If you’ve submitted or are about to submit your immigration application, you should understand what is positive and negative administrative silence.
Once an application has been made, there is the possibility that the immigration office may not issue any response within the established timeframe, which means that the application has either been rejected or approved. To understand the difference, we need to tackle the topic of administrative silence, and in this post, we’ll tell you everything you need to know regarding this.
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In this post we cover the following: (click any section to see its content)
What is positive and negative administrative silence in Spain:
- WHAT IS ADMINISTRATIVE SILENCE? »
- ADMINISTRATIVE SILENCE DURING APPLICATION PROCESS »
- 1) SILENCE ON INITIAL RESIDENCE APPLICATIONS »
- 2) SILENCE ON RESIDENCE RENEWAL APPLICATIONS »
- 3) SILENCE ON SPANISH NATIONALITY APPLICATIONS »
- ALL TYPES OF RESIDENCY AVAILABLE IN SPAIN »
- SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT WITH A SOLICITOR »
WHAT IS ADMINISTRATIVE SILENCE:
Administrative silence is the conditional response which is issued by the legal administration on a particular request made by a citizen after a lack of direct response once the pre-established legal deadline has passed. In other words, it’s the favorable or negative response to a file when the administration hasn’t issued an explicit response. Thus, we find two types of administrative silence:
- Positive silence: When the lack of response from the administration once the legal deadline has passed approves the request.
- Negative silence: If this lack of response implies the rejection of the submitted file.
ADMINISTRATIVE SILENCE DURING APPLICATION PROCESS:
If you submit your application for any type of residency, family reunification, work permit, or EU residence card, you’ll have to wait for a certain time for the immigration office, the administration, to analyze all the submitted documentation and issue a favorable or negative resolution.
According to the law, the administration has a maximum of 3 months to issue a response once you’ve submitted your file, a time that starts counting the day after you submit your application, more specifically, the day after the competent body receives all the documentation.
But what happens if these 3 months pass and you haven’t received any response?
Depending on the type of administrative silence applied, your application would be automatically rejected or approved.
So, we need to understand the type of administrative silence that applies according to the type of application.
Let’s study these three options:
1) INITIAL RESIDENCE APPLICATIONS:
If you’re applying for a residence card for the first time (initial application), the type of administrative silence is negative. In other words, if 3 months pass without receiving any response, your file would be automatically rejected. However, we recommend being patient and waiting a bit longer because, in many cases, immigration offices experience significant delays, especially in large cities like Madrid or Barcelona, and even though the 3 months have passed, they end up approving files weeks later. Additionally, you should consider that if the file is rejected due to negative administrative silence, all is not lost. From then on, you can appeal through administrative litigation. However, extensions of residence permits, residence for internships, job search, and long-term residence operate by positive administrative silence in their initial application.
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2) RESIDENCE RENEWAL APPLICATIONS:
In the case of residency renewals, administrative silence is positive. That is, after 3 months of submitting your application without explicit response, the file would be automatically approved. After these 3 months, the administration must issue a certificate accrediting this positive silence, and for this, we must carry out an intermediate process to finally obtain the physical card. This process consists of submitting a written request for resolution by silence. If we do not receive a response after this request, after 15 days, we must request the execution of a firm act through a firm document. And if after 1 month we still have no news, we must finally file an administrative litigation appeal.
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3) SILENCE ON SPANISH NATIONALITY APPLICATIONS:
So far, we have looked at how administrative silence works in residence permit applications. But what happens with nationality applications? Does the same administrative silence apply that would occur once the complete legal year for the administration to resolve your file has passed? In case of not having received a response, you can initiate legal proceedings for the National Court to take the reins and assess your file and if you meet all the requirements to obtain citizenship.
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These are the key points about positive and negative administrative silence for your immigration process. If you have any questions, our immigration expert lawyers will advise you on your process and answer all your questions. Please click-here to oragnise a consultation with our lawyers and let us guide you through the process.
ALL TYPES OF RESIDENCY AVAILABLE IN SPAIN:
- Golden-Visa Spain (Spain citizenship by investment)
- Non-Lucrative visa Spain (Spain visa non lucrative)
- Self-Employed visa Spain (self employed expats in Spain)
- Digital-Nomad visa Spain (remote worker in Spain)
Please see-here our video-blog with options and legal-advice to obtain residency in Spain.
Remember that immigration procedures and immigration regulations change regularly, so it’s crucial to stay updated with the latest information from reliable sources. If you have specific questions or concerns about your situation, it’s advisable to consult with immigration authorities or legal professionals specializing in immigration matters, to do this, please click-here »
DO YOU REQUIRE ASSISTANCE TO APPLY FOR RESIDENCY IN SPAIN?
We are a Spanish Solicitor and assist our clients with all types Spanish legal processes.
Permanent residency is obtained after 5 years of Spanish Residency through Self-Employed Residency, Digital-Nomad, Non-Lucrative Residency or Golden-Visa. This followed by 5 years as a permanent resident in Spain and means you can then obtain Spanish Citizenship with a Spanish Passport.
