Autorización de estancia de larga duración para la realización de estudios superiores o de educación secundaria postobligatoria
Residency route facts
Identity
| Official name (local) | Autorización de estancia de larga duración para la realización de estudios superiores o de educación secundaria postobligatoria as of 2025-11-01[2] |
|---|---|
| Official name (English) | Not established from a qualifying source No official English designation was found; the ministry's English path carries the Spanish title unchanged and the site declares its translations machine-generated. |
| Legal basis | Ley Orgánica 4/2000, de 11 de enero, arts. 25 bis y 33, Real Decreto 1155/2024, de 19 de noviembre, arts. 34 a 36 y 52 a 58, y Directiva (UE) 2016/801 as of 2025-11-01[2] |
| Instrument type | residence card as of 2025-11-01[2] |
Who can apply
| Nationals not served by this route | EU, EEA as of 2025-11-01[2] The general regime applies to third-country nationals; EU/EEA and Swiss nationals fall under the EU-citizen regime. |
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| Minimum age | 17 as of 2025-11-01[2] For higher studies the applicant must be over seventeen; for post-compulsory secondary education, over eighteen. In-country applications are available only for higher studies and only to applicants who are of full age and in a regular situation. |
Permit terms
| Initial duration | Not applicable The term has no fixed numeric value. For higher studies the stay lasts as long as the studies themselves; for post-compulsory secondary education it lasts as long as those studies, capped at one year. Validity runs from one month before, to fifteen days after, the end of the studies. The rule is carried by initial_duration_basis. |
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| How the initial term is set | matches the course |
| Renewable | Yes as of 2025-11-01[2] By extension (prórroga). Up to two extensions are permitted per authorisation, for both higher studies and post-compulsory secondary education. |
| Renewal duration | 1 year as of 2025-11-01[2] The extension runs for the duration of the course for which the holder is enrolled, capped at one year. |
| Maximum total duration | Not established from a qualifying source No absolute maximum is stated. The structure is the length of the programme plus up to two extensions of up to one year each, which does not resolve to a single figure. |
| Work rights | hours capped as of 2025-05-01[4] A long-duration stay authorisation obtained for HIGHER studies authorises employed and self-employed work automatically and without a further procedure, provided the activity is compatible with the studies and thirty hours are not exceeded; the sheet states the figure without qualifying it as weekly, and exceeding the limit is a ground for terminating the stay authorisation. The authorisation is also limited geographically to one autonomous community, though work may be done in bordering localities of another. Curricular internships forming part of the study plan need no separate authorisation. Holders of stays under art. 52 (b)-(e) of Real Decreto 1155/2024 instead need a separate work authorisation, processed in three months with negative silence. |
Permanent residence and citizenship
| Counts toward permanent residence | Yes as of 2025-05-01[5] |
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Requirements
| Enrolment status required | admitted as of 2025-11-01[2] |
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| Means requirement | 1 × Public Multiple-Effect Income Indicator per month as of 2025-11-01[2] For the applicant's own support, monthly, 100% of the IPREM, unless accommodation is duly evidenced as paid for in advance for the whole duration of the stay, in which case the requirement falls away. Amounts used to pay for the studies themselves are not counted toward this test. For family members the requirement is 75% of the IPREM for the first and 50% for each of the others, recorded on family_inclusion. No source retrieved converts these percentages into euros. For the extension, any means of proof is accepted, including the applicant's own resources, family resources, subsidies, grants and scholarships. |
| Work-hours cap | 30 as of 2025-05-01[4] |
| Post-study route exists | Yes as of 2025-09-01[2][3] Holders who complete studies at an authorised Spanish higher education institution reaching at least level 6 of the European Qualifications Framework may apply for the residence authorisation for job search or to start a business project, recorded as the separate route es-post-study-job-search. |
| Post-study permit duration | 24 months as of 2025-09-01[3] Twenty-four months, non-extendable, with no right to work during it. |
| Post-study income requirement | 1 × Public Multiple-Effect Income Indicator per month as of 2025-09-01[3] 100% of the IPREM monthly, or 50% where accommodation is evidenced as paid for in advance. Note that this differs from the study-stay rule, where pre-paid accommodation removes the requirement altogether rather than halving it. |
