Refused? That's not the final word — but the clock is short.

Usually not — and re-filing the same flawed application is the most common mistake we see. If the refusal is wrong or badly reasoned, the route is a reasoned appeal on the actual grounds they gave, not a fresh copy of the file that was already rejected. Re-applying can also let the appeal deadline lapse in the background, so the door you should have used quietly closes. Send us the resolution first and we’ll tell you which of the two routes actually fits.

Short — that’s the whole game. As a general guide it is roughly one month for an administrative appeal and about two months for the contencioso-administrativo, counted from the day you were notified. But the exact period depends on the type of decision and how it was served, so we don’t guess: we confirm your precise deadline the moment we see the resolution. If it has almost run, that becomes the priority over everything else.

Two stages. First the administrative appeal under Ley 39/2015 — a recurso de reposición to the same body that refused you, or a recurso de alzada to the body above it. If that doesn’t fix it, the judicial stage follows: a recurso contencioso-administrativo under Ley 29/1998, decided by the administrative courts rather than the immigration office. Most cases are resolved at the administrative stage; the court route is the escalation when the administration simply won’t reconsider.

It can be. Spanish law has a concept called silencio administrativo — administrative silence — where a non-answer within the legal period is treated, in many immigration cases, as a refusal you are entitled to challenge. Which means a deadline may already be running even though no one has formally said no to you. If your application has gone quiet, don’t wait it out — let us check whether the clock is ticking.

We won’t promise that, and you should be wary of anyone who does — the outcome depends on the grounds of refusal, the evidence and the court. What we will do is give you a straight read on whether the appeal is winnable before you spend money on it. Some refusals are eminently overturnable; some are better re-applied from scratch; a few are genuinely lost, and we’ll say so. An honest diagnosis is worth more than a confident guarantee.

No. Appeals are built on the file and the written argument, so we run them for clients across the Costa del Sol and from abroad without you setting foot in an office. You send us the resolution and the supporting documents; we handle the drafting, the filing and the follow-up, and keep you posted in plain English at each stage.