Spain's student visa has no "will you leave?" test: the law lists exactly three grounds for refusal, the application form never asks whether you have been refused a visa before, and higher-education students get 30 hours of work a week automatically plus 24 months to job-hunt after graduating.
NO — a previous Canadian study permit refusal does not have to be declared to Spain, and on the evidence it does not hurt. Three separate reasons, each verifiable.
(1) IT IS NOT ASKED. The official Spanish national (type D / long-stay) visa application form published by the Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores has 31 numbered fields and not one of them asks whether you have ever been refused a visa — not by Spain, not by any Schengen state, not by any third country. (The Schengen SHORT-stay form does ask; the national form, which is the one a student uses, does not.) The Embassy of Spain in New Delhi's official student visa page lists a 14-item document checklist, and refusal history is not on it. Nor is a statement of purpose or a study plan. Since nothing is asked, nothing is concealed, and the form's declaration that "all particulars supplied by me are correct and complete" is simply not engaged by an undisclosed Canadian refusal.
(2) IT IS NOT VISIBLE. Article 35.k RLOEx requires only that the applicant is not flagged as inadmissible "in the territory of countries with which Spain has signed an agreement to that effect" — i.e. a Schengen SIS alert. Canada is not party to Schengen and does not share IRCC visa decisions with Spain. Per the form's own data-protection notice, Spain stores its OWN visa decisions in the VIS-Nacional database for five years; it contains nothing from Canada. Canada also does not stamp refusals in the passport.
(3) IT IS NOT THE SAME TEST — this is the part that actually matters. Article 54.8 RLOEx sets out an EXHAUSTIVE, three-item list of grounds on which the student stay authorisation "será denegada": (a) the requirements for the authorisation are not met; (b) false, fraudulently obtained or manipulated documents were filed, inexact allegations were made, or there is bad faith; (c) the institution is not a recognised/authorised/accredited one. There is no discretionary "the officer is not satisfied you will leave at the end of the authorised stay" — there is no Spanish equivalent of Canada's R216(1)(b), and no dual-intent judgement to lose. The underlying requirements (arts. 35 and 53 RLOEx) are documentary and objective: admission to a recognised higher-education institution, enrolment fees already PAID, passport valid at least one year, 100% of IPREM per month, health insurance, police clearance for stays over six months, medical certificate. Meet them and there is no residual discretion left to refuse you on your intentions.
TWO HONEST CAVEATS. - Article 54.8(b) does bite on false documents and bad faith. If the Canadian refusal involved misrepresentation (a fabricated bank statement, an invented employment letter, a purchased test score), do NOT recycle those documents into a Spanish file. A Canadian misrepresentation FINDING is not portable to Spain, but the DOCUMENTS are, and art. 54.8(b) plus art. 200.2(b) let Spain refuse — and revoke a granted permit — on that ground alone. - If the Canadian refusal was on R220 (insufficient funds), the money was thin, and Spain still wants €600/month proved for the full course plus the cost of the return journey. Spain is far more flexible about HOW you prove it (see funds field: no blocked account, family money, loans, scholarships and even a firm job offer are all admissible on an individualised assessment) — but it is still proof. A genuinely underfunded file fails in Madrid too.
BOTTOM LINE for the three common Indian refusal grounds: an R216(1)(b) "will not leave" refusal is invisible to Spain AND legally irrelevant, because the ground does not exist in Spanish law. An R220 funds refusal is invisible, but the underlying weakness must actually be fixed. A weak-study-plan refusal is invisible and irrelevant, because Spain does not assess a study plan at all. A misrepresentation finding is invisible as a finding, but the documents behind it are radioactive and must never be reused.
NO 'WILL YOU LEAVE?' TEST. Article 54.8 RLOEx gives an exhaustive, closed list of three grounds for refusing a student stay authorisation: requirements not met; false or fraudulently obtained documents, inexact allegations or bad faith; or the institution not being recognised. There is no discretionary ground about being satisfied the applicant will depart — nothing in Spanish law corresponds to Canada's R216(1)(b), which is the ground that ends the majority of Indian study permit files.
THE FORM NEVER ASKS ABOUT PAST REFUSALS. The official Spanish national visa application form has 31 numbered fields and none of them asks whether you have been refused a visa by any country. The Embassy of Spain in New Delhi's student checklist has 14 items and none is a refusal history — nor a statement of purpose, nor a study plan. There is no narrative for an officer to disbelieve.
MORE WORK, AUTOMATICALLY. Higher-education students may work up to 30 hours a week, employed or self-employed, 'automáticamente y sin necesidad de un trámite adicional' (art. 57.1 RLOEx) — no separate work permit and no employer application. Curricular internships need no authorisation at all. (Canada's current off-campus hour limit was not re-verified in this pass — check the live IRCC figure before publishing the comparison.)
THE PERMIT COVERS THE WHOLE DEGREE. For higher education, art. 55.1 RLOEx grants the authorisation for the official duration of the studies — a four-year bachelor gets a four-year authorisation, not an annual re-application. You only file proof of re-enrolment at the start of each year to keep it alive (art. 55.2). There is no yearly permit renewal to be refused.