Process
| Where to apply from | either as of 2025-11-01[2] From abroad, in person at the diplomatic mission or consular office of the applicant's place of residence. From within Spain, only for higher studies, in person at the provincial Oficina de Extranjería or electronically through the Mercurio platform; registered higher education institutions may also file electronically. The application must be filed at least two months before studies begin. |
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| Statutory processing time | 2 months as of 2025-11-01[2] Two months for an application filed inside Spain at the Oficina de Extranjería, with the application deemed REFUSED by administrative silence if not notified in that period. The consular route and the extension have their own, shorter clocks, recorded under stages; silence is negative in all three cases. |
| Fees |
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| Stages |
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Physical presence
| periodic reporting | 1 year · to keep the permit as of 2025-11-01[2] Where the authorisation is granted for more than one year, maintaining its validity requires the foreign national or, as the case may be, the institution or centre, to submit annually at the start of each academic year the enrolment or registration receipt or an equivalent document evidencing that the studies continue. |
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| none stated | to keep the permit as of 2025-11-01[2] No minimum-days-in-country rule is stated. A related but different condition exists on the studies themselves: non-university studies require at least 50% in-person attendance, and post-compulsory secondary education may be in-person or blended with the same 50% floor; higher studies may be in-person or hybrid. That is an attendance condition on the course, not a presence condition on the holder, and has no field in this schema. |
Family inclusion
| Family members may be included | Yes as of 2025-11-01[2] Only where the student holds a HIGHER-education stay authorisation. Family members may apply simultaneously or later, provided the student has at least ninety calendar days of validity remaining. |
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| Eligible relations | spouse, registered partner, unmarried partner, minor child, adult dependent child, other dependent as of 2025-11-01[2] Spouse, registered partner or duly proven stable partner; minor children; adult children with specific and personalised support needs by reason of disability or illness; and a person supporting the holder where the holder has a disability or illness requiring such support. That last category is a carer rather than a relative and has no value of its own in the relation vocabulary, so it is recorded as 'other_dependent'. |
| Family may apply at the same time | Yes as of 2025-11-01[2] |
| Family members' work rights | none as of 2025-11-01[2] Family members of a student are not authorised to work while the authorisation is in force. |
| Additional means per family member |
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Your next step
Read the requirements above considering your own situation: the income multiple, the absence limits, who you can bring. Check the country record for the reference figure those amounts are calculated from, and for anything that has changed recently.
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Verification
| Sources cited | 5 |
|---|---|
| of which official (tier 1) | 5 |
| Oldest as-of date | 2025-05-01 |
| Newest as-of date | 2025-11-01 |
| Reviewed on | 2026-08-11 |
| Schema version | 1.1 |
Sources
- [1] Orden PJC/617/2025, de 13 de junio, por la que se establece el importe de las tasas por tramitación de autorizaciones administrativas y documentos de identidad en materia de inmigración y extranjería
Boletín Oficial del Estado · fee schedule · Tier 1 · Published 2025-06-16 · Accessed 2026-08-06 - [2] Hoja 1 – Autorización de estancia de larga duración para la realización de estudios superiores o de educación secundaria postobligatoria
Ministerio de Inclusión, Seguridad Social y Migraciones · official guidance · Tier 1 · Published 2025-11-01 · Accessed 2026-08-06 - [3] Hoja 20 – Autorización de residencia para búsqueda de empleo o inicio de proyecto empresarial
Ministerio de Inclusión, Seguridad Social y Migraciones · official guidance · Tier 1 · Published 2025-09-01 · Accessed 2026-08-06 - [4] Hoja 4 bis – Acceso al empleo de las personas titulares de una autorización de estancia de larga duración por estudios, movilidad de alumnos, servicios de voluntariado o actividades formativas
Ministerio de Inclusión, Seguridad Social y Migraciones · official guidance · Tier 1 · Published 2025-05-01 · Accessed 2026-08-06 - [5] Hoja 50 – Autorización de residencia de larga duración UE
Ministerio de Inclusión, Seguridad Social y Migraciones · official guidance · Tier 1 · Published 2025-05-01 · Accessed 2026-08-06