Los Angeles Spanish Consulate

@rdruby699

Wow, that's super frustrating!

I checked their website, and I couldn't get their appointment system to give me an appointment either. :-(

Other Spanish consulates ask you to request an appointment when all your documents are ready. This is from the Washington consulate:

Once you have all the required documents you must scan and email them to cog.washington.vis@maec.es. If there is not enough space to include all the attached documents, you can send them in different, numbered emails. Please do not send emails if you do not have all the required documents yet. When we receive all the required documents, we will answer your email and schedule an appointment for the submission of the application.

Please write the email subject as follows: “APPOINTMENT REQUEST. Visa Type. Given Name FAMILY NAME. Email Number”

I would try that to the LA consulate, so they can see you have everything ready. And give them the extra info that you're unable to make an appointment via their online system. I think their email is cog.losangeles.vis@maec.es

It might be worth trying to Washington too, as they're set up to respond to appointment requests with completed applications. Explain your problem and ask if you can come to DC instead, or if they have a magic email that gets an appointment from the LA consulate. :-)

Additionally, here's the LA FAQ in case you didn't find it.

https://www.exteriores.gob.es/DocumentosAuxiliaresSC/Estados%20Unidos/LOS%20%C3%81NGELES%20(C)/Preguntas%20Frecuentes%20Visados.pdf

I also spotted that short-term (Schengen) visas have been outsourced to BLS. I'd imagine they might be more responsive to phone calls, so perhaps you can try explaining the problem to them, in case they have any suggestions.

https://usa.blsspainvisa.com/losangeles/

Thank you @gwynj,

Thank you for your response.

I have emailed the consulate & explained the problem—haven't heard back.

Lol, I also DM'd them on Twitter—no response.

I guess I could try one of the other consulates & see what happens.

My background check will soon expire & I'll have to redo that, get it Apostilled

again as well as re-translated ($$$$).

Just amazing.

@rdruby699

If it was easy everybody would do it. :-)

This may seem stupid, but why don't  you knock on their door? Emails are not effective in these situations.

I was actually in their office—they will not make appointments in person.

I went through this with the Los Angeles Consulate Office in the Summer and Fall of 2022. For weeks I was not able to get an appointment for a non-lucrative residency visa. I was trying twice a day: late at night and at 7 am each morning before they opened. I finally started trying to make an appointment for a student visa in addition to the residency visa. One morning, I was able to make an appointment for the student visa a month away. I took it. I kept trying every night and morning for the residency visa, and about two weeks later I was able to get one  It appears as if they add 3 or 4 weeks of  appointments to the website once every few weeks; when those are gone, it shows only the filled appointments and you have to start the process over again. So be diligent and keep checking every morning and evening California time.

I went online and cancelled the student visa appointment so someone else could get it.

I had to visit that office in Mid-Wishire 5 times in all: Once to get an NIE card; once for the visa appointment; once to get back my passport (they don't tell you that they take your passport while your application is pending; I noticed mine missing when i got home, wrote them asking if I had mistakenly left it there and they replied 7 days later that they had it because that is the procedure; since I needed it for an appointment to renew my Global Entry they allowed me to pick it up one morning and return it to them after my renewal; then went the 5th time to pick up the passport again with the visa.) Thank goodness no appointment was required for those trips 

They only are open to the public in the mornings. That and their refusal to answer the phone or reply to emails makes dealing with them a horrible experience. If there is any way you can use another consulate office, I would. I feel fortunate they actually responded to the email about my passport.

Beyond which, the consulate officer who approves the visa applications is anal.  (The people under him I dealt with were all pleasant.) I got my criminal background check from the California Attorney General which is much faster than the FBI. It was an affidavit with a computer printout which was one full page and two lines on a second page.  The apostile was stapled to it and had a red ribbon on it.

When I returned my passport to the consulate on a Monday morning after getting my Global Entry renewed, the clerk told me my application had been ”conditionally approved” and i could get it on Friday morning but I needed one replacement document. He then showed me the criminal check documents. Apparently, when either the affidavit or the apostile was stapled to it, they had removed the existing staples from the computerized document and restapled everything with one staple. However, that staple was about an inch from the original staple holes. He told me that because of the extra staple holes, the consul was concerned that pages might have been removed from the criminal background check computer printout. i would need to replace that document and bring the replacement with me by Friday to pick up the visa. 

Fortunately, I practiced law in California for 37 years before retiring and had friends in the clerks' offices. I overnighted the form to them and they overnighted one back to me with a new computer printout. It had no staple holes in it. They also had laminated everything together with a red ribbon running the length of itto establish that nothing had been removed.  I got the visa.

I believe any American citizen can get a visa through the Washington, DC office. I would strongly urge doing that.

@michaelbrourman

Hi Michael,

Thanks so much for all this info—so sorry to hear you had the same maddening experience

I have, but at least I know it's not just me. I hired a Spanish immigration lawyer, and they

haven't had any luck either with the L.A. Consulate. I've been checking their website every day,

but I'll take your advice & check more frequently.

Hope you're loving it in Spain!

Dayna

@rdruby699 It is really important to check it late at night and early in the morning. it appears they only update it with new appointment dates once a month and when they are gone you have to wait another month.

@michaelbrourman  It looks to me like the Washington DC office only will process visas for people who live in states near Washington DC (there's a list of them when you go to try to make an appointment on  their website.)  I am in the same boat as the woman who began this chain... dealing with the LA consulate and the seeming impossibility of getting an appointment.  Sounds like the only chance is to keep trying every day like someone on this chain suggested.  Or, moving to someplace in the northwest US, so you can use the San Francisco consulate, which allows people to send in their application materials, rather than come in person!!

My other question is: are the fingerprints good for 3 months, or 6 months (someone who successfully got her NL visa through the SF consulate said that because of Covid, that  3 mo. deadline was extended to 6 mos, but I'm wondering if anyone knows if that is still the case?  And I presume the date begins with the date the FBI got the fingerprints, not the apostille itself...).  Appreciate the help!

Hi all,

After trying to get an app't with the L.A. Spanish for 2 months (!), I finally got an app't,

and: my NLV was approved in 17 business days!

The L.A. Spanish consulate will accept the FBI background check up to 5 1/2 months;

its the date on the report that starts the clock ticking. It then needs the Hague Apostille,

and then a translation into Spanish by an official translator. You want to do the translation *after* its been Apostilled, because the apostille gets translated.

Be prepared to shell out some bucks:

The Apostille costs on average $150.00, and  the four translated pages of the FBI

check (Apostilled) cost roughly $400.00. The actual FBI check cost $25.00.

It's not listed on their website, but they also want a ”Letter of Intent” that  acknowledges that you understand you cannot work in Spain on a NLV, and include why you want to

move to Spain, particularly the city you cite on your application of where you'll be living.

Your financial statement(s) also need to be officially translated (mine was a letter

from SS & my pension statement).

If you want the the name of who I used for the apostille & translation, you can DM me &

I'll be happy to provide it.

Forgot to add that the Letter of Intent needs to notarized (not Apostilled) &

translated into Spanish.

Just curious if you all initiated this process first via an attorney or immigration service?

@rdruby699b

Hello, I hope you were able to get your appointment.  I have the same issue as.  yours, documents expiring and all.  Still cannot get an appointment with the consulate.  i am glued to my computer checking on the appointment schedules but no luck.

Good luck,

Maria

Can anyone who was trying to get an online appointment for the Los Angeles consulate office give me an update?  Were you finally able to secure an appointment, and if so, how did you finally get one?  If not, did you make other plans to get your residency permit, and if so, can you tell me what route you went?