Only the main applicant was granted a Schengen visa — his wife and daughter were refused. They filed for one person, planning to bring the family in later: the law expressly allows it. They filed three weeks before a single-entry visa expired, received a document request, and waited out the Christmas break. The permit exists; at the time of writing the family is still abroad.
- 49 days
- from filing to approval
- against a legal deadline of 20 working days: a document request and the Christmas break
- 1 applicant
- instead of three
- family members may lawfully file later
- 2 days
- from answering the request to the decision
- the authority moves fast once the file is complete
- 3 years
- of experience instead of a degree
- the law permits either route
What they came with
They came to us in October. The family lived outside both Spain and their country of origin; the main applicant worked remotely as a sole trader for clients in that country.
The core problem was not the paperwork but entry. Only he was granted a Schengen visa — single-entry, five weeks. His wife and daughter were refused. The second difficulty was the absence of a university degree: the qualification route was closed, leaving the professional experience route.
They decided not to wait as a family but to file for one person and bring the others in later. The law allows exactly that.
How the timeline ran
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01
Assessment
October. Decided that one applicant would file and the family would follow, and that qualification would be evidenced by experience rather than a degree.
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02
Waiting for the visa
October–November. Only the main applicant received a single-entry Schengen; his wife and daughter were refused.
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03
Documents
November–early December. Criminal record certificate, client register extract with apostille, contract, three months of bank statements.
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04
Translations
Early December. Sworn for the register extract and the certificate; an ordinary translation sufficed for the bank statement.
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05
Filing
5 December, ten days after entry and three weeks before the visa expired.
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06
Christmas break
Late December–early January. Decisions on December filings slipped because of the holidays.
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07
Document request
8 January. The authority asked for further documents; the review was suspended.
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08
Answer and approval
21 January the upload, 23 January a favourable decision.
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09
Fingerprints and card
30 January fingerprints, without a padrón. 17 February the card in hand, bank account opened, digital certificate obtained.
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10
Autónomo
9 March. Tax office and social security registration as a single process, on the reduced rate.
What did not go to plan
Кейс прошёл не гладко. Ниже — то, что реально задержало или усложнило процесс, и что с этим делали.
A single-entry visa lasting five weeks
Only the main applicant was granted a Schengen, and only for one entry. Anything that did not fit inside that window would be postponed indefinitely: leaving and returning was not possible.
The schedule was built backwards from the entry date. Documents were prepared and translated while he was still in the air, so that filing could happen on arrival. They filed three weeks before the visa expired.
The wife’s domestic passport had expired
Her national passport was due for renewal by age, and the family could not travel back to arrange it. Without it the ordinary route for obtaining a criminal record certificate does not work.
It was ordered through a contractor — dearer than the standard route, but without the trip. No original was needed: filing is electronic and a scan suffices.
The holidays moved the whole schedule
Filing fell on 5 December and the review ran into the Christmas period. The authority was working through December filings well behind: by early January it was issuing decisions on applications made at the end of November.
The legal deadline is twenty working days, and formally it had expired by then. There is a tool for this — a request for positive silence — but it did not have to be used.
The document request cost another two weeks
A request arrived on 8 January and the review was suspended. You are given ten working days to answer, and part of what was missing had to be ordered abroad — with an apostille and a sworn translation.
They made it: uploaded on 21 January, decision on the 23rd. But it added two weeks to the timeline, and nothing inside those two weeks depended on us.
What the costs were made of
| Item | Amount | Paid to |
|---|---|---|
| Our work | by agreement | to us; fixed before the work starts, paid in two parts |
| Application fee | €73.26 | to the state |
| Residence card fee | €16.08 | to the state |
| Register extract with apostille | around €110 | to a third party, a contractor in the country of issue |
| Sworn translation of the extract | €100 | to a third party, the translator |
| Criminal record certificate without a valid domestic passport | around €170 | to a third party; cheaper by the ordinary route |
| Fingerprint appointment | €30 | to a third party; sometimes a slot can be caught yourself |
State fees and third-party services cost the same whoever you work with. One person filed here — for a family, fees and translations multiply by the number of applicants.
What we did
- Reviewed the situation and chose the arrangement: one applicant now, the family successively later
- Prepared the contract with the client to meet the authority’s requirements
- Arranged a criminal record certificate without a valid domestic passport
- Ordered the register extract with apostille and carried it through to sworn translation
- Split the translations into sworn and ordinary to avoid overpaying
- Completed the forms, produced and paid the fee receipts
- Filed within the validity of a single-entry visa
- Handled the document request within the ten working days allowed
- Booked the fingerprint appointment and saw the file through to the residence card
- Registered the autónomo with the tax office and social security on the reduced rate
- Drew up the document list for bringing the family in
What the service did not cover
Obtaining Schengen visas is not part of the service — neither for the main applicant nor for family members. It is a separate procedure with separate providers, and our work does not influence it.
