In Spain, it’s better not to file residency documents in Barcelona, Valencia or Madrid, but in less loaded regions, such as Girona or Tarragona: there, according to described experience, you can quickly grab a slot at the immigration office. When applying with a tourist Schengen visa through the online procedure, the time from arrival to getting the residency card in hand is 8–10 weeks, or about 2.5 months.
Why queues form in major cities
The stage where queues become a real problem is biometric data submission after residency approval. At this stage, undocumented migrants seeking legalization, digital nomads, and startup visa holders all end up in the same funnel.
Extra pressure comes from the tourist season. Immigration office staff are often on vacation in June, July, and August, while Barcelona, Valencia, and Madrid are full of tourists at that time. Many of them come for a month or two and try to arrange residency in parallel, most often in Barcelona specifically.
According to described cases, some applicants who hadn’t thought in advance about where to file ended up waiting about 4 months to get their card.
Where to apply and how long to expect to wait
If your arrival falls during peak tourist season, it’s recommended to file documents not in Barcelona or Valencia, but in other regions. For example, in nearby Girona or Tarragona there are no queues, and you can grab a slot to visit the immigration office within a few days or a week.
The process now takes a bit longer than it did in 2024. When filing in Tarragona, for instance, you can get the residency card in hand within 8, 9, or 10 weeks — roughly 2.5 months. The countdown starts from the moment of arrival in the country.
How to enter Spain and apply online
To enter, you’ll need a tourist Schengen visa. With it, you can file residency documents while already inside Spain. The application is done online, and there’s no need to visit any office in person.
The visa can be a Schengen visa from any Schengen country, not necessarily a Spanish one. The main thing is that at the moment of the online application, the applicant has a valid legal status allowing them to stay in Spain, even if it’s just tourist status.
Documents are uploaded as scans, and there’s no need to mail any copies. Immigration officers reviewing cases inside Spain, according to descriptions, are less nitpicky and less likely to request unusual documents that might be missing from the initial package.
Digital nomad residency and its features
Spain’s digital nomad residency permit is called the simplest and most popular program among those legalizing in a European jurisdiction. Among the reasons cited is filing with a tourist Schengen visa, which allows a fast process without strict consular document checks.
Another feature: in Spain, the residency permit isn’t revoked if a person doesn’t actually live in the country, unlike in most other EU countries. Spain is one of only two EU countries where this happens. The second is France, where you can get a residency permit for 4 years right away, but it’s more expensive, takes longer, and carries a risk of refusal.
In the described experience of one agency, over 3.5 years of the program there were several hundred successful cases and just one refusal.
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