Consulate General of Spain — Local services in New York

I'm writing this review as a PSA to all non-white mixed or ethnic peoples needing services from the Consulate General of Spain in New York City. I can say without a doubt that the front line staff at this location, the security guard and the information window personnel are extremely racist. I have no idea why the country and king of Spain have chosen to make the face of their consulate in the biggest and most important city in the United States so incredibly disrespectful, unkind and racist. But it is an undeniable fact.

I have visited this location repeatedly and have witnessed the systematic and disgusting discrimination and mistreatment of those that are visibly ethnic and those with difficulty communicating.

The only visitors that are treated with any kind of dignity whatsoever are Spaniards with a white complexion and who speak perfect Spanish. As a person of color myself, I as well as my mixed race family members were personally mistreated and discriminated against on multiple occasions and given excuses like we did not have the right papers, did not make the appointment correctly, etc.. and were ultimately turned away, yet mysteriously, white Spanish families with the same requests and conditions were let through. I have observed this repeatedly on multiple occasions where I have made requests and from observing the treatment of others making requests.

The main security guard pictured in this review is the worst of all- he literally smiles while saying inappropriate and discriminatory comments- it's so incredibly sick, he clearly gets some kind of personal sadistic enjoyment from it. In particular, he is the one who mistreated us the most and others that I have observed on a repeated basis but is by no means the only one engaging in this behavior. I have also witnessed the information desk staff treat others with profound disrespect and discrimination- literally shouting at people just asking questions but then being nice as pie to those with the 'right appearance'.

There is absolutely no excuse for this type of treatment of any people anywhere for any reason at any time. It is absolutely appalling and a disgrace to the entire country of Spain and every Spaniard everywhere in the world that this behavior is tolerated for even a single moment. It is a clear indication that the Spanish government as a whole is infected by the poisonous rot that is systemic racism and discrimination.

Watch out for this place. If you are mixed race, if you are not a pure white Spaniard, you will guaranteed be mistreated and...

This is an amend to my previous review as more things went wrong. I went to the consulate 3 times and finally after a 4th visit dropping off a “required” document, my visa is ready. The first time I went, I was missing two documents so the lady gave me a checklist (one I had never seen before and would’ve been immensely helpful in the first place) and circled what I was missing and checked what I had all set. The next time I went, all of a sudden I was missing more documents! I showed them where the previous lady had checked off the documents I was all of a sudden supposedly missing, and they couldn’t have cared less. Blamed me completely although they never answered my emails with questions. Acted as if I shouldn’t have trusted what one of the workers told me. As it was approaching my departure date, I had asked them for an earlier appointment than the one they gave me. They then responded cancelling my existing appointment and giving me a LATER one. It felt like pure cruelty at that point. I had to come home early from Spain to try the visa process again before going back which cost me hundreds of dollars. At the third visit, I finally had all of my documents accepted to apply for the visa, but all of a sudden I had to get one of the documents translated and brought back within ten days. At my previous TWO appointments, they had said NOTHING about translating the document and it also says nothing about it on the online while it does for different types of documents. Additionally, I live in CT and work full time, I don’t understand how it could be expected for any average person to come back within ten days during the week when the consulate is only open for 4.5 hours a day! Its insane. Luckily, my dad works in the city and was able to drop the document off. When he arrived, everyone was extremely confused as to what document he had and why. Finally, he was seen and the woman took the document and told him my visa was ready for pickup (the original date they told me was December 27, so two weeks early which is great) BUT, if the visa was already ready, clearly the document wasn’t even needed in the first place!! I spent close to 200$ translating the multiple page au pair contract and it wasn’t even required! Such an extreme waste of time and money and utterly so unfair. I will be looking into reporting this to...

If anyone wants to Apply for a visitor visa , make sure you all go to the 39th Street , I hope it was on their website, unfortunately it is not. I went to 58th Street location and parked my car and went to the office and they informed me that I am in the wrong place. Then had to drive back to 39th Street, this should be informed ahead of time. and the parking costed me $15 for 5 minutes.

When I arrived in the 39th street location, the most annoying security guy ever found working in a embassy who even does not speak english well, Was kept saying that they will be closed soon while I told him that I was like for 10 minutes late due to their wrong address, won't try to listen you at the beginning and will persist on his attitude, This guy is very rude. I am not sure how did he get the job there. Eventually he allowed me to check in after 5 minutes of interactions.

Other part , you can not pick your passport from there anymore , they have to send it though mail, which is inconvenient for me. You guys make sure you carry enough money because in online it shows only $72 but I had to pay $133 altogether for my application and then another $62 car parking for two hours.

Only positive: The visa officers are helpful and they will work with you.

I went to this embassy depending on the google reviews , But If I would know this story before , never would think of going to this embassy for Schengen visa. There are many other Schengen embassies in the City.

I hope this information will help you guys who is planning going there soon. If I could rate them negatively , I would rate because of this...