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Master's degree students need a long-stay student visa (stays for more than 90 days), allowing students to study for up to one year in Spain. The visa application process requires the student to present documentation at their corresponding Spanish consulate. We strongly recommend starting your visa application process at least four months prior to the beginning of the program.
All students must have a passport that is valid for at least six months after their program end date. It is recommended that you have your passport ready at least four months before your program start date to initiate your visa application. Moreover, students are discouraged from making international travel plans during the months in which they plan to apply for their visas because the local consulate may keep their passport while processing the application.
Please be aware that many consulates have been experiencing delays in appointment availability and visa processing. Regardless of the delay that you may face in your procedure, we strongly urge you to complete the process before leaving your home country, as students who are not citizens of the European Union, Norway, Liechtenstein, Iceland, and Switzerland need a student visa in order to enter and study in Spain.
Students who are not able to obtain their student visa prior to the semester starting are advised to delay their arrival in Spain until the visa is approved. Academic Affairs will work with the corresponding program director and faculty involved to ensure that the student will be able to start the semester and attend classes and other important events remotely. Attending classes remotely must be approved by the appropriate program director in advance and cannot continue beyond Friday, September 22, 2023. Students who are granted permission to attend classes remotely are required to attend all classes and complete all assignments. The add/drop period for students who begin the semester remotely is the same as the on-campus add/drop period. Students must arrive on campus and start attending classes in person by Monday, September 25, 2023, or they will be withdrawn from the program. In addition, students who choose to apply for their student visa in Spain and don’t receive their visa by Monday, November 20, 2023, will be withdrawn from the program, and refunds, if any, will be processed following Berklee's withdrawal policy.
All master’s degree program participants on the Valencia campus need this visa unless you are a citizen or legal resident of the European Union, Norway, Liechtenstein, Iceland, or Switzerland.
The following information describes the general process in order to obtain a long-stay student visa. However, you should check with your Spanish consulate before beginning the process, as the process varies from consulate to consulate.
PLEASE NOTE:
The following documents are generally required to obtain a student visa, but you should check with your consulate for specific requirements:
Again, this is a general list of required documents. You should check with your consulate for specific requirements.
PLEASE NOTE:
The busiest time for consulates is the summer, when they process a high volume of visas for students coming to Spain in the fall, so this process could take up to six weeks or more.
It will take approximately two months to complete the process and get your student residency card, which is valid for up to one year and renewable if you continue to meet the student visa conditions.
You will receive information on how to apply for the residency card before orientation.
Citizens from certain countries are not required to obtain in advance any special tourist visa to visit Spain, and do not have to fill out a Schengen visa application. A tourist visa will be granted upon arrival in Spain and is good for 90 days in any six-month period. People who may obtain visas upon arrival in Spain include citizens of Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Holland, Honduras, Hong Kong and Macao (China), Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
A student visa stamped in your passport will allow you to move through the Schengen Area only while the student visa is in effect. The student visas are usually issued for 90 days, and, of course, during the first 30 days our master’s degree students are here, they will apply for their student residency card, which will allow them to stay in Spain during the rest of their studies (long after the visa stamped in their passport has expired).
Please note, however, that the student residency card, unlike the student visa stamped in your passport, does not grant you travel rights in any other Schengen Area countries. Students, please keep this in mind when you are planning trips around Europe while studying at Berklee. Simply put, while the visa stamped in your passport is valid, you should be able to travel through other Schengen Area countries but once this visa expires, your student residency card holder’s rights are tied to Spanish national territory; therefore, you may need a visa to travel to other Schengen member countries, depending on your country of origin.
Berklee Valencia does not:
Be sure to contact the consulate as soon as you are accepted and see when the next available appointments are for visa applications. If the consulate is asking people to wait a month or more, grab an appointment now, before you have all your paperwork done.
Challenge No. 2 Criminal Background Check
If you are applying for your visa in the United States, remember that the FBI usually takes six weeks to resolve criminal background checks. Ask the consulate if it accepts a criminal background check from the state police. If so, contact the state police where you live and see how long it would take to complete a background check. Usually, the state police can resolve your request much faster than the FBI.
Challenge No. 3 Medical Certificate
Contact the consulate and ask for information about the medical certificate. Pay special attention to what kind of wording the certificate needs to contain and what other elements have to appear (doctor´s letterhead, signature, etc). Also, you may want to ask the consulate if it has a list of doctors who provide such certificates. Many doctors on consulate lists are used to issuing the certificates and know what kind of language they need to use. If not, any family doctor can examine you and issue the certificate.
Challenge No. 4 Translating and Legalizing Documents
Verify with the consulate, which documents have to be:
a) Notarized
b) Legalized internationally (Apostille)
c) Translated by a sworn translator who is licensed to work in Spain. Often consulates have a list of sworn translators. Remember that many translators charge extra for emergency work, so be sure to notify your translators ahead of time to book their services.
Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Holland, Honduras, Hong Kong and Macao (China), Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, or Venezuela.
If your visa will not be ready by the time your classes start, and you are from one of the above countries, you could come to Spain and start your classes and then return to your home country to pick up your visa when it is issued. Remember, you have up to 90 days to be here without the student visa. Once you are notified that the visa is issued you have 60 days to pick it up in your home country; be careful, if you don't pick it up within 60 days, it will be canceled!
Also remember that the consulate will hold your passport while it processes your visa application, but you will need your passport to come to Spain. Therefore, you will have to ask the consulate if it will let you keep your passport while it processes your visa. The best way to convince the consulate is to bring paid plane tickets/hotel accommodations to your visa appointment. Since each consulate has a degree of administrative leeway, we cannot guarantee that it will let you hold on to your passport, but so far, all of our students and employees who have found themselves in this situation were able to keep their passports.
*These countries are: Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Holland, Honduras, Hong Kong and Macao (China), Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
Remember to bring a copy of your marriage certificate and/or birth certificates with you to Spain, because Spanish police will want to see them in order to issue your family members their own residency cards.
This means that if you leave Spanish national territory during the 90-day grace period, you will not have the right to get back in, especially if you are not from the following countries: Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Holland, Honduras, Hong Kong and Macao (China), Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, or Venezuela.
Internships: If the internship in question stems from your Berklee master’s degree program, your student visa grants you the right to participate in the internship. Spanish immigration law is designed, in part, to protect Spanish workers in a global labor market while giving students opportunities to continue their education with practical internships in both public and private companies. Therefore, foreign students have the right to participate in internship programs sponsored by their universities, and these arrangements are not considered labor contracts even if the student receives economic compensation by the company for his or her participation; this compensation is in the form of a student grant or expense reimbursement. Please contact the International Career Center on campus for more information about internships.
Work: Under Spanish law, the concept of "work" or "a job" involves a different kind of economic relationship that comes with different rights and responsibilities than does an internship. Your student visa permits you to work part-time in a job that does not conflict with your class schedule. It also permits you to work full-time for up to three months under the same conditions. However, the business that hires you must solicit permission from the government and many employers are reluctant to take this administrative step. Therefore, few foreign students receive legitimate job offers during their studies.
More information in English can be found here for student visas and here for work visas. Both links lead to the Spanish Ministry of Labor website.