It can be really frustrating. You have invested a lot of time in preparing your application (and put in a lot of enthusiasm), working hard to gather all the necessary documents, and completing the boring but required paperwork. Then, weeks after submitting your application, the immigration office rejects it.
Apparently, all your options to start your new life in Spain are over, but the reality is different. Because in fact there are 2 options to achieve the desired result. What to do then? What can you do if your residency application got rejected?
We are about to explore the answer in this article, so keep on reading!
Rejection of your immigration application
You want to start your new life in Spain. You have found the type of residency that best fits your particular situation, and you have reviewed all the necessary requirements.
You prepare all the documentation, and finally submit your application to the immigration office, either through the Spanish consulate in your country of origin or directly from Spain.
After submitting your application, 4 different things can happen:
- The first option is the ideal one. “Extranjería” notifies you that your application has been accepted, is favorable and your residency is granted. Then you will simply have to register your fingerprint and pick up your physical residence card or TIE.
- Secondly, you may receive a notification stating that your file is incomplete because some documents are missing or not properly presented. If that is the situation, you will have 10 days to correct and re-upload any remaining documentation.
- You don’t receive any type of resolution, but after 90 days and due to negative administrative silence, your application gets rejected (in this case we recommend you first check how long is it currently taking for your immigration office to issue a response).
- Or, on the other hand, it is also for your application to get denied: it has been rejected (and this can happen both in the initial application and in the renewal). What to do then?
When the immigration office rejects an application (whether it is an application for residence or for nationality), it is obliged to specify the reason for the denial.
Thus, the first and most important thing to do after receiving a negative notification is to thoroughly understand the reason or cause behind it.
Obviously, if you find yourself in this situation, the wisest thing to do is always to talk to a specialized immigration lawyer so that she can analyze your situation and guide you towards the best action course.
If there is any reason or assumption that can be alleged to undermine the reasons for denial, you could file an appeal to the immigration office.
That is to say, you will submit an official letter stating that you do not agree with the resolution and that you request a careful review.
This is usually an ideal alternative since sometimes the public workers from the immigration office make mistakes when processing applications, so the foreigner does not lose anything by initiating this procedure.
However, we can also find the opposite situation, in which the foreigner has not been properly advised before submitting her application and has sent an incomplete file; either by submitting expired documents, incomplete or not properly accrediting the requirements of the desired residence.
In these cases, the most recommended path consists of starting a new application from scratch with the correct documents.
The solution if you are denied residency: file an appeal
As mentioned in the previous section, the best solution if you are denied residency is to file an appeal.
This appeal is a procedure that allows you to allege that there has been an error in the resolution so that it can be reviewed (and finally approved), as well as allowing you to make your application more complete with new documents that verify your position.
Among the advantages of filing an appeal, we don’t just find the high likelihood that the file will be approved.
In addition, it also allows the foreigner to remain in Spain in an irregular situation during the time the appeal is being processed (i.e., you cannot be expelled from the country during this period).
Therefore, the appeal is a very advantageous strategy, especially when considering that the foreigner already has obtained a rejection and must do everything in her power to change the outcome of the situation.
In this sense, you have the right to make two types of appeals depending on the route you adopt:
Administrative appeal
The most usual path to follow when your residency application is denied is to file an appeal before the same body that rejected the application: the immigration office.
Basically with this appeal, the immigration office will review your file again along with any extra documents you add in order to demonstrate your position, so it is a great opportunity to finally achieve a positive resolution.
In that sense, depending on the reason for rejection you will provide one document or another based on the evidence needed to appeal properly.
You will have a period of one month starting the day after you receive the rejection notification to prepare and submit this appeal; and the immigration office is obliged to issue a response in a maximum of 3 months.
It is essential to respect these deadlines, because waiting for an extra day would completely eliminate your chances to get your application approved.
Judicial appeal
On the other hand, if your appeal is denied, you still have some chances.
You could then file a contentious administrative appeal through the judicial channel to the contentious administrative court of the province where you are currently living.
Here the maximum submission time is exactly 2 months after receiving the notification of rejection regarding your residence permit application or after knowing that your administrative appeal got rejected.
In this case, you will have to formalize the process jointly with a lawyer and a solicitor.
Fundamental advice for appealing the rejection of your application for immigration status
As you can see, getting your immigration application rejected is not as negative as it seems.
On many occasions, it is produced by mistake, and its main upside is that it has a solution: the interposition of an appeal that will allow you to finally achieve residence in the Spanish territory.
However, you must be very careful with this procedure.
This appeal is your last chance to get your legal status. If it fails and gets rejected, then there will be no extra options for you: you would finally lose the right to get your residence permit in the country.
That is why it is key and fundamental to understand that the appeal must be properly drafted, including all the necessary sections, correctly highlighting the errors that you have detected in the rejection notification, and effectively demonstrating that you actually meet all the requirements.
In short, this is not a procedure that you should do on your own if you want to eliminate the risk of it being ineffective.
Ideally, you should contact an expert team of lawyers who can advise you and prepare the appeal for you, making sure that you do everything necessary for your file to finally and definitively get the green light.
At Balcells Group we will be happy to listen to your situation and guide you step by step through this process.
Book a consultation with one of our lawyers and solve all your doubts:
At Balcells Group we have been foreigners effortlessly moving to Spain for over 11 years. We help expats from all around the world with their immigration, business, tax and legal needs; ensuring a legally safe and enjoyable transition to the Spanish territory. Our multilingual team understands the importance of adapting to the cultural and legal specificities of our international clients. We offer a comprehensive service that combines the expertise of several generations of lawyers with the innovation needed to address today’s legal challenges, always striving to simplify processes and ensure reliable, effective results.
