Appealing a residence refusal in Spain: reposición, alzada and court

Appealing a residence permit refusal in Spain: three routes and their deadlines

Against a refusal of a residence permit or visa, the law provides administrative and judicial remedies. There are two administrative ones: the recurso de alzada (an appeal to a higher authority) and the recurso potestativo de reposición (an optional appeal to the same authority that decided). There is one judicial remedy: the recurso contencioso-administrativo. Which one applies depends on whether the decision ends the administrative route (vía administrativa) [1]. In immigration cases this means: against decisions of the Subdelegación and consulates, reposición and court are available; against UGE decisions under Ley 14/2013, alzada is available [3][4].

The deadlines in the table are taken from the consolidated texts in the BOE. There is no single deadline for every case, and the formula “you always have 30 days” is unsafe. What to do in the first days after a refusal is covered in the articles residence permit refusal in Spain and DNV refusal: reasons and recurso.

Which recurso fits your decision: alzada or reposición

For typical cases the picture is as follows. A decision of the Subdelegación (arraigo, no lucrativa, renewal, reagrupación) or of a consulate ends the administrative route, so what remains is reposición within one month or court within two. A UGE decision is challenged by alzada within one month. Beyond that, the general logic of Ley 39/2015 applies. Alzada is filed against a decision that does not end the administrative route: it is reviewed by the higher authority [1]. If the decision ends the route, under article 123 you can file reposición with the same authority or go straight to court; once the month has passed, only court remains [1].

The law addresses who ends the route, and how, in immigration cases in several places, and they do not add up to a single answer:

• Additional Provision 9 of RD 1155/2024: decisions taken by the bodies of the ministries of foreign affairs, the interior and inclusion, and by government delegates and subdelegates on visas, extensions of stay, and residence and work permits “ponen fin a la vía administrativa”; administrative or judicial recursos provided for by law may be filed against them. Exception: decisions refusing entry and on return do not end the route [3].
• Article 76 of Ley 14/2013 for UGE permits (DNV and others): decisions are reasoned and may be challenged by recurso de alzada under articles 121 and 122 of Ley 39/2015 [4].
• The Consulate of Spain in Moscow, for a refused teletrabajo visa, names two routes: a recurso de reposición before the consulate within one month and a contencioso-administrativo at the Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Madrid within two months [5].

For UGE decisions, the right to alzada follows directly from Article 76.1: decisions on residence permits provided for in the relevant section of Ley 14/2013 and processed through the UGE can be appealed by recurso de alzada [4]. This does not cover consular visa refusals, which are challenged under their own procedure. Read the “recursos” section of the decision anyway.

Under Article 40 of Ley 39/2015, the notification must say whether the decision ends the administrative procedure, which recursos are available, to which body and within what time limit [1]; for visas, Article 28 of RD 1155/2024 requires the same [3]. If this is missing or incomplete, the notification takes effect from the moment your actions show that you know the content of the decision, or when you lodged a recurso [1]. It is better to name the recurso correctly, but a mistake in the name does not prevent it from being examined if the text makes clear what kind of appeal it is (Article 115.2) [1].

How to count the deadline and not miss it

Deadlines in months run from the day after notification and end on the same date of the following month; if that date does not exist, the last day of the month becomes the last day. If the last day falls on a non-working day, the deadline moves to the next working day (article 30 of Ley 39/2015) [1]. A day that is a working day where you live but a non-working day where the authority is located (or vice versa) counts as non-working; each administration approves its own calendar of non-working days (article 30.6 and 30.7) [1].

An illustration, not a substitute for a calculation for your case. You opened the notification on the sede on Thursday 15 October 2026. The month for the recurso (reposición or alzada, depending on the authority) expires on 15 November, which is a Sunday, so the last day is Monday 16 November [1]. Which date counts as notification depends on the channel: in electronic form it is the moment of opening, and if the electronic form is mandatory or chosen by you and you do not open the notification within ten calendar days, it is deemed rejected (article 43) [1]. On the sede and notifications: what is a sede electrónica.

There is one particularity for court: the deadline for filing a contencioso-administrativo does not run in August (article 128.2 of Ley 29/1998) [2]. How this affects your two-month deadline and deadlines in other months is worked out by a legal professional based on the notification dates. We have put together an overall map of UGE and extranjería deadlines in the article calendar of UGE and extranjería deadlines.

How to file a recurso: content, place and language

A recurso states: the name and identification of the appellant, the act appealed and the grounds for challenging it, place, date, signature, the means and address for notifications, the authority and unit to which the appeal is addressed, and any particulars required by a special procedure (article 115.1) [1]. It can be filed at the authority’s electronic register, at a Correos office, at a Spanish consulate or embassy abroad, at the oficinas de asistencia en materia de registros and at other registers provided for by the rules (article 16.4) [1]. Alzada can be filed with the authority that issued the act or with the authority that decides it; in the first case the appeal is forwarded with a report and a copy of the file within ten days (article 121.2) [1].

