Nomad visa for Spain through the Thai consulate

We started working on January 25, 2025. Initially, Andrey planned to apply for a Schengen visa, but after discussing the strategy, he opted for the D nomad visa — a more stable route that allowed him to obtain a one-year residence permit in Spain right away.

1. Document Preparation

The preparation phase took longer than usual:

1. the company extract took a while to be issued,
2. the criminal record certificate with apostille from Russia took about a month,
3. apostille on the diploma also took around 4 weeks.

Andrey couldn’t collect the criminal record certificate in person, so we did it for him.

On March 19, he submitted the application for an NIE, mandatory for applying through the consulate. By March 27, the NIE was ready.

On April 4, we booked a consulate appointment and helped submit the social security registration pledge (Seguridad Social). Important: for the D visa via the consulate, a regular RETA form is not accepted — it must be submitted electronically via the Social Security website.

The website was down for several days — the form couldn’t be submitted for 5 days in a row, causing delays. Nevertheless, the documents were submitted on time, and the social security form was sent immediately after the submission once the site started working.

2. Submission

Date of submission: April 7, 2025

3. Request for Additional Documents

Date received: April 10, 2025

On April 10, the first request for additional documents arrived:

1. bank certificate with a sworn translation,
2. re-submission of the social security pledge — the first one likely didn’t go through.

We responded on April 21. Despite the delays, we met the 10 business day deadline.

A second request came on May 5:

1. provide bank statements from October 2024 – March 2025,
2. invoices for the same period.

We translated the documents (standard translation) and submitted them the next day — May 6.

4. Approval

Approval date: May 28, 2025

On May 28, Andrey received notification that his visa was ready. On June 2, he picked up his passport with the one-year D visa sticker.

5. Residence Card Issuance

June 16, 2025 — fingerprinting appointment at the police station. According to the new regulations effective May 2025, D visa holders can receive their TIE card right away.