Student Visa for Spain

If you are not an EU citizen and your course in Barcelona lasts more than 90 days, the paperwork starts before you book the flight: a long-stay student visa issued by the Spanish consulate where you live. We prepare that file with you from abroad, starting with a case study of your situation, and we plan the first month after you land, when the TIE card deadline starts running.

Our fee for the visa file, per applicant. Case study included: if you paid it first, its 100 € + VAT is deducted. After arrival, the TIE card (120 € + VAT) and the empadronamiento (60 € + VAT) are booked separately. Consular visa fees, apostilles, sworn translations and the TIE fee 790-012 are paid separately.

90 days, 180 days or more: three different situations

The length of the course decides what you need, and it is the first thing we check, because people often prepare for the wrong one.

Two points catch people out. A short-stay entry cannot simply be stretched into a course: if the programme runs beyond 90 days, you need the student visa. And the one-month TIE deadline counts from the day you enter Spain, not from the day your classes start. Our TIE card service takes over from there.

What the consulate looks at

Each consulate publishes its own checklist and asks for its own formats, so the final list always comes from the consulate that will receive your application. The core is the same everywhere:

• Passport valid for the whole planned stay, with copies of every used page.
• National visa application form, completed and signed, with a recent photo.
• Admission or enrolment letter from an authorised centre in Spain, showing the programme, the dates and that it is full-time.
• Proof of means to cover your stay and your return. The amount is set in relation to IPREM, the public reference income, which is updated every year.
• Health insurance with an insurer authorised to operate in Spain, with the coverage the file demands. Our guide to health insurance for residency in Spain explains why the cheapest policy is often rejected.
• Criminal record certificate from the countries where you have lived in recent years, for adults whose stay exceeds 180 days, apostilled or legalised and translated.
• Medical certificate when the consulate asks for it for stays over 180 days.
• The visa fee, paid at the consulate. It varies with your nationality.

Documents issued abroad normally need an apostille under the 1961 Hague Convention, or consular legalisation if your country is not a party to it, plus a sworn translation into Spanish by a traductor jurado appointed by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Some of these papers have a limited validity window, so ordering them in the wrong sequence means paying for them twice.

Which courses qualify

The Immigration Regulation in force since 20 May 2025, Royal Decree 1155/2024, groups study-type stays into higher education, certain post-compulsory secondary studies, training activities, student mobility and volunteering. Higher studies at a recognised institution, full-time, is the strongest case. Whether a given course fits one of these categories is a question to settle before you pay the tuition deposit, not at the consulate window. Our guide to the student stay in Spain covers the framework in more detail.

How we run your file

1. Case study. Your nationality, where you live, the course, its dates and hours, and what you want to do after it. The answer might be that you do not need a visa, that you need one without a TIE card, or that another route fits your plan better.
2. Consulate checklist. We turn the requirements of your consulate into a list you can tick off, with the format each document has to take.
3. Foreign documents first. Criminal records, apostilles and sworn translations take the longest, so they go first.
4. Means and insurance. We check that bank evidence, scholarships or sponsor letters cover the period, and that the insurance meets the standard.
5. Appointment file. A final review of the complete set before your consulate appointment.
6. Arrival plan. For stays over 180 days: the TIE appointment inside the month, the empadronamiento at your Barcelona address, and the documents to carry.

Mistakes we see most

• Booking a course of 16 weeks plus holidays and discovering, after entering as a tourist, that it runs past 90 days.
• An enrolment letter without dates or hours, which does not show a full-time programme.
• Insurance with co-payments or a waiting period, bought because it was cheaper.
• Ordering the criminal record certificate first and the apostille months later, so it has expired by the appointment.
• Waiting for the first day of class to think about the TIE card, when the month already started at the border.

Work, family and what comes after

Holders of a long-stay study authorisation can work in activity compatible with their studies, generally up to 30 hours a week; for higher studies no separate work procedure is needed. Family members of someone in higher education have their own route under the same regulation, with a condition on how much of your authorisation is left when they apply, so it pays to decide early. And a study stay can later be modified into other residence routes, such as employment, self-employment or job search, which is why the case study also looks at what you plan to do next.

Frequently asked questions

Can I apply from inside Spain? In some situations the regulation allows a study stay to be requested from Spain while your current stay is legal. Whether it works for you depends on how you entered and the dates, and it is part of the case study.

Do I get a NIE with the visa? The long-stay visa normally carries your NIE already, so you do not need a separate NIE appointment. For stays over 180 days, the TIE card is the physical document that shows it.

I am an EU citizen. Do I need this? No. EU, EEA and Swiss citizens do not need a student visa. If you stay more than three months you register instead for the EU registration certificate, which we handle for 180 € + VAT.

What if my plans are not only study? Then compare routes first on our page on Spanish visas from abroad, which sets the student visa next to the other long-stay visas.

Visa fees, the IPREM figure, document validity periods and consulate requirements change and differ between consulates, so we confirm the ones in force for your case before you file.