The UGE sent a requerimiento.  Here is what to do in the next ten working days.

What the letter is, and what it is not

The UGE examines each Digital Nomad Visa file against the Ministry’s document list.  When something is missing, unclear or formally wrong, the examiner does not refuse the file.  The law obliges the office to ask first.  That request is the requerimiento, and it comes with a list of points, a legal citation and a deadline.

Read it as good news with a stopwatch attached.  The examiner has already gone through the file and found it decidable once the listed points are settled.  Nothing in the letter is rhetorical.  Each numbered point is a condition for approval, and each one needs its own answer.

A requerimiento is not a refusal, not a warning that a refusal is coming, and not a negotiation.  It is also not optional.  Under article 68.1 of Law 39/2015, a file whose requerimiento goes unanswered is treated as withdrawn, and the UGE closes it by resolution.  The money spent on apostilles and translations does not come back, and a new filing starts the twenty working days from zero.

How the notification reaches you

The UGE notifies electronically.  The letter is deposited in the notification system of the Spanish administration and an email alert says there is something to collect.  The alert is a courtesy; the notification is the deposit.  Under article 43 of Law 39/2015, if nobody opens it within ten calendar days of the deposit, the law treats it as rejected and the procedure moves on as if it had been read.  The deadline to answer then runs from the eleventh day, whether or not anyone has seen the text.

That rule is the single most common way a good file dies.  The alert goes to an inbox nobody checks, or to a spam folder, or to the applicant rather than to the person handling the file.  When I file for a client, the notification comes to me as the representative, and I open it the day it arrives, which fixes the start of the clock at the earliest possible point and gives us the full period to work with.

If you filed yourself, check the mailbox every working day from the moment the file is registered until the resolution arrives.  Not the email alert, the mailbox itself.

Counting the ten days

The period in a requerimiento is almost always ten working days.  Article 30 of the same law says how to count them.  The day of the notification does not count; the period starts the following day.  Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays are excluded.  The holidays that matter are those of the place where the office sits, which for the UGE is Madrid, so a regional holiday in Valencia or Málaga does not add a day, and a Madrid holiday does.

A requerimiento opened on a Monday with ten working days therefore ends on the Monday two weeks later, unless a holiday falls in between.  Write the end date down the day the letter arrives and work backwards from it.

Some requerimientos cite article 73 instead of article 68 and give the same ten days.  Others state a different period.  The period in the letter prevails; the ten days are the default when the letter says nothing else.

What the requerimiento pauses, and what it does not

The UGE has twenty working days to decide a complete application.  Under article 22.1.a of Law 39/2015, that period is suspended from the day the requerimiento is notified until the day you comply, or, if you do not, until the period you were given expires.  It then resumes from where it stopped.  If the requerimiento came on day fourteen of twenty, the UGE has six working days left once you answer.

What the requerimiento does not pause is the validity of your documents.  An FBI check or a civil certificate that was fresh at filing keeps ageing.  If the requerimiento asks for a replacement of one of them, the replacement has to be fresh on the day you send it, not on the day you filed.  Nor does it pause your own status in Spain.  If you entered as a tourist and filed within the ninety days, the filing keeps you lawfully present while the file is pending, requerimiento included, so there is no need to leave.

What the UGE usually asks for

The points I see most often in requerimientos on U.S. files, with what resolves each one:

• Proof of legal stay in Spain. Since the EES replaced passport stamps on 10 April 2026, the UGE asks for the boarding pass and ticket of the flight into Schengen when they were not in the file.  A tourist entry is lawful stay; the point is to prove the date.
• The bank evidence. A printout of statements instead of a certificate signed or stamped by the bank, or a certificate that does not mark the salary movements.  The answer is a new certificate covering the three months before filing with each salary credit identified.
• The employer letter. One sentence missing: that the work may be performed remotely from Spain, or the start date, or the gross salary.  HR issues a corrected letter; it needs no apostille.
• The Certificate of Coverage. An application for it was filed instead of the certificate itself.  The UGE does not accept the application.  If the certificate has not arrived, say so, attach the SSA acknowledgment and ask for the extension described below.
• Sworn translations whose electronic signature cannot be verified. Almost always a PDF that was merged, scanned or compressed after the translator signed it.  The fix is the translator’s original file, sent alone.  The guide on that error explains it.
• Health insurance. A policy from an insurer not authorised in Spain, or one with copays or waiting periods.  The answer is a compliant policy, and the insurance guide lists what compliant means.
• The company’s year of activity. A certificate of incorporation alone, with nothing showing the company is still operating.  A certificate of good standing, or recent filings, settles it.

How to answer

The answer goes through the same electronic platform used to file, as a submission of documents to the existing file, quoting its reference number.  It has two parts: a short written reply and the documents.

The written reply is one or two pages.  It repeats each numbered point of the requerimiento in the UGE’s own order and says, under each, what is attached and why it answers the point.  Where a point rests on an interpretation, the reply gives the interpretation and the legal or documentary basis in two or three sentences.  Where a document has changed since filing, the reply says what changed and why.  The examiner should be able to tick each point without opening the attachments, then open them to confirm.

The documents follow the same numbering.  One file per document, named after the point it answers, each one in the form the UGE accepts: apostilled where required, translated where required, the original PDF of any sworn translation untouched.  A single merged file is harder to review and can break the electronic signatures inside it.

Answer every point.  A reply that resolves four points out of five is a reply that leaves the file undecidable, and the UGE does not send a second requerimiento for the fifth.  If a point cannot be met, say so and explain, rather than leaving it out.

When a document will not arrive in time

The Certificate of Coverage and a replacement FBI check are the two that cause this.  The rule is simple: never let the deadline pass in silence, and never ask for time after it has passed.

Two provisions help.  Article 68.2 of Law 39/2015 lets the office extend the period by up to five days when the documents requested present special difficulty.  Article 32 lets any period be extended by up to half, five working days on ten, when it does not harm third parties, provided the request is made before the period ends.  A request filed on the last working day is in time.  A request filed the morning after is not, and the law says a late request cannot be granted.

The request is short: which point it concerns, why the document is delayed, proof that it has been requested with the date, and the extension asked for.  Send it together with the answer to every other point, so the UGE sees a complete reply with one item pending rather than a file on hold.  In my experience the extension is granted when the proof of ordering is attached and refused when the request is bare.

After the answer

Once the submission is registered, the decision clock resumes and the UGE decides within the days it had left.  There is no acknowledgment and no second round in the normal course.  The next communication is the resolution, approving or refusing, notified the same electronic way, so the mailbox needs the same daily attention until it arrives.

If the resolution refuses the application on a point you believe you answered, the guide on refusals covers the administrative appeal, which is included in my fee.  If it approves, the first thirty days start with the TIE appointment and Social Security.

What I do when a client’s file gets one

I open the notification the day it arrives, send the client the list of points in plain English with the end date, and draft the written reply the same week.  Documents that depend on the client, a corrected employer letter or a new bank certificate, go out with the exact wording HR or the bank needs.  Anything that depends on a U.S. agency gets the extension request prepared in parallel, so it is filed in time whether or not the document arrives.  The reply goes in with every point answered, and the client sees the submission receipt the same day.