Best 10 NLV Visa Spain Requirements by Kiwi Lily

Read about the NLV Visa Spain requirements and application process by our very own Lily. Learn how to apply from New Zealand and get helpful advice for your big move to Spain.

Moving across the world is a serious undertaking.

So maintaining a sense of humour is essential to keep your sanity intact. This blog post will cover lessons learned, things to avoid, suggested alternatives, and tips for staying sane (if you’re unlucky like me).

This is my eighth move overseas, and even as a seasoned expat, I still encounter surprises. Let’s start with the Non-Lucrative Visa NLV Visa Spain Requirements. First, I must express my gratitude to my husband, Gaby, who speaks fluent Spanish. (Yes, he’s Argentinian, but we won’t hold that against him, ha-ha).

NLV Visa Spain Requirements Checklist.

Gaby my husband communicated with the Spanish consulate in Wellington. Both verbally and via email, to confirm everything we needed to submit for our NLV application, which was made under my name. Having everything in writing is incredibly useful, especially when you need to clarify conflicting information, which is highly likely. Here’s what we were told we needed for our NLV application for Spain, along with helpful resources:

Completed NLV application form.
Evidence of application payment.
Proof of payment for Spanish Private Health Insurance for both of us for 12 months (we used Adeslas Health Insurance, arranged over the phone and via email).
Apostille marriage certificate.
Apostille criminal record checks. Note: This can take a long time, as you MUST provide this for every country you are a citizen of, even if you’ve never lived there. For dual UK citizenship holders, this process can take up to two months and is costly. If you have family or friends in the UK, ask them to help avoid postal delays.
Copies of 3 months’ bank statements to prove we could financially support ourselves for a year WITHOUT WORKING IN SPAIN.
Copies of every page of our passports.
All passports when submitting the application (I have two, so I brought both).
NLV Visa Spain Requirements official website https://www.inclusion.gob.es/web/migraciones/modelos-generales
Join the Kiwis in Spain Facebook group and WhatsApp community.

We had to book an appointment in Wellington to submit all our documents together.

We didn’t specify the date we wanted the visa to start because we weren’t familiar with the process. However, we quickly learned that you must give a date at least two months in the future (our visas arrived within three weeks). Initially, we were told we’d need to return to Wellington to collect our passports once the visas were issued (WRONG!)

To our surprise, the consulate employee asked for our envelopes (even I understood this word in Spanish), and we happily discovered they would post our passports once our NLV visas were issued. Not having to return to Wellington was a huge relief, as Gaby didn’t have to take more unpaid leave off work.

Moving furniture and personal belongings to Spain…

I recommend staying with friends or family for the last few weeks so you can easily get rid of items without spending your final days on just an inflatable mattress. If you plan to ship your belongings to Spain, remember that shipping takes time, and any essential items should go with you since delays are possible. Plan early, as there’s always a lot of paperwork involved.

When shipping to Spain from NZ, you’ll need to provide two sets of values for the shipping company:

One for the item value (don’t overvalue, or you may be hit with import taxes).
One for insurance purposes (don’t undervalue).

Ensure the removal company includes anti-mould packets when packing your items, in case they get stuck in a humid port.

ALWAYS PAY FOR MOULD INSURANCE

It’s well worth it, as I found out the hard way. My furniture was stuck in Singapore for a month without anti-mould protection, and we spent from November until July battling the insurance company!

Also, a side note: don’t plan your wedding too close to your departure from NZ!

After finding it nearly impossible to secure a rental property outside of the summer season, we decided to buy. It made sense—why would a property owner rent out their place year-round, dealing with wear and tear, when they could rent it out for heaps of money during the summer and cover the mortgage for the entire year?

We had been searching for a year before leaving NZ and experienced the frustration of estate agents not responding, and finding properties that had been sold years ago still listed online. After living in La Herradura for five weeks, we got to know the area and realized that one of the areas we had been focusing on wasn’t where we wanted to live. Being on the ground is invaluable, as you discover places you might never have considered from overseas.

Even then, real estate agents often seem disinterested, and one of the biggest frustrations is the inheritance laws in Spain.

Unlike NZ, where you can leave everything to a dog charity if you wish, in Spain, 50% must go to your spouse, and the other 50% to your children, whether you like them or not (sorry, that’s just how it is). This means you might want to buy a property that has multiple heirs who hate each other, and getting them all to sign off on a sale can be impossible. Hence, the many empty houses in Spain.

After one offer was rejected (it turned out to be nonsense, and the real estate agent came back to us later—the house had been on the market for five years, and they were keen to sell), we accidentally found another place while staying in Paris. Fortunately, we had friends in the same village who viewed it for us. We then drove 800 km out of our way to view the property, and after a bit of haggling, our offer was accepted—thankfully, directly from the vendor, which saved us some money!

A major issue we didn’t foresee was the money laundering regulations in Spain.

I had to prove where all my money came from, providing bank records from NZ, wills, etc. There’s nothing more stressful than finding out that the bank had frozen ALL my assets two days before I had to pay for the apartment. Also, as an individual, you can only transfer so much money at a time for free, unlike the NZ system. This was the most stressful time for us, but fortunately, our friends recommended an amazing lawyer who was an absolute lifesaver.

After being in Spain (and Europe) for a year, it was time to renew my NLV. (Hubby has already applied for his citizenship.) I decided to handle everything myself, as I had done easily in NZ. This time, the requirements were different. Here’s what I needed for the renewal:

Three criminal record checks. I also needed a Spanish one, which is super cheap and fast unless the website is hacked. Make sure you get the UK check first—by the time mine arrived and was translated, my Spanish one was out of date, and the NZ one expired a few days later! These documents need to be apostilled and translated into Spanish.
Proof of bank account funds for TWO YEARS, showing the currency. My bank accounts didn’t show the currency (though they did show $ for tax payments within the statement), so I had to request a letter clarifying this. These documents also needed to be translated into Spanish!
Proof of payment for health insurance, but this time you need coverage for two years since the renewal is for a two-year visa. The policy from the insurer isn’t sufficient; you can only pay for a year at a time, but immigration understands this.
Completed application form.
Proof of payment for the application—this was a nightmare. My Spanish bank account was opened with my passport details, not my NIE, so the immigration computer said NO. Even my Spanish friend couldn’t pay with her bank account, though the website should have allowed it! There were plenty of expletives in both English and Spanish. Even the bank staff couldn’t get it to work, so luckily, I had enough Euros to pay in cash.

I was very fortunate to have been recommended a very good gestor (for my taxes), who was a great help with some of the issues I faced. His advice to provide more information (e.g., Padron) than was required, just in case I encountered a pedantic immigration officer, was invaluable. This advice was crucial because immigration requested a translation of my bank statements, even though the NZ bank letter clearly stated the currency of my savings! I’m sure the translator loved me—it was easy money for them!

In the end, I believe there will always be red tape wherever you move. Rather than resent the process and the costs, I see it as a privilege to live in Spain (fingers crossed they renew my visa). Would I move back to NZ? No. Do I love my life in Spain? HELL YEAH! I’ve made great friends—Spanish, Kiwi, and from ten other countries (my little village is like the League of Nations).

Lily Raven Razeto

I’m learning to play paddle tennis (my new sporting addiction), and my Spanish improves day by day. One of the best things about being in Spain is being closer to my best friend of 35 years and all my friends from the ’90s when I worked here. I can hop on a plane, and in a few hours, I’m in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, etc. Sweet as, bro!