I Got Spain Student Visa to Do TEFL Course in Spain and You Can too

See Also

Doing a professional English-teaching certification was my goal ever since I wanted to teach English for a living. So I applied to an institute to do a TESOL course in Spain and got the Spain Student Visa for the same.

And ended up going to Barcelona for the same. And full disclosure: I got the Spanish Student Visa from India in the Delhi Embassy of Spain.

But a little backstory first.

My fascination with Spanish started when I was teaching English in a public school in Ecuador through a government-run program. Along with teaching English, I took an interest in learning Spanish and learned the basics in the few months I was there.

Ecuador is an amazing country and I had a great time there, but when the program came to an end, I decided to come back to India. That’s when I realized that doing a professional TEFL certification course would give my profile the gravitas it needs.

There are different TEFL courses in Spain. I chose the Trinity TESOL course provided by an institute in Barcelona. It was a paid TEFL internship.

There are various institutes where you can do a CELTA, TESOL, or other accredited courses to give a boost to your English teaching profile.

There are many countries where you can do similar courses. I chose Spain as I also wanted to learn Spanish and teach English in Spain after finishing my TESOL course.

Now, a Spain student visa not the same as a Spain Schengen visa.

In this article, I will cover the different types of student visas for Spain, the Spanish national visa application process and the requirements for this visa, and other tips and tricks.

What is a Spain Student Visa?

By having a Spain student visa or study visa, you can do the following things in Spain.

• Study or train in a Spanish institute
• Work as an unpaid intern
• Take part in student exchange

Different Types of Student Visa for Spain

There are different types of Spanish Student Visas that you can get for different purposes. Their validity will vary as well. You can apply for a Spain study visa in a Spanish embassy in your home country or in a country where you are a resident.

1. Schengen Student Visa

Since Spain is a Schengen country, you can apply for a Schengen visa to study or research in Spain if the course duration is less than 90 days.

2. Short-term Student Visa for Spain

A short-term visa to study in Spain is valid for 3-6 months. This visa can be used to take short-term courses provided by universities or registered institutes. The duration of the course in this case can’t be more than 180 days.

3. Long-term Spanish Study Visa

If you are planning to go to a university in Spain or to a public/private training center or as such for a course that will exceed 180 days, you need to apply a Spanish study visa for long term.

This visa will require a lot more paperwork than the previous two visas and could take longer to process. Also, within a month of arriving in Spain, students need to apply for a Spanish student residence card at an immigration office.

Do I need a Spain Study Visa to Study in Spain?

EU and Swiss citizens don’t need a Spain study visa in order to study in Spain. And citizens of many countries such as Canada, Australia, Japan, the USA don’t need a visa to study in Spain if the course duration doesn’t exceed 90 days.

Spain Visa Checklist: Spain Student Visa Requirements

Spain student visa requirements will vary a little depending on the duration and type of the course. There are general requirements for a visa to study in Spain.

1.Letter of Acceptance

Before you apply for a Spain study visa, your application to study in Spain must have been accepted by an accredited university/school/institution. They will provide a letter of acceptance which you can submit with your Spain student visa application.

This letter will always be in Spanish, in the official letterhead and would contain the details on the duration of your course and your personal details etc.

If you would be doing any training or research work in Spain, an admission letter from the orgnaization would be needed.

Since I was going to do a TEFL course, my institute provided me an admission letter to apply for the study visa for Spain. I paid a part of the course fees before applying for the visa and paid the rest of it after I arrived in Spain.

2.Proof of Funds

You must provide proof of sufficient funds to cover your stay in Spain during the time you study. As of 2019, the minimum amount to cover your stay in Spain is about €540 per month. But this will come down when you provide proof of accommodation.

You can provide:

• Certified bank statements for the last three months
• Documents that prove that you have a scholarship award or that you have paid for the course

If your parents/spouse pay for your stay

• A notarized document signed by your parents or spouse, stating that they will be covering your expenses.
  
• You will also need to provide the recent bank statements, a photocopy of their passports/ birth certificate/marriage certificate to prove your relationship with who covers your expenses.

I provided my bank statements for this. Note that you need to get this statement from the bank and it has to be signed and stamped especially if you are applying for it in India.

You will have to provide the originals for this. So don’t show up with the printout of your bank statements from the online portal.

3.Proof of Accommodation

You can provide the reservations for a dorm or a private apartment or a rental accommodation etc.

In case it’s a private residence, you must present a letter of agreement from the owner and a letter of invitation obtained in a police station in Spain.

The letter of admission from your institute can also mention that they will provide you with accommodation. In my case, the acceptance letter contained the details of my accommodation.

So I didn’t have to provide any other accommodation proof for the student visa.

4. Health Insurance for Spain Visa

You need to have health insurance with an insurance company, with minimum coverage equal to €30,000 during the planned period of stay in Spain. This can’t be travel insurance.

5. Official Medical Certificate

An official medical certificate is needed only if the duration of the requested stay is more than six months. It must be translated into Spanish and should be apostilled.

6. Police Clearance Certificate

If the duration of the stay is over six months, a Police Check issued by the authorities of all the countries where you have resided for the last 5 years, including the country from where you are applying.

These are valid for only 3 months starting from the date of issuance.

In my case, since I had resided in Ecuador in the year before I applied for the Spain study visa, I went to the Ecuadorian embassy in Delhi and got myself a police verification certificate.

