authorizations, EU certificates or collect your card. All these procedures are not just cancelled, you will be able to recover your appointments once the situations will be better and government will allow opening offices.

However, there is no need to wait such a long time and you can still make some immigration applications and renewals submitting your documents online.

Online Applications for Residence Permissions & Renewals in Spain – COVID-19

Below you can find the list of authorizations admitted for online presentation:

• Application for a Long-Term Residence Permit (Larga Duración), generally for 5 years of continuous residence in Spain.
• Renewals of temporary residence and work permits
• Renewals of temporary residence and self-employment permits (por cuenta propia)
• Non-lucrative Residence Permit Renewals
• Renewal of residence permit for family reunification
• Renewals of residence and work permits as a highly qualified worker (Blue Card)
• Renewals of residence and work permits for researchers
• Renewal of residence permit with exception to work permit
• Modification of the residence permit for exceptional circumstances
• Extension of Authorization of Stay for Studies, Student Mobility, Non-working Practices or Volunteer Services and for their relatives
• Modification of Authorization of Stay for Studies, Student Mobility, Non-working Practices or Volunteer Services to Residence and Work Authorization or Residence with Exception to Work Authorization
• Modification of the Authorization of Stay for relatives of the holder of Authorization of Stay for Studies, Mobility of Students, Non-working Practices or Volunteer Services to Residence for Family Regrouping
• Permanent Residence Card for family member of EU Citizen

What immigration applications you still can not do during the State of Alarm?

Due to the fact, that some services should be applied personally, and can not be submitted online, it will be necessary to get an appointment (Cita Previa) when State of Alarm will be finished. Below you can find some of them:

• EU Certificates
• Collection of your card
• Fingerprinting
• Return Authorizations
• Getting NIE

If you submitted your residence permit or renewals applications before March 14, 2020.

All applications are in work, and if your documents are correct and there is no need for any additional documents, you should receive your confirmation. Nevertheless, you should bear in mind that the terms of resolutions can now be significantly delayed, especially if you submitted documents at the office and expect to receive a response by post.

If additional documents needed to fulfil the requirements, you will receive a notification about this. You will have 10 days to prepare them after completion of the State of Alarm. But you can also submit additional documents online through your digital certificate. If you do not have this certificate, we will be able to submit these documents for you under the certificate of a lawyer.

If your application for a residence or extension of residence have been denied, we can file an appeal for you. Contact us, and we will help you with this difficult process.

If I do not have a digital certificate, can I apply my documents through a representative?

Yes, certified lawyers at Lusa Legal are allowed to apply all your documents online. You just need to send us scans or photos of your documents, and our attorney will apply them through his personal digital certificate. We can also help you with document preparation and will be happy to arrange all the process of applying residence permission or renewal in Spain.

After State of Alarm will be terminated it will be still a long process in getting back to normal functioning of all government offices, so we recommend minimizing your difficulties in dealing with immigration issues and organize your residence applications online.

You can find more in information about requirements for different types of visas and other details about our immigration services on this page.

If you are seeking detailed information regarding immigration questions during the coronavirus pandemic, at Lusa Legal we are happy to assist you. We are experts in Spanish immigration law, and are up to date with every day changes of regulations and procedures.