How it works
The whole journey, honestly.
Most of the visa timeline isn’t the government. It’s getting your documents right the first time, from the free assessment to the residence card.
This is the Digital Nomad Visa, filed from Spain. For the Non-Lucrative Visa the first three steps are the same, and then you hand the file in yourself at your consulate in the U.S. How that works.
The process, step by step
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Week 0
Free assessment
The 2-minute quiz; within 24 hours I send a written assessment plus a preliminary document checklist. If your case can’t be approved as it stands, I say so here, before you pay anything.
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Weeks 1–2
Strategy
Video call, you and me. We fix your route (file from Spain for a 3-year permit vs. consulate for 1 year), your exact document map, and your full cost in writing: my fee plus every third-party expense, quoted for your case. Your proposal then arrives on your private case page. You read the engagement letter, sign it there and make the first payment, and your file opens that same minute.
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Weeks 2–8
Building the file
The long-lead items start first: the FBI check with federal apostille, and for W‑2 employees, the Social Security Certificate of Coverage, the one item that takes months, especially with PEOs like Justworks. Your case page tells you what to order and when, timed back from the day we file so nothing expires, and you upload each paper there. I review every document myself with AI-assisted checks: validity windows, apostille types, insurance terms, income evidence. See a working demo of the case page, with an invented client.
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Filing week
We file
You’re in Spain. I plan your entry evidence with you (keep your boarding passes). I file online with the Spanish authorities. Typical resolution: about 20 business days.
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After approval
Settled
Residence card (TIE) and town-hall registration are short steps you handle yourself, and I walk you through both. I also refer you for tax setup. Many clients qualify for the 24% Beckham rate.
The decision clock
If I file your application on , the UGE’s legal deadline to decide is
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Twenty working days, counted from the day after filing. Weekends and Spanish national holidays are excluded, as are the Madrid holidays already fixed for the year; a regional or local holiday can add a day. The date is the legal deadline, not a promise: decisions often arrive earlier, and silence past the deadline counts as approval under the Startup Law.
What I do. What you do.
My side
- Strategy and route decision
- Personal review of every document
- Employer and client letters, drafted right
- Sworn-translation coordination
- The filing itself, and every response to the authorities
Your side
- Ordering the documents I map for you, when your case page says so
- Uploading each one there as it arrives
- Signing what needs your signature
- Being in Spain on filing day
The five traps I catch.
These five mistakes are behind most avoidable rejections. Each one is invisible until the government points at it.
- Expired background checks. The FBI check has a short validity window in Spanish practice. Order it too early and it dies before filing.
- Insurance with copays or waiting periods. It looks like health insurance. Spain says it isn’t.
- The wrong apostille type. Federal documents need a federal apostille; state documents need a state one. Mixing them up restarts the clock.
- Income documented the wrong way. Spain wants gross, recurring, provable income. A screenshot of your bank balance won’t do.
- Remote-work letters that don’t mention Spain. A generic “works remotely” letter fails. The letter has to authorize work from Spain, explicitly.