For the Indian Police Clearance Certificate, I applied through the regional passport office and got a police clearance certificate. The Embassy of Spain needed the certificate to be apostilled as well.

If you are interested in Ecuador, here is our guide on visas for Ecuador.

7. Travel Itinerary for Spain Visa

Spain doesn’t need you to book confirmed flight tickets while applying for a Spanish visa. You can make a refundable roundtrip reservation from your country of residence to Spain, and submit it with the visa application.

There are many ways to reserve flight tickets for visa without spending a dime.

8. Spain Visa Photo Requirements

For any Spain visa, photo requirements are the same. You need to get two recent color passport pics in the white background as per the official rules for photos.

9. Valid Passport

Your passport must be valid for the whole duration of your stay in Spain and should have one blank page to affix the Spain visa.

10. Spain National Visa Application Form

You can download the Spain national visa application form from the official embassy website and fill it in or you can get it at the embassy. The form is pretty self-explanatory and easy to fill in.

I submitted the Spanish national visa application form along with the documents to the embassy, and paid the visa fees.

When to Apply for Spain Student Visa?

A study visa for Spain needs a lot of paperwork, and you can’t apply for it until you are accepted into the course.

• The earliest you can apply: Six months before you leave for Spain.
• The latest: three weeks.

I believe it’s a better idea to apply at least two months in advance. Sometimes, they might ask you for extra documents and the whole process can stretch longer than usual.

Where to Apply Student Visa for Spain?

The application process for a Spain Study Visa can vary from country to country. It all depends process to submit Spain visa application in your country of residence. There are two ways to apply.

1. Directly through the Spanish embassy in person.
2. Through a third-party service provider to which Spain has outsourced visa submission and document collection process.

Spain embassies in many countries also have an online appointment system where you can book an appointment online, and then go and submit your application.

In India, you can apply for Spanish student visa for more than 6 months only through the Spanish embassy in Delhi or the Consulate of Spain in Mumbai.

For those applying in the short-term Spain visa application process has been outsourced to a third-party called BLS.

How to Apply Spain Student Visa from India?

I got my Spain visa as an Indian citizen in the embassy of Spain in Delhi. For this, I first called the embassy and enquired about the Spain national visa application process to do the TEFL training in Spain.

The way to get an appointment for a long-term student visa in India is different in Spain embassy and the consulate.

Step 1. Get an Appointment

Getting an appointment for the Spanish student visa from India can be tricky. What is important to understand is that depending on where you live, you can either go to the Spain embassy in Delhi or to the Mumbai consulate.

The way to book the appointment is very different for both.

Spain Embassy New Delhi Appointment

You need to apply for the Spanish student visa in Delhi embassy of Spain only if you live in the following states:

Andaman and Nicobar Island, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal

Also, applicants from Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and the Maldives are eligible for submitting their applications to the Delhi embassy.

1. Visit the Link

In order to get an appointment for the student visa in the Delhi embassy, you need to visit the link for Spain Study Visa in Delhi Embassy, and find the section called Place of Submission. You should see the link there.

Click on the link and then you will be forwarded to a new page. Click on the Continuar button below.

On the next page, you should see the option to choose student visa.

2 : Choose a Slot & Fill in the Details

On the next page, if there are any slots available, you can choose one of them.

Feel free to translate from Spanish to English on the next page, and provide your passport number, passport expiration date and other details. You need to use capital letters only.

3 : Receive Email Confirmation

Once you confirm, it will create an user account and send an email with the appointment confirmation.

Spain Consulate Mumbai Appointment

The Spain Consulate receives applications from applicants in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Pondicherry.

The Consulate of Spain in Mumbai allows you to book appointments for long-term Spain Student Visa from India only through BLS.

1 : Visit the BLS Spain India’s Website

And to do that, you need to visit the link on BLS India’s website: https://india.blsspainvisa.com/embassy_book_appointment.php

Choose the mission as Consulate-Mumbai, and the service as Student Visas. Provide a phone number and an email, and request verification code. You will receive an email with a link from BLS.

Click on the link where you would need provide the email again and get the code. Yes, that sounds fun.

Provide the Verification Code and click on Continue.

2 : Choose a Slot

On the next page, you can choose a slot if it is available. In case there is a lot, it would be in green.

Choose the date and time, and provide all the details such as your first name, last name, date of birth etc, and submit.

3 : Receive the Confirmation Email

You should see the Appointment Receipt now. It will contain your name, passport number, appointment time, reference number etc.

Step 2: Pay Visa Fees to Spain Visa to Study

The cost to apply Spain Study visa is approximately 80 euros for Indians. The exact rupee amount is often revised. Make sure to check this before paying.

Payment of Spain Study Visa Fees in Delhi

Spain Visa fees for Indians can only be paid via bank draft in Delhi embassy. The bank draft must be issued in favor of “Embassy of Spain” and must be payable in New Delhi.

Payment of Spain Student Visa Fees in Mumbai

For Mumbai, the demand draft must be issued in favour of “Consulate General of Spain” and must be payable in Mumbai.

Step 3: Spain Visa Interview

Two weeks after I submitted the documents, the embassy emailed me to come for an interview. They had some general questions about the course and my credentials, and about why I wanted to do the TEFL course in Spain and not in India.

I explained to them that the institute in Spain was very renowned for the Trinity TESOL certification and I wanted to do mine from the best institute out there. I also explained that staying in Spain would help me with practicing my Spanish.

Frequently Asked Questions