Spanish visa denial
According to the Spanish Administrative Procedure Act, any citizen who is not satisfied with the decision of a government department can appeal.
Administrative appeal (Recurso de reposición)
An administrative appeal is to have the immigration office or consulate to review the application once again. During the appeal process, the consulate re-examines the documents submitted in light of the grounds for appeal. The Administration may have overlooked some of our documents in the approval process or may have misunderstood our grounds for obtaining the visa. Therefore an appeal is a very good opportunity to explain and, with good reasons, there are many cases where the application is approved.
During the appeal process, we can submit new documents, but Administration has may nor accept them. The decision to accept or not depends on whether the additional information should have been submitted at the time of the first application.
Example (1): The reason for rejection is insufficient funds, because the Administration considers that the bank deposit submitted is not up to the standard. In this case, if we submit a new certificate of deposit at the time of appeal, it is probable that would not accept it. Since the document proving financial ability is the main document, it should be submitted at the first application, not through an appeal.
You have one month from the time you receive the denial letter to file an administrative appeal. The appeal letter should be based on the reasons for the denial and should be carefully presented, so drafting the appeal letter requires a lot of legal logic and Spanish language skills. T
Judicial Appeals (Recurso Contencioso-Administrativo)
Another route is the judicial appeal (recurso contencioso administrativo), which is to apply for the revocation of the administrative decision through the courts. It can take a few months to a year.
If a visa is denied, you can appeal directly or file an administrative appeal first and then file a judicial appeal if you fail. This route takes longer, but has the advantage of being heard by a court, so it is more impartial and objective. This route is suitable for cases where the applicant meets all the requirements, but is denied for some subjective or unknown reasons. The Spanish Administrative Code states that all administrative decisions must state the reasons for the decision. Therefore, in the case of “opaque” and “unclear” decisions, it is possible to file a judicial appeal. Example of a typical unlawful administrative decision:
- Based on the information you have submitted, we believe that you are not eligible to apply for a visa and therefore reject the application.
The most important feature of this type of administrative resolution is that it is boilerplate, a typical copy and paste, without any reference to the real reasons for the refusal. If the judicial appeal fails and is rejected, there is a second opportunity for judicial appeal. According to the Spanish Administrative Procedure Code, a judicial appeal can be filed within two months of receiving the denial letter.
