If you want to invite a foreign friend or family member to visit you in Spain, you may need a Letter of Invitation. Here is what the process actually involves, and where it can go wrong.

Where to apply

You apply at the Police Station in the area where you live. That station handles the request from start to finish.

What your application needs to include

Your application needs to cover a fairly detailed set of information:

  • Your own details: name, place and date of birth, nationality, ID or passport number, and your address.
  • Whether you are hosting the guest at your main address or a second home, and if it's the second home, exactly where that is.
  • Your guest's details: name, place and date of birth, nationality, address, and passport number. In exceptional cases the invitation can cover several guests at once, but each person's details need to be listed individually, along with confirmation there is room for everyone.
  • The planned length of the stay, with approximate start and end dates.
  • A declaration, signed before submission, that everything in the application is true.

You should also know that the application requires you to confirm you understand the legal consequences of misusing this process. Spanish law treats facilitating illegal or clandestine immigration as a serious matter: the Penal Code (article 318 bis) punishes anyone who promotes or facilitates it with four to eight years in prison. Separately, Organic Law 4/2000 classifies doing this for profit as a very serious administrative offense, carrying a fine of between 6,001 and 60,000 euros, or expulsion from Spain with a three to ten year entry ban.

Your data, and your guest's data, including identity, passport number, nationality, and residence, is recorded in a file held by the General Directorate of Police. You have the right to access, correct, or request cancellation of that data through the General Commissariat for Immigration and Borders.

What happens after you apply

Once the police receive your request, an official is assigned to process it. You may be called in for a personal interview to confirm your identity, check your documents, and verify the information you provided. If you miss this appointment without a valid reason (force majeure), and it isn't rescheduled within fifteen days, your application is treated as withdrawn.

If your request is approved, you will be notified and told how to collect the Letter of Invitation. You then need to pay the corresponding fee within one month of that notification, and bring proof of payment when you collect the letter.

If it's refused, the decision has to explain why, and it must tell you what appeals are available, which body to take them to, and the deadline for doing so.

Common reasons for refusal

The two most common reasons an application gets refused are:

  • Missing or untrue information in the application.
  • Not meeting the requirements set out in article 28.3 of the regulations implementing Organic Law 4/2000.

Getting the details right the first time makes the whole process considerably smoother, and a lawyer familiar with immigration procedure can help make sure nothing is missing before you submit.