The Spanish visa business hasn't gotten any better since last August when we had to fly, at the last minute, to San Francisco to apply for Chloe's visa (the story of that nightmare a lifetime ago starts here). Recently I was reading some things by future Rotary exchange students, and one of them said he wasn't going to bother with the financial-guarantee form (one of the required documents for a visa) because it was stupid. Maybe so, but not as stupid as him. So I thought I'd check to see if it's gotten any easier.
In all of the states covered by the Spanish Consulate in Boston, the student must appear in person but can have the passport, with the visa affixed, returned by express USPS mail, but only if the student brings a self-addressed, stamped express mail envelope. Don't even think about FedEx, UPS, or DHL. In Washington, DC and New York, it can be applied for in person by a parent or guardian with a notarized something or other in place of the student, and it can be mailed home by express USPS mail. In Chicago, however, it can be applied for in person by the student, parent, or guardian, but must be picked up by the student in person. In all cases, the student, parent, or guardian must appear in person at some point during the application process. For most people, this means an extended road trip or more air fare. The rest of the Spanish consulates in the US (including all of them on the west coast) don't have Web sites, but I'd call for verification of the procedure even if they did.
And that's for a temporary 90-day visa. When the kids get to Spain they have to pay more money, supply more copies of documents, and provide more passport photos to apply for a Spanish Student Residency Card at the local police station. Chloe and Abby applied for that in September, and it took several visits because, of course, each time more documents or copies of documents were needed. Their visas expired in December. Abby is all but gone, in Paris and Rome with her parents and grandmother now, and is leaving for home with them on May 6. Chloe just got a letter from the Pamplona police department telling her to bring certain documents with her to the police station on April 29 at 10:00 (missing school is always cause for celebration, whatever the reason). She's assuming her summons is to pick up her residency card, a mere two months before she's scheduled to depart Spain.
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