Student Visa Renewal Spain
 

Hi everyone... I'm afraid I've gotten myself into a situation here...

last semester, I studied abroad in Barcelona. One thing lead to another (absentmindedness and the horrible hours of the necessary offices), and I came home without having renewed my student visa. I am a student there for the academic year (until mid-May), and was told to come back after my holiday vacation as a visitor by the director of my program at the university of barcelona. I am afraid now, after the fact, that this was very bad advice. I am preparing to go back in a week and a half and I'm nervous about getting through. Is there a way to renew an expired visa or does it require that you get a new one altogether (which I don't have time to do)? Could I go through the process once I get there (IF I make it through)? At this point I don't know what to do, try to get through or see about starting a process that is impossible to complete before I leave again...

any help or comments about my situation would be greatly appreciated. I'm just afraid I've been really stupid about this and don't want to end up in an even worse situation. Thanks!

Hi asiaatoddhours, have you spoken to your Director of your program? That was the person who originally gave you the advise so I would start the discussion with that person. Test wishes to you.

My daughter is in the process of getting a student visa for Spain and she has to appear in person at the consulate. I can't imagine being able to do this once you are there. I suggest you make an appointment with your consulate. I know her application asked how many days you needed on your visa so I'm not sure why you didn't have the right number of days on yours.
http://www.spainemb.org/ingles/consulate/consulates.htm

when did it expire? I have a residency and work permit and was recently informed by the office of "extranjeros" that you are given up to two months after the expiration to renew, it could be the same across the board for student visas. Either way, if you are travelling with an American passport in particular, I don't see how you would have any problem getting back into the country. Everytime I leave Spain or come back in, they don't even bother to look at my passport, or my visa for that matter.

sebti.. you already HAVE your residency.
He only has the visa in his passport to APPLY for his residency.

difficult to say what can happen at airport. technically, (assuming this person is american?? no mention of passport country yet in post)..he does not need anything to come into country again.

not much you can do about it. how many days were you in spain before you left?

how many more do you intend to stay?

p.s. those of you going to have to go through this MESS over here with student visas.. be prepared. they certainly do not explain it very well to you in the spanish consulates in the states.

you must RE-present ALL the same papers and MORE once you get here.. make an appointment and stand in a horrible line for AGES.

then it takes MONTHS to actually get the residency card. most of you will have LEFT your program before you actually touch the student residency card.. just letting you know.

To make you feel better.. i know TONS of people who waltz in and out of this country with no hassle. but then again, they have no expired visa paper stuck in their passport.

you will not be put in jail.. so don't worry about that.
and i do think that if anything is said you may be able to talk your way out of it, saying the university was going to help you now when you came back. they are not going to make phone calls. either let you come in or not.

keep us posted.

if you came to spain by LAND once you got to europe there would be NO checking at all.
there are busses from all european countries.

For whatever reason, Spanish consulates do not give visas for the adequat time for students wishing to do two semesters. It was so backwards, in fact, that my visa expired before the visas of the students who were NOT returning for the second semester! Spain seems to be the only country that operates like this with their students-- my boyfriend studied for a year in France and had an "extended stay visa" that covered the duration of his whole stay. I would still love to be a legal student but due to these ridiculous processes and how misinformed everyone seems to be on visa renewal abroad (my program said all I had to do was go to a nearby police station to renew... so far from the truth, I can't even describe it), I am stuck in this unfortunate position.

The information about having two months past expiration to renew is encouraging. I think I'll try once I get in and see what they tell me, because I don't want any unnecessary trouble that can be avoided by trying to get legit.

I have heard a lot of stories in the past week about people having no trouble getting in with circumstances like mine, provided they have a plausible story ready. I wish honesty were the best policy in this case, but I don't think I stand to gain anything by having a heart to heart with a customs officer about my real intentions. At any rate, I leave Saturday and am a little more at ease about getting through. We'll see how it goes. Either way, I'll be back to tell the story of how it all turned out.

Here goes nothing... thanks again to all who put in their say!

yea.. i know. they say " go register at a police station".

then you find out that it is a worse process than the one you already went through to get what they call a "VISA" in your passport to begin with!

anyway...i think the best thing you can say is that you are going with your university to get it figured out THIS WEEK AND THEY SAID IT WAS NO PROBLEM FOR YOU TO COME IN WITH IT EXPIRED AS YOU Do NOT NEED "VISA" AS A TOURIST. (basically the truth, isn't it)

HOPE IT WORKS.
good luck.