Which Spanish consulate handles your application?

Key rules

• Your consulate: It follows your place of legal residence, not the place you are visiting.
• Visa centres: A centre books, collects and forwards; only the consulate decides.
• Trip to your home country: You file there only if you are legally resident there.

Your consulate follows where you legally live

You submit the application in person, or through a representative only in justified cases with proof. Some consulates also split their area by region. If your country has more than one Spanish consulate, check which one covers your region.

Use the Ministry of Foreign Affairs directory of Spanish embassies and consulates abroad. Each office has a page for consular and visa services that tells you how to book and what the office needs from you.

If you live in a third country

A non-EU citizen who lives legally in a country other than their own applies to the Spanish consulate that covers the country, or the region, where they live. You show:

• your legal residence there, normally a valid residence permit or card (sometimes also a long-stay visa);
• proof of your address.

Each consulate publishes its own document list on its page.

Filing in your home country on a trip

If you are not legally resident in your home country, you cannot file there during a short visit, because presence on a trip does not count: the consulate refuses the file or tells you to apply where you legally live. If you are registered or hold a residence status in your home country, that consulate is the right one, and some consulates ask for proof of it.

Booking and outsourced centres

Booking works in one of three ways:

• the consulate's own online appointment system;
• the booking portal of an outsourced centre, usually run by BLS or VFS;
• email or phone requests, where there is no online system.

Many consulates in countries with a lot of applications use an outsourced centre, for example in India, China, Morocco, Turkey, Nigeria, the US and the UK. The centre books your appointment, receives your application, checks that the file is complete, takes biometrics where needed and sends the file to the consulate. It does not decide on your visa. The consulate does. Many consulates and centres keep your passport until the visa is ready and return it with the visa; find out when you book whether yours does (passport custody). Where there is no outsourced centre, the consulate takes your application directly. Your consulate's page names its current provider.

If you are the non-EU family of an EU citizen

If you need an entry visa, you apply at the Spanish consulate in your country of residence. It checks the relationship and the EU citizen's status and processes the file as a priority (visa or visa-free).