Spouse renewal rejected while mine approved, the fix
This sounds like such a typical extrangeria move. They have all the papers in front of them but only read the first page. Did your lawyer charge you a separate fee for the recurso? I am trying to budget for my renewal and wondering if I should just pay a lawyer upfront to avoid this mess or if it is easy enough to DIY the appeal if it happens.
Usually the better agencies include one appeal in their initial quote for the renewal. If yours doesn't, you might want to find a different one. It is a very common issue and they shouldn't be milking you for more money when the government makes a dumb mistake.
super helpful. i was about to file my wife's papers next Tuesday in bilbao. i heard they are being really picky about the p45 or equivalent if the spouse is working. did that come up in your case at all?
this happened to my husband last month too. the madrid office seems to get it right but bilbao is hitting spouses with the "lack of sufficient funds" rejection even when it's clearly on the main applicant certificate. did you just resubmit the same bank statements or did you add a letter explaining it?
we added a cover letter in spanish. strictly speaking you shouldn't have to but it's the only way to make them actually look at the joint account properly. once we did that it was approved in two weeks.
Quick question about the funds. Were you using a Spanish bank account or one from back home? I heard that some officials in the north are getting stricter about wanting to see Spanish accounts for renewals even if foreign ones were allowed for the first year. Maybe that contributed to their confusion on the joint math.
this is exactly why I tell everyone to include a cover letter that breaks down the math like they are talking to a child. i literally use bold text for the total amounts and the IPREM requirements. it feels rude but it prevents these administrative oversights. glad your wife's got approved so quickly though. that stress is no joke.
Even with a cover letter they still miss things. I once had a rejection because they said I didn't have insurance, and it was literally the second document in the PDF. They just click through pages too fast.
honestly the cover letter is the only thing that saved me during my first application. the funcionario actually thanked me for it because it saved him from doing the math himself. definitely do this.
I am glad you got it sorted but i would still be careful telling people it is an easy fix. My friend had a similar rejection in Madrid and her appeal took four months to process. You got lucky with the speed of the Bilbao office. The IPREM stuff is always the biggest headache with these visas since the rates keep changing every year.
thanks for posting this. my partner's renewal is coming up in june and i was worried about the same thing. bilbao is notorious for these weird split decisions. saves me a massive headache and potentially an expensive lawyer fee to fix a simple error.
bilbao is honestly a nightmare for dnv renewals right now. the criteria seems to change depending on which official opens your file. i'm guessing the fix was just linking the social security payments more clearly. it's crazy how much stress this causes for families.
honestly it's not even that they're mean, they just don't seem to have the updated handbook for the 2024/2025 changes. they still treat it like a non lucrative visa sometimes.
great info. i wish i had seen this before i paid our legal agency to do the appeal. they charged us nearly 500 euros just to tell us exactly what you wrote here. it really is just down to making sure both files have the exact same documentation even if it feels redundant.
bilbao is usually so much more organized than Barcelona or Madrid but I guess nowhere is safe from the ministry of silly mistakes. it is weird that they calculated it that way though. usually they are quite strict about the primary applicant having 200 percent and the spouse 75 percent. maybe their internal calculator just glitched out.
Thanks for posting this. I am in Getxo and about to start my spouse's renewal next month. Was the appeal process handled entirely online through the Mercurio system or did you have to go into the office in person? I am always paranoid that things will get lost in their digital portal if I don't hand it to a human.
It is almost always through Mercurio now. Don't go to the office unless they specifically summon you. They usually won't even let you in without a cita previa and they will just tell you to do it online anyway. Just keep the digital receipt.
was this the thing about the health insurance coverage not mentioning the spouse specifically? i’ve heard some people getting rejected because the main applicant's policy doesn't explicitly name the dependents on the first page of the certificate. sounds like a typical bureaucratic mess.
no for us it was the financial proof. they said my wife had zero income even though she's my dependent. they just ignored my payslips on her application file entirely. i had to link them again.
Wait so did you have to show 150 percent for her or just 75 percent because she is a dependent? The rules always feel a bit blurry when the spouse is also working or if it is purely a joint account. We are coming up on our window in June and I am still confused on the exact euros needed for a couple.
i actually disagree that pinning this is the fix. every case is so different that people might get overconfident. i still think it's worth paying 300 euro for a gestor to handle the bilbao office specifically because they are way more conservative than valencia or malaga. i've seen people try the fix and still get a denial.
Actually i had the opposite experience in Valencia last year. They rejected us because I had my own income but they wanted to see my husband's contract again even though I am the one with the higher salary. Spanish bureaucracy is so inconsistent between different regions. It feels like Bilbao is much faster than here though. Two weeks for an appeal sounds like a dream.