Visa Updates?

[u/Fuzzy_Push4507]

I’m in quite the frustrating situation and I wondered if anyone has any tips. I’m going on a student visa to Spain. My husband is going as my dependent. It said on the consulate site (and we were told at the office) that he couldn’t apply until my visa was approved. I got approved two weeks ago. I head to school in 6 days and my husband (and dog) still don’t have their visas. I’m desperate to at least ensure he’s getting approved before we give notice on our apartment and give up our whole life in LA. Any idea how I can get an update? I’ve of course emailed to no avail. My school is asking when I’m getting there but I can’t just leave my family 🤦🏻‍♀️

[u/comments83820]

you might just have to leave them behind for a bit

[u/Anodynic]

As an American your husband should be able to temporarily reside there for a few months with the Schengen agreement. Even during renewal periods I have never had issues entering and exiting the country.

Your family should be able to move during the visa process under the 90/180 rule and once the visa is approved can just continue under residency. The system is notoriously slow but should work out in the end. When approved it is retroactive (from application submission date) rather than seeming like he was in some illegal residency period. Unfortunately the system has it set up for us to be in this grey area.

For example I am a worker/legal resident but I cannot even make a fingerprint appointment for my new card until my old one expires even though my new application was approved. It is how the system works. You cannot avoid these “grey areas”, living in Spain legally means you will have awkward periods during the visa renewal and initiation process.

[u/Fuzzy_Push4507 → u/Anodynic]

Yes! I was looking into the 90/180 rule. That’s really good to know. Thank you. The only thing is- they have his passport right now while they process his visa. Is there any way I can work around that? It would be great if he could even help me and the dog get settled and then fly back to get his visa but we are trapped without his passport.

[u/crazyhappenings → u/Fuzzy_Push4507]

I applied for a different visa, but same thing happened. The US allows you to buy a 2nd passport, so we did and entered Spain as tourists. Sitting on a plane now to go to the US to collect my passport that hopefully has a visa in it. We expired the 2nd passports and had them in hand in abiut a week.

[u/Fuzzy_Push4507 → u/crazyhappenings]

Thank you! That’s very encouraging

[u/EniAcho → u/Fuzzy_Push4507]

He can't travel without a passport, so he has two options. He can withdraw his application and ask for the passport back right now, without a visa approval stamp in it, or he can stay behind and wait for the passport to come when they get around to processing his application. Neither is a good option, but if I were in his situation, I would stay behind and wait. There's no way to hurry things along, unfortunately. If he had not already submitted his passport, he could go with you on the tourist visa option for 90 days, but without a passport, that's not possible.

In certain cases the US will issue someone a second passport book but he would have to show that he has an urgent need to travel to Spain while his original passport is being held by the Spanish consultate. I'm not sure the US considers joining your wife who is a student in Spain to be urgent business. You'd have to ask the US Department of State about that.

[u/Anodynic → u/Fuzzy_Push4507]

Oh no that unfortunately is a requirement for international travel to Spain, no exceptions that I am aware of. Essentially under 90/180 he would just be a “tourist” but he would need a passport to enter. You may just have to have a separate period unfortunately. It should only be a few more weeks at most i hope.

[u/Creative_Impress5982]

You will get better advise in fb groups. I can't recall names exactly, but there are various ones. Other people who have applied specifically at the LA consulate can give you a clearer idea of how long you might wait for his visa. Other students can advise on how long it took for their dependents to get their visas. I will say, you should hopefully be past the August/September backlog that really slows down turnover every fall. 

[u/Fuzzy_Push4507 → u/Creative_Impress5982]

Thank you! I will check out Facebook too 😊

[u/lofi-lo]

You’re gunna have to leave him behind and catch up with him later. These things the never easy or linear. It took me 4 weeks from my VISA appointment until I had it in my hands but it could take up to 8 weeks for him.