A 24-MONTH POST-STUDY WINDOW, PLUS A DIRECT SWITCH TO A WORK PERMIT. Ley 14/2013 DA 17ª gives EQF-Level-6 graduates up to 24 non-extendable months to find suitable work or start a business, decided in 20 days with positive silence. Separately, art. 190 RLOEx lets a graduate convert straight from student stay to residence-and-work with no visa, no return home, and no minimum period of prior study — and grants provisional full-time work rights from the moment the file is admitted to processing.
SPAIN IS IN BOTH THE EU AND SCHENGEN — these are not the same thing and students routinely confuse them. Spain has been an EU member state since 1 January 1986 and in the Schengen Area since 26 March 1995, and uses the euro. Schengen governs border-free travel: your Spanish student TIE card lets you move around the Schengen area without applying for separate visas. EU membership is what governs the substantive rights that matter later — EU long-term resident status under Directive 2003/109/EC (art. 175 RLOEx) and onward mobility within the EU. Ireland is in the EU but not Schengen; Switzerland is in Schengen but not the EU; Spain gives you both.
Every figure below is from Spain's own immigration service, embassy or statute. Sources are listed at the foot of this page.
Set by REGIONAL decree, not nationally — it varies by more than 6x for the same Indian student, so no single national figure is honest. Two figures verified from primary sources. HIGH END, Comunidad de Madrid: under Decreto 43/2022 the region's public universities charge non-EU students who are not residents the FOURTH-enrolment rate from their very first enrolment. At Universidad Autónoma de Madrid that is €136.44 / €128.57 / €113.71 per credit by experimentality level — roughly €6,820 to €8,186 for a 60-credit bachelor's year — against €20.68 / €19.43 / €16.92 per credit (about €1,015 to €1,241 a year) for residents and EU nationals. The same UAM document states expressly that a student stay authorisation does NOT confer resident status for this purpose. LOWER END, Catalonia: Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (public) cut its non-EU master's rate to €45 per credit for first enrolment from 2025-26, down from €102.52 — about €2,700 for a 60-ECTS master. A nationwide range and the cheap-region figures (e.g. Andalusia) could NOT be verified from a primary source in this pass, so none is given. Verify the specific university AND autonomous community before quoting any number. Private universities and business schools are a separate and much higher market.
€7,200 per year — €600 per month, which is 100% of IPREM (art. 35.h.1º RLOEx). The Embassy of Spain in New Delhi states the figure for 2026 verbatim: "the minimum amount for the applicant is 600 euros per month, 450 euros per month for the first family member and 300 euros per month for each additional family member" (i.e. 100% / 75% / 50% of IPREM). The funds must also cover the cost of the return journey (art. 35.h). NO BLOCKED ACCOUNT IS REQUIRED — this is the single biggest practical difference from Germany. The Ministry of Inclusion's official management criteria state that "cualquier medio de prueba" is admissible and that each file gets an individualised assessment, expressly listing own funds, family funds, subsidies, grants and scholarships; a valid employment contract or firm job offer also counts because the higher-education permit already authorises work. Prepaid accommodation for the whole stay can substitute for the maintenance amount. The New Delhi checklist asks for six months of bank statements and, where applicable, a sponsorship letter.
Not published in EUR for India — Spain sets national visa fees by reciprocity, so the operative figure is in rupees and has NOT been converted here. BLS International, the visa application centre appointed by the Spanish consulates in India, publishes: national visa fee INR 9,599 (in force since 1 January 2023, same amount for adults and minors, payable in cash or online), plus an INR 1,802 BLS International service charge. Separately, government fees payable inside Spain under Orden PJC/617/2025 (in force 16 June 2025): €17.49 for the initial student stay authorisation (tasa 1.1.1), €10.94 for a prórroga (1.1.2), €16.08 for the first TIE card (4.2), and €10.94 to switch from student stay to residence-and-work (2.5.1). Visa fees are expressly non-refundable on refusal.
SPANISH IMMIGRATION LAW IMPOSES NO LANGUAGE REQUIREMENT AT ALL. Articles 35 and 53 RLOEx set out the visa and authorisation requirements exhaustively and not one of them is a language test — no IELTS, no TOEFL, and no Spanish certificate is demanded by the Spanish state. The New Delhi embassy's 14-item checklist contains no language document. Any language requirement therefore comes from the UNIVERSITY alone and is programme-specific. English-taught master's programmes do exist at Spanish public universities, but their number and their entry levels could NOT be verified from a primary source in this pass. Do not assume English-taught: verify the language of instruction and any certificate requirement for the exact degree, in writing, before paying an enrolment fee. Note also that immigration law requires the course to be full-time — at least 90% of the credits, with an indicative minimum teaching load of 20 hours a week (12 of them in person for intensive programmes).