Obtaining documents abroad is on the client, but where a contractor or courier is needed we find and arrange them; that is billed separately.
Finding accommodation and opening a bank account were not part of the service. Bringing the family in is a separate contract.
The successive-filing arrangement works, but it must be understood correctly. It solves the main applicant’s problem — regularising him while he has a visa. It does not solve the family’s: obtaining a Schengen visa for a wife and children does not become easier or faster after your approval, and we do not promise that it will.
That is exactly what happened here. The applicant received his residence card in February and registered as autónomo in March. At the time of writing the family is still abroad: first the visas would not come, then health circumstances intervened. Bringing them in is a separate procedure with its own timings — at best around two and a half months from filing to card, and the authority is currently slow on family members.
If moving together and at the same time matters to you, successive filing is not your option, and it is better to know that before signing.
Questions we had to answer
Can you file alone and add the family later?
Yes. The law says a spouse or a person in an analogous relationship of affection, minor children and dependent relatives may apply «jointly and simultaneously or successively». Successively is precisely the later addition, as a separate application.
For that you will need: a criminal record certificate for the adult, with apostille and sworn translation; a marriage certificate; a birth certificate for the child. Where the certificates come from the same country as the applicant, an apostille is often unnecessary and a translation suffices. If there is no marriage, there is no certificate: a relationship analogous to marriage is evidenced by entry in a public register of an EU Member State, or by proven cohabitation of at least twelve continuous months. That route is slower and is assembled in advance. Plus proof of income, now calculated for the whole family.
Does an approved permit help the family get a Schengen visa?
No, it has no bearing at all. These are different procedures and different authorities: your residence permit makes a visa for your wife and children neither easier nor harder.
There is an experimental workaround — a type D visa through the consulate for family members. We do not recommend it: it gives a one-year visa rather than residence, and the complications outweigh the gain. It is worth considering only when a tourist Schengen simply will not come.
What if you have no degree?
The law allows two routes and treats them as equal: a bachelor’s, master’s, vocational or business school qualification — or at least three years of professional experience.
The second route works, but it is harder in one respect: a degree is a single document, whereas experience has to be evidenced, and the authority may consider what you produce insufficient. If you go that way, allow time for it and gather your evidence in advance — a request specifically about experience is likely.
Which documents need a sworn translation?
Sworn translation is needed for documents the authority treats as official: the company or sole trader register extract and the criminal record certificate.
A bank statement does not require one — an ordinary translation is enough. That is a noticeable saving: the sworn translation of a single register extract came to €100 here.
How long does a register extract with an apostille take?
The extract has to be obtained on paper from the tax authority and then taken for the apostille — an electronic copy from an online account will not do. In the capital the whole cycle takes about a week; in this file a contractor charged around €110 for it.
It is the slowest document in the package. Order it first, before anything else.
What should you do immediately after approval?
Book the fingerprint appointment, obtain a digital certificate, open a bank account and register as autónomo — the tax office and social security registrations are a single process.
An address is enough for the bank account and social security; the padrón is not needed for those — it is needed for state healthcare. For fingerprints the padrón is not required everywhere: practice differs between offices, and in this file they were taken without it.
Then two rules people forget. The social security contribution is collected automatically on the last working day of the month — the money must be in the account, or you lose the reduced rate and a penalty is added. And quarterly returns are filed whether or not there was any income.
Sources
Нормы и официальные материалы, на которые мы опирались. Ссылки ведут на первоисточники — проверяйте.
- Ley 14/2013, de 27 de septiembre, de apoyo a los emprendedores y su internacionalización Art. 62.4 — family members apply jointly and simultaneously or successively; art. 74 bis.2 — a degree or at least three years of professional experience; art. 76.1 — twenty-day deadline, positive silence, and the filing extending existing status
- Ley 39/2015, de 1 de octubre, del Procedimiento Administrativo Común Art. 68 — the period to answer a document request; art. 30.2 — periods expressed in days are counted in working days
- Real Decreto 1155/2024, de 19 de noviembre — Reglamento de la Ley Orgánica 4/2000 Art. 66.1.b — how a relationship analogous to marriage is evidenced: entry in a public register of an EU Member State, or cohabitation of at least twelve months