About six months ago I stumbled across an article here in Spain that basically indicated that it is possible to renew most non-resident visas online, including the non-lucrative visa. I found that interesting since most of my friends here on the non-lucrative went into the office in person or hired lawyers to help them with their process. Despite scouring the internet on the subject, I couldn’t find any other accounts of people attempting to renew the non-lucrative visa online, so I’m going to assume I’m one of the first (at least one of the first with a website). If you’re interested in renewing the old-fashioned way, in person, check out how to renew your non-lucrative visa in person.
To renew your non-lucrative visa online, you are going to need your digital certificate in Spain. If you don’t have one yet, I recommend getting one as it makes life simpler, especially for obtaining a new empadronamiento certificate. Once you have that, you can visit the website that handles online renewals, which is Renovacion Telematica Extranjeria.
The requirements for renewing online are similar to renewing in person, with a few small variations. First, instead of photocopies of your documents, you are going to need scanned documents, such as a PDF or JPEG file. Sanitas sent me an update for my Spanish medical coverage as a PDF, so I already had that. But I needed to scan my passport documents, as well as my proof of funds and receipt for the non-lucrative renewal fee.
You can renew your non-lucrative visa up to 60 days before your residency card expires. I tried visiting the renewal website a few times before that, and it basically said I had to renew in person. But once I hit the 60 day mark, the website immediately changed and gave me the option to renew. Make sure you are using the web browser that contains your digital certificate because your identify will be verified using it. Once verified, the website automatically showed me my personal information, even indicating that this would be for my first renewal (which was true).
Non-Lucrative Visa Information During Renewal
Make sure in the dropdown box you select the region where your re-registration needs to occur. In my case the box was pre-populated with “Madrid”, so I changed it to “Valencia”.
On the next few pages you have to verify your personal and contact information, which is effectively reproducing electronically the same data on the EX01 form you would normally fill out and deliver in person. So for renewing online you won’t need the EX01 explicitly.
Once you are done updating your contact information, you will be asked to to attach documentation to support the following:
Online Renewal Documentation Required
Here is the list, in English, of those requirements and what I submitted for each one.
- Entire copy of my passport – This was a bit tricky, as I only had photocopies of this. But I took photos of each of the pages and combined them into a PDF. The website only allows a maximum 6MB file, which is insanely small, so I had to do a bit of massaging for my 19 page PDF representing my passport, but managed to make it work
- Proof of funds to live in Spain – I had a translated copy of a bank statement from TransferWise, and attached it as a two page PDF
- Proof of medical coverage – I attached the one page document Sanitas sent me verifying my coverage for another year
- Proof of payment – I attached a photo of the receipt from BBVA showing that I paid the appropriate fee
- Empadronamiento certificate – This actually wasn’t in the list of documents that was requested via the online portal, but it is normally required for a renewal in person. So I figured I would attach a PDF copy of it anyways, figuring if anything it was just going to help. In terms of the category for the attachment, I just chose “other”
I won’t lie, I was a bit hesitant to finally submit it. I’m happy to be a trendsetter, but really didn’t want this whole renewal process to blow up in my face for some reason if I did something wrong. But I decided it was worth trying, so eventually clicked submit.
When everything is complete, you are given the option to download two documents representing your submission, and I suggest everyone download them and store them somewhere safe. In Spain if they don’t give you a response within three months you are automatically approved, so this documentation will be your proof should that happen.
Option to download two PDF documents
Once submitted, you can check the status of your non-lucrative renewal application online. You will need your NIE number, the date of application (which was the date you submitted it, also shown inside one of the two PDF documents you downloaded), and your birth year. When I checked after I submitted mine, the website said to try again as my data was incorrect. It took about 36 hours to eventually show some data, and currently says “EN TRAMITE”, or “IN PROGRESS”.
I imagine it will be a few weeks before the status of my application changes, but I’ll update this post once it does. But so far it seems like everything is going according to plan, and it does indeed look like it is possible to perform a renewal of the non-lucrative visa online. So stay tuned.