30 hours per week, AUTOMATIC. For higher-education students (art. 52.1.a), art. 57.1 RLOEx states that the stay authorisation "autorizará a trabajar por cuenta propia y ajena, automáticamente y sin necesidad de un trámite adicional" — employed AND self-employed work, no separate work permit, no employer application, no Oficina de Extranjería file. Article 57.2 caps it at 30 hours a week. Curricular internships that form part of the study plan need no authorisation whatsoever and are covered by the student permit itself. THREE LIMITS, all real: the work must be compatible with the studies; exceeding 30 hours a week is an express ground for TERMINATING the stay authorisation (art. 57.2); and the work is geographically confined to the autonomous community that granted the permit, plus bordering localities of adjacent communities (art. 57.3). If you work but stop attending, art. 200.2(c) is expressly aimed at you. NOTE: the old 20-hours-a-week, employer-applies rule under RD 557/2011 is dead — it was replaced when RD 1155/2024 took effect on 20 May 2025. Any adviser still quoting 20 hours is out of date.
24 months. Ley 14/2013, disposición adicional decimoséptima (as amended by disposición final 5.1 of Ley Orgánica 2/2023 of 22 March): a graduate who has reached at least Level 6 of the European Qualifications Framework (bachelor's and above) at a higher-education institution may remain in Spain for "un período máximo improrrogable de veinticuatro meses" to look for work matching their level of study or to start a business. Apply electronically to the Delegación/Subdelegación del Gobierno in the 60 calendar days before, or the 90 calendar days after, the student authorisation expires; the office checks only three things — the degree or official qualification, health insurance, and a self-declaration of sufficient resources. Decision in 20 days, and SILENCE IS POSITIVE. Cross-referenced in art. 190.10 RLOEx. Important: this is a residence permit to SEARCH, not a work permit — DA 17.6 requires you to apply for the corresponding authorisation once you find suitable work. THE OFTEN BETTER ROUTE: art. 190 RLOEx lets a graduate convert the student stay directly into residence-and-work (employed or self-employed) with NO VISA, no return to India, and — unlike the old RD 557/2011 regime — NO MINIMUM PERIOD OF PRIOR STUDY. File in the two months before or three months after finishing (art. 190.6, as widened by RD 316/2026); once the file is admitted to processing you hold a provisional residence-and-work authorisation with express FULL-TIME work rights while it is decided (art. 190.7); the first permit runs one year (art. 190.9). The employer pays that fee.
Long-term residence (residencia de larga duración-UE) — an indefinite permit to live and work in Spain on the same terms as a Spanish national — after FIVE years of legal, continuous residence (art. 176.a RLOEx). THE CATCH, and it is a real one: time spent on a student stay counts at only 50%, and only if you are in a residence (not stay) situation at the moment you apply. So a 2-year master contributes 1 year; a 4-year bachelor contributes 2. Realistic timelines from landing in Spain: 4-year bachelor (=2) + 3 years on a work permit = 5 countable years, so about 7 years total; 2-year master (=1) + 4 years working = 5 countable years, about 6 years total. Continuity survives absences of up to 6 continuous months provided they total no more than 10 months across the 5 years (18 months if the absences are for work). You also need stable, regular resources and health insurance. CITIZENSHIP is separate and much slower: Código Civil art. 22.1 requires TEN years of legal, continuous residence immediately preceding the application for Indian nationals. The two-year fast track applies only to nationals of Ibero-American countries, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea and Portugal, and to Sephardic Jews — India is not on that list.
The ordinary Spanish academic year begins in SEPTEMBER — stated in the Ministry of Inclusion's official student management criteria ("el calendario del curso académico ordinario que comienza en septiembre"). Whether individual universities run a January/February intake is set by each university and was NOT verified from a primary source in this pass. What is fixed and statutory is the visa timing: the application must be filed at least two months before the course starts (art. 36.1 RLOEx) AND you must have already PAID the enrolment/matrícula fee before applying (art. 53.1.a.2º) — so plan backwards from the university's matrícula deadline, not from the first day of class. Enrolment for less than a full academic year is admissible provided the programme unit (a semester or cuatrimestre) exceeds 90 calendar days; the minimum course length for a student visa is 91 calendar days (art. 52.1).
Legally capped and short. The Oficina de Extranjería must decide the underlying stay authorisation within a maximum of 7 days of the consulate's electronic request, and silence is negative (art. 36.3 RLOEx). If that decision is favourable, the consular office must resolve and issue the visa within a maximum of ONE MONTH (art. 36.4). The official national visa form and the New Delhi embassy page both repeat this: "The maximum and non-extendable period to notify the resolutions on applications for national visas will be one month, starting the day following the date of the proper submission of the application at the competent Consular Office." File at least two months before the course start date (art. 36.1); this can be shortened only if you evidence that the university's enrolment deadline made two months impossible. A granted student visa must be collected within two months or it lapses. A refusal can be appealed within one month.
NONE PUBLISHED AND NONE VERIFIED. Spain does not appear to publish refusal statistics for national (type D) long-stay visas broken down by nationality, and no such figure for Indian student applicants could be verified from a primary source in this pass. IMPORTANT WARNING FOR THE PAGE: the refusal rates that ARE published — the European Commission's annual Schengen visa statistics — cover SHORT-STAY Schengen visas, a completely different instrument decided under the EU Visa Code with a different legal test. Those figures must never be presented as a Spanish student visa refusal rate. Do not publish any percentage on this page unless a Spanish government source for type-D student decisions is found first.
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