Spain digital nomad visa refused over apostilles: appeal or apply again?

The refusal cost one stamp

Refused over one missing stamp. Appeal, or pay to apply again?

Call them the Novaks. It isn't their name. They had applied for Spain's digital nomad visa through their own company. Their clients paid that company, and the Novaks had bank statements to prove it: payments from those clients over the past year.

The consulate didn't question the money. It questioned the clients. It wanted proof that the client companies themselves existed: their documents, apostilled (stamped by the government that issued them, so Spain can trust they're real). Bank statements showing payments weren't enough. The visa was refused.

Getting someone else's company to apostille its papers isn't a form you fill in. It's a favour you ask, on their timetable. So the Novaks brought the question to a group of applicants: was it worth appealing? Wasn't this requirement unusual anyway?

The replies didn't soften it. "Appealing will not solve your problems," one member wrote, because the apostille is central to the process. A lawyer in the group was plainer: appeals to the immigration office very rarely succeed, because the office has to admit it was wrong. It's better and quicker to apply again with the right documents apostilled.

Another member saw a second issue in the same file: the payments went into an account in the company's name, not the applicants'. One more had a practical way through: if the clients are US companies, a certificate of good standing is a public document, so you can apostille it yourself without asking them. And one person was in exactly the same spot, refused for the same reason, and planning to appeal because there wasn't time to get the papers.

So the real choice in front of them wasn't "appeal or give up". It was an appeal that rarely works, against a fresh application with all its costs: the government fees again, new translations, more apostilles, and the wait starting over.

That second path is where the price of a refusal actually sits. It is almost never on the first quote. A firm quotes you for one application. It doesn't usually say what happens if that application comes back refused: whether a second one is included, whether its own fee is refunded, or whether you pay the whole thing again.

The refusal cost one stamp. Applying again costs everything around it.

So among the questions you put to a firm before you pay, include this one: if it's refused, what happens to your fee, and do you file again at no extra charge?

See what firms charge for this visa

Based on a real case, shared publicly in an online group and anonymised. Fees on file as of October 2026.