Obtaining a Spain Visa for Immigration: Should You Do It With an Immigration Lawyer or Rely on Yourself?
Navigating the many requirements of Spanish visa applications can be daunting, and there is help out there that can offer anything from checking your application or offering advice to actually handling your Spain visa application for you. But what is the bottom line of accepting such help, and is it worth the cost?
A lot of the time, when we start to consider our options for relocation, the costs of travel, accommodation, and even the move itself are at the forefront of our minds, but there is another big factor to consider: the cost of getting your visa. Spain offers a variety of visa options for individuals looking to immigrate long-term, and each option will come with its specific rules and restrictions that you will have to understand before applying. It can be a difficult process, and still, seeing that you are technically able to do it on your own, the idea of spending even more money to seek expert advice isn’t always the most desirable.
But what is the actual benefit of seeking the support of an immigration lawyer versus doing it yourself? Is there more to be saved than just money, and what are the odds of something going wrong?
Is Hiring an Immigration Lawyer Necessary for Spain Residency Visas?
While there is no actual requirement for anyone to hire a lawyer when applying for a Spain residency visa, there can be many reasons it could be a good idea. In general, the requirements and rules for the available visas are accessible to anyone who wants to learn about them so it is absolutely possible to apply for a visa successfully without the additional support and costs of seeking out legal help with your visa journey.
Overall, the steps to applying for a Spanish residency visa can be broken down into information, preparation, and application, and you have to be very diligent if you are applying on your own. Information will be the necessary step of actually reading up on the different visa categories and trying to really understand which type of visa might fit your needs and circumstances. It isn’t always obvious how you could qualify for a visa, as there are special conditions that you must meet and depending on your life, this could feel disheartening. Applying for a visa is to make an argument for why you should be allowed to live in Spain, and to do so successfully, you’ll need to know the rules of the visa framework well enough to advocate for yourself via your application. Lawyers will have decades of experience with this process, meaning that they have had the opportunity to get really good at it, which can set their advice apart from the outcome you might be able to achieve as a first-time applicant. Nevertheless, if you are brave and don’t shy away from putting in the time to prepare, you can still be successful without legal support.
Your preparation should include gathering all of your legal and accompanying documents. Again, you will need to understand how to present these and what will be the most effective evidence to submit alongside your application. Whether you are missing documents, need translations, or have alternative evidence that isn’t directly addressed in the application guidance, you might feel more supported if you seek out legal advice. But that doesn’t mean that there’s no use trying.
The actual application might feel almost easy after you have done all that preparation. You will have to understand where to apply and give all the required information, however. Depending on your visa, this might involve various steps, and you will need to make sure to follow them closely to give yourself a chance at success.
What Are the Benefits Of Using an Immigration Lawyer for Spain Visas?
While saving the additional costs of legal immigration support can be a desirable idea, you will need to think about the balance of money and effort that is involved in the whole process. Sure, it is possible and legal to apply on your own, but there are stakes to an unsuccessful application that might easily end up costing more in re-application fees or other burdens than what you have saved by going into it alone in the first place.
In general, it is at least worth considering what an immigration lawyer might offer you and how you could balance their service to be as closely tailored to your needs as possible. In most cases, there are ways to keep the costs down while still seeking support with parts of your application, for example. Most immigration lawyers will offer you highly customised packages that will respond to your individual needs, and when you’re not paying for things you don’t want, you might find that the cost of what you need could be worth it.
At a glance, the most valuable support you might find as someone who is at least partially inclined to approach this independently is to seek out a lawyer to help you explore your visa suitability and check your evidence before you apply. Most visa application failures can be put down to ill-suited visa selections and a lack of or inaccurate evidence to support your application. By getting it checked and getting it right with your first visa application submission, you are not only saving time and worries of the amendment or re-application process, but you might also save money on possible additional fees and charges that could be incurred as part of unsuccessful visa applications. If you’re paying, you might at least make it count.
Finally, if you decide to apply on your own and run into issues, it might be a relief to find that you can still seek legal support at that stage, to fix an incomplete application before you have to pay extra. Or, if your application was rejected, it might be time to get help to handle the complicated appeals process.