How specific authorities accept a recurso, according to their official pages:

New evidence is admissible with a limitation: documents and arguments that you could have submitted in the main proceedings and did not are not taken into account (article 118.1) [1]. So you first find out what was missing from the file, and only then choose between a recurso and a new application.

What happens to enforcement of the decision while the recurso is pending

Unless a rule provides otherwise, filing a recurso does not suspend enforcement of the decision (article 117.1 of Ley 39/2015) [1]. The authority deciding the recurso may suspend enforcement at your request or on its own initiative if enforcement could cause irreparable damage or damage that is difficult to repair, or if the recurso is based on a ground of nullity under article 47.1. If the request has been registered and there is no express decision on it for one month, enforcement is deemed suspended; suspension may require a guarantee (article 117.3 and 117.4) [1].

What this means for your stay after a refusal depends on the type of decision and the dates. The procedure and the risks are described in the article on DNV refusal: check the dates on the day you receive the decision.

Silence on the recurso and on the application

Alzada must be decided within three months; without a decision, the recurso can be deemed rejected, except in the case of article 24.1, third paragraph (article 122.2) [1]. That case concerns alzada against a refusal by silence of an application, and we have not confirmed whether the exception applies to immigration cases. For reposición, the deadline for a decision is one month, and it cannot be filed again (article 124) [1]. After reposición, you go to court within two months from notification of the express decision or from the moment the recurso is deemed rejected (article 46.4 of Ley 29/1998) [2]. How silencio positivo works for the DNV, where silence means approval, is explained in the article what is silencio positivo.

Court: contencioso-administrativo

Acts that end the administrative route, express and by silence, can be challenged in court (article 25 of Ley 29/1998) [2]. Article 8.4 assigns to the Juzgados de lo Contencioso-administrativo decisions on extranjería taken by the peripheral administration of the State or by bodies of the autonomous communities; territorial jurisdiction is determined by the seat of the authority that issued the act (article 14) [2]. Where an appeal against a decision of a central authority, such as the UGE, or of a consulate goes, we have confirmed only for Moscow, based on the consulate’s statement: the Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Madrid [5]. We leave the rest to a lawyer.

In court, the appellant is accompanied by an abogado; a procurador is optional before a single judge and mandatory before a collegiate court (article 23 of Ley 29/1998) [2]. Article 22.1 of Ley Orgánica 4/2000 gives foreigners in Spain the right to free legal aid in proceedings to which they are party, on the same terms as citizens [9]; we have not examined the conditions.

Recurso extraordinario de revisión

Against acts that are already final (firmes), a recurso extraordinario de revisión is filed with the authority that issued them. The grounds are exhaustive: an error of fact evident from the case documents; new documents of essential importance showing the error; the influence of documents or testimony declared false by a court judgment; a decision taken as a result of prevaricación, bribery, violence or fraudulent collusion established by a judgment (article 125.1) [1]. Deadline: four years from notification for an error of fact, three months from the day you learned of the documents or the judgment became final in the other cases (article 125.2) [1]. This is not a second attempt on the same arguments, and whether it applies to your refusal is for a legal professional to decide.

Recurso or a new application

There is no universal rule. If the reason for refusal can be fixed (a missing document, an error in the income calculation), a new application may turn out to be faster. If the refusal is wrong in law or on the facts, and the necessary documents were already in the file, a recurso is the way.

We found no restrictions on reapplying after a DNV refusal in articles 74 bis - 76 of Ley 14/2013, and we have not confirmed from official sources whether you can apply in parallel with a recurso; more in the article DNV refusal. Replying to a requerimiento is not a recurso: objections to interim acts are raised against the final decision, and missing documents are submitted within the deadline set in the requerimiento (article 112.1) [1].

Common mistakes

• Counting a month as 30 days. A month ends on the same date, and it moves only when the last day is a non-working day [1].
• Filing reposición and going to court at the same time. Until reposición is decided or rejected by silence, the court will not accept the case (article 123.2) [1].
• Choosing the route by a name found online, without reading the “recursos” section in the decision itself [1].
• Assuming that a recurso suspends the effects of the refusal. As a general rule, it does not [1].
• Sending a recurso to the consulate by email or to the UGE by ordinary post: the consulate does not accept email, and the UGE accepts recursos electronically [6][8].

How we can help

The ReloVictory team in Barcelona identifies the authority from the notification text, works out the deadlines and assesses what can be fixed for a new application; the choice between reposición, alzada, court and a new application is made by the team’s lawyer. First step: send us the full decision and the date you opened it. To book: consultation.

Frequently asked questions

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ReloVictory · Sources reviewed 02.10.2026 · Not a substitute for individual legal advice.