Where and how to fileArticle 1 of 8 · 4 min read
Where to file: consulate, immigration office or online
Where you file depends on your route and on where you are when you apply.
Key rules
- One door abroad: Every national visa goes through a consulate, whatever the route.
- Mobility routes: Once you are lawfully in Spain, the UGE-CE in Madrid takes them online.
- Everything else in Spain: The foreigners' office of your province of residence takes it.
From abroad: the consulate
You file at the Spanish consulate that covers the place where you legally live, in person or through its outsourced visa centre. It is the only door for a national visa, whatever the route:
- Non-lucrative residence: consulate.
- Digital nomad visa: consulate from abroad; the national unit online once you are lawfully in Spain.
- Entrepreneur and self-employed: consulate from abroad; entrepreneurs who are lawfully in Spain file with the national unit.
- Highly qualified professionals, researchers and intra-company transfers: consulate from abroad; the national unit online in Spain.
- Employed work: your employer files the work authorisation in the province where the job is; you then apply for the visa at the consulate.
- Student residence: consulate; extensions are filed in Spain at the provincial office.
- Family reunification: the sponsor files in Spain at the provincial office; your family then files at the consulate.
- Working holiday, youth mobility and language assistant: consulate.
In Spain: the national unit or the provincial office
The UGE-CE (large-companies and strategic-groups unit) takes the mobility routes online. The foreigners' office (Oficina de Extranjería) of the province where you live takes everything else: arraigo (arraigo), student extension and change of status, renewals and the EU family card. An employer-filed work permit goes to the province where the job is. Fingerprints and your TIE card are always done at the police in your province of residence (how the TIE deadline works). The details of each office are in which office in Spain handles your application.
Online or in person
In Spain both modes are valid: online through Mercurio or the Sede Electrónica, which you enter with a digital certificate or Cl@ve (digital certificate and Cl@ve), or in person with an appointment (cita previa). A lawyer, gestor or your employer can file for you with your signed authorisation (who can file for you).
If you are an EU, EEA or Swiss citizen
You do not use the visa channels: you register in Spain (registering as an EU, EEA or Swiss citizen). Your family members from outside the EU apply in Spain for the EU family residence card; each relationship has its own right and proof, set out in filing as a family.
UK citizens
If you are a UK citizen with Withdrawal Agreement rights, you hold a Withdrawal Agreement residence card under your own rules (are you covered?); other UK citizens file as non-EU citizens.
More in Where and how to file
- Can you apply for Spanish residence from inside Spain?
- Which Spanish consulate handles your application?
- Which office in Spain handles your application (oficina de extranjería)?
- Can someone else file your application for you?
- What happens at your consulate filing appointment
- Will the consulate keep your passport while it decides?
- Filing as a family: several applications, not one
Need certainty before you act?
For important relocation decisions, speak with a qualified human specialist.
Always verify important information with the relevant official authority or a qualified adviser before acting. This website uses large language models together with various public data sources, official government documents and other established sources. Due to the amount of data on this website, some information might be wrong. Information may also be incomplete or outdated.