How long does switching from the Spain non-lucrative visa to a work permit take, and what can it cost?

Ten working days, two sets of papers

Thirty-nine days after the application went in, the request arrived. More documents, for the applicant and for the employer, within 10 working days, or the application could be considered withdrawn.

Call them Morgan. It isn't their name. Morgan spent their first year in Spain on the non-lucrative visa, which does not allow work. During that year they found a job, not in their own field, but one where their office experience and languages counted. At about ten and a half months, a solicitor submitted their application to switch from the non-lucrative visa to a work permit as an employee, and to extend their residence in the same step.

Morgan asked the group how long approvals were taking. The official guidance said four to six weeks. Their solicitor had said it could be much longer. The replies sided with the solicitor. "Ours took nearly five months!" "Mine took from January to Dec."

Then came the request. The office wanted to verify two things: that Morgan really had the qualifications and experience for the job, and that the company really employs, or has employed, people in similar roles on similar hours and terms. Their solicitor said it was a relatively unusual request, since supporting documents had already gone in, but that it did not look like a negative sign. More like a compliance check.

Morgan described two ways to prove a work history: official government employment records from the home country, or the paper trail, meaning contracts, references, payslips and qualifications. Foreign documents commonly need a sworn translation (one certified by a translator officially authorised in Spain). Government records may also need an apostille, the official stamp that makes a foreign public document valid in Spain.

The answer came 64 days after submission, delay included. Approved. "Not too bad I would say," Morgan wrote. Along the way they had relied on a paid phone line where an advisor answers questions and sets out options, a service they called "not overpriced".

The trap fits in a short phrase: ten working days, two sets of papers. A request like this lands on the applicant and the employer at once, and it can call for records from another country, translated and stamped, on a deadline of two working weeks. Morgan's own conclusion was that it may be worth having the key employment and qualification documents ready in advance, in case a request arrives.

This is one applicant's account, not legal advice. Timelines and document requests vary between immigration offices, and the official source is the place to confirm the rules before acting.

For anyone holding a quote for a switch like this, the request is the part worth reading for. A quote usually covers preparing and filing the application. Whether it also covers answering a request for more documents, and who pays for translations and apostilles ordered in a hurry, is often left unsaid.

The question most quotes leave unanswered: what happens to the fee, and to the deadline, when the office asks for more?

Did you switch from one Spanish permit to another? Did a request for documents add to the bill?

Based on a real case, shared publicly in an online group and anonymised.