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Hi, can anyone advise how long it is taking to get an appointment for a visa application in the London consulate?
Once you send the email for the appointment, how long does it take to receive a reply?
Thank you!
Hi Emma
I applied 2 months ago, still not heard a thing despite email and letter. Soon all my documents will go out of date, frustrating to say the least, let alone the expense!
Regards
Louisa
Louisa999 wrote on Sun Sep 26, 2021 8:56pm:
Hi Emma
I applied 2 months ago, still not heard a thing despite email and letter. Soon all my documents will go out of date, frustrating to say the least, let alone the expense!
Read more...
Regards
Louisa
Thanks for replying Louisa.
Seems like a lot of people are in the same situation, and yes, it is very frustrating.
Hope you get your appointment soon.
EmmaR wrote on Mon Sep 27, 2021 11:54am:
Thanks for replying Louisa.
Seems like a lot of people are in the same situation, and yes, it is very frustrating.
Read more...
Hope you get your appointment soon.
Hi Emma
Have to be out of Spain mid November, on tourist visa at mo. Best laid plans and all. Reaching out to anyone or everyone who might have or know of anyone with bolthole, caravan, cart and horse! In uk that they might consider letting me stay for few weeks and hope my appointment comes through. Sold my property unfortunately to show monies for visa and plan to buy in your area. Life can be a bitch!! Keeping the end game uppermost in my mind though.
Regards
Louisa
Hi
This is a late response and hopefully you have already sorted an appointment.
We have finally managed to present our papers and can confirm that the process was an absolute nightmare!
We requested an appointment in late July and have since had nothing back other than the standard automated response email, acknowledging receipt. In the end we were advised by our solicitor to simply go to the Consulate (London) and queue up in the non-appointment queue until they let us in. It took us three visits, queuing up 2 hours each time, before we eventually got past the gatekeepers.
Once in the bowels of the building, we found that the staff were actually very helpful and very understanding. However there was a sense of disorganisation and I'm not sure anyone really new what the process was they were supposed to be working to. I suspect that this has in part been exacerbated by the Spanish Foreign Office constantly moving the goalposts. The one biggest lesson we learnt is to avoid the rather large round woman at one of the processing desks. As mentioned all the staff were very pleasant, however she proved the exception. She had a tendency to try and cover up her ineptitude with an officious and arrogant behaviour which verged on outright rudeness. Everyone else seemed to have the same problem as we did in this respect.
Anyway, 3 months later, and actually a week after some of our certificates had expired (they agreed this wouldn't be a problem as the delay was down to them), we finally, yesterday, presented our documents. Apparently, we now have 2-4 weeks wait before we can go back in to collect our passports with accompanying visas. We are obviously working on the premise that it will probably be at least the latter.
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David62 wrote on Sat Oct 23, 2021 10:58am:
Hi
This is a late response and hopefully you have already sorted an appointment.
Read more...
We have finally managed to present our papers and can confirm that the process was an absolute nightmare!
We requested an appointment in late July and have since had nothing back other than the standard automated response email, acknowledging receipt. In the end we were advised by our solicitor to simply go to the Consulate (London) and queue up in the non-appointment queue until they let us in. It took us three visits, queuing up 2 hours each time, before we eventually got past the gatekeepers.
Once in the bowels of the building, we found that the staff were actually very helpful and very understanding. However there was a sense of disorganisation and I'm not sure anyone really new what the process was they were supposed to be working to. I suspect that this has in part been exacerbated by the Spanish Foreign Office constantly moving the goalposts. The one biggest lesson we learnt is to avoid the rather large round woman at one of the processing desks. As mentioned all the staff were very pleasant, however she proved the exception. She had a tendency to try and cover up her ineptitude with an officious and arrogant behaviour which verged on outright rudeness. Everyone else seemed to have the same problem as we did in this respect.
Anyway, 3 months later, and actually a week after some of our certificates had expired (they agreed this wouldn't be a problem as the delay was down to them), we finally, yesterday, presented our documents. Apparently, we now have 2-4 weeks wait before we can go back in to collect our passports with accompanying visas. We are obviously working on the premise that it will probably be at least the latter.
Thanks for sharing your experience, it does sound very trying, but I'm glad your applications were approved when you finally got through the process.
Good luck with your move here!
Kind regards
David62 wrote on Sat Oct 23, 2021 10:58am:
Hi
This is a late response and hopefully you have already sorted an appointment.
Read more...
We have finally managed to present our papers and can confirm that the process was an absolute nightmare!
We requested an appointment in late July and have since had nothing back other than the standard automated response email, acknowledging receipt. In the end we were advised by our solicitor to simply go to the Consulate (London) and queue up in the non-appointment queue until they let us in. It took us three visits, queuing up 2 hours each time, before we eventually got past the gatekeepers.
Once in the bowels of the building, we found that the staff were actually very helpful and very understanding. However there was a sense of disorganisation and I'm not sure anyone really new what the process was they were supposed to be working to. I suspect that this has in part been exacerbated by the Spanish Foreign Office constantly moving the goalposts. The one biggest lesson we learnt is to avoid the rather large round woman at one of the processing desks. As mentioned all the staff were very pleasant, however she proved the exception. She had a tendency to try and cover up her ineptitude with an officious and arrogant behaviour which verged on outright rudeness. Everyone else seemed to have the same problem as we did in this respect.
Anyway, 3 months later, and actually a week after some of our certificates had expired (they agreed this wouldn't be a problem as the delay was down to them), we finally, yesterday, presented our documents. Apparently, we now have 2-4 weeks wait before we can go back in to collect our passports with accompanying visas. We are obviously working on the premise that it will probably be at least the latter.
According to aplaceinthesun the hold up at the Spanish Consulates are because all the Spanish consulates are on strike. Normally it shd only take a couple of weeks to get an app
Posted: Mon May 30, 2022 9:33am
Legendary helpful member
Carol61 wrote on Mon May 30, 2022 8:34am:
According to aplaceinthesun the hold up at the Spanish Consulates are because all the Spanish consulates are on strike. Normally it shd only take a couple of weeks to get an app
They were - strike finished two or three weeks ago now
Carol61 wrote on Mon May 30, 2022 8:34am:
According to aplaceinthesun the hold up at the Spanish Consulates are because all the Spanish consulates are on strike. Normally it shd only take a couple of weeks to get an app
Hi Carol
My post was relating to last year, where the problem was that the Spanish consulate (in London at least) simply wasn't ready for the demand for visas, particularly from students wanting to study in Spain post Brexit. Because of the academic year starting in Autumn, and the slow processing of visas, there was a bottleneck at the time. I assume that has been ironed out now and that there may merely have just been a recent blip due to the strike you referred to (?).
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