You don't apply for it: the consulate issues it when an ordinary Schengen visa is ruled out and there is a reason to make an exception.
The limited territorial validity visa — LTV, or VTL in Spanish consular jargon — is a short-stay visa valid only in the State that issues it, or in several if they all agree beforehand (Art. 25.2 of the EU Visa Code, Regulation 810/2009). It lets in someone who does not meet an entry condition, someone another State objected to when it was consulted beforehand, or someone who has already used up their ninety days, provided Spain sees humanitarian grounds, reasons of national interest or international obligations (Art. 25.1). It is exceptional and the consulate decides: the Spanish Foreign Ministry's official publication on visas warns that, save in very rare cases, you do not apply for it yourself. With it you cannot cross into France or Portugal.
A visa limited to Greece does not allow you to be in Spain. But the High Court of Andalusia said in April 2026 that holding one counts in the holder's favour when deciding whether to expel or fine them.
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When it is issued, where it is valid, and who decides
Four situations, all exceptional
On humanitarian grounds, for reasons of national interest or because of international obligations, the State may: waive one of the entry conditions of the Schengen Borders Code (a valid passport, purpose and means, not being in the SIS, not being a threat); issue the visa even though a State consulted under Article 22 objects; or issue it urgently without waiting for that consultation. And, for reasons the consulate considers valid, it may give a new visa to someone who has already used ninety days in the same hundred-and-eighty-day period (point b).
Valid in Spain and nowhere else
It is valid for the territory of the issuing State; for several, only with each one's prior consent. If the applicant's passport is recognised only by some States, the visa is limited to them. The stay cannot exceed ninety days in a hundred and eighty. And, like any visa, it gives no automatic right of entry: the border officer can check the conditions again. Its issue is notified to the other States through the Visa Information System (VIS) (Art. 25.4). Moroccans who only want to go to Ceuta or Melilla are issued a visa limited to those two cities.
At the border too
In exceptional cases, the police at the border post may issue a limited territorial validity visa to someone who does not meet the entry conditions, and it is the only option at the border for someone in a category subject to prior consultation (Art. 35.5). The Immigration Act also allows entry to be authorised on humanitarian grounds, in the public interest or because of Spain's commitments (Art. 25.4 LOEX). The Court of Justice (ANAFE, 14 June 2012, paras 51 and 55) drew a distinction: that exceptional entry is valid only for the territory of the State that grants it, whereas the re-entry authorisation of someone who does not yet have a residence permit but may stay in the country temporarily is not a limited visa and lets the holder cross other States to get back.
The alternative to refusal
Article 32, which lists the grounds for refusing a Schengen visa, opens with 'without prejudice to Article 25(1)', which means that article still applies: before refusing, the consulate may opt for a limited visa. For investors, entrepreneurs, qualified professionals and the other visas of Law 14/2013 (Ley 14/2013), its Article 75.3 provides for one where there are circumstances of national interest. Anyone planning to travel only to Spain must still apply for a uniform visa.
Three questions about a visa almost nobody applies for
Not lawfully, but that is not the same as being undocumented. In STSJ AND 5146/2026 of 16 April (appeal 48/2024, Section Four, Granada), a judgment of the High Court of Andalusia, the case began when the Government Sub-Delegation in Jaén expelled a foreign national found in an irregular situation, with a five-year entry ban: he had no address and his last entry stamp was from Greece. He held a visa valid from 12 January 2023 to 12 January 2024 whose 'valid for' box limited it to Greece. The court recalled Article 25.2 of the Visa Code: that visa did not let him move around the Union or prove a regular stay in Spain. But it proved who he was and that he had entered with a visa issued by a Member State, and that offset the aggravating factor that it was unknown where he had entered. It upheld the annulment of the expulsion and ordered the administration to pay costs, capped at €300.
It can, but it does not have to. Article 25.1.a.ii allows a visa limited to Spain to be issued even though the consulted State objects; it is a power, not a duty. What the High Court of Madrid does require is that the refusal explain why. In STSJ M 6834/2025 of 23 May (appeal 1207/2024), the Consulate General in Tangier refused a short-stay visa in July 2024 because 'one or more Member States' considered the applicant a threat to public health. In court, the State Attorney referred to an earlier conviction, already expunged. The court quashed the refusal: asserting the threat without specifying facts or sources is not enough. It ordered the consulate to issue a reasoned decision and the administration to pay costs capped at €500 plus VAT. It said nothing about a limited visa, which nobody had asked for.
That is not the route. The Foreign Ministry's official publication 'Los visados en el Derecho español y de la Unión Europea' says that anyone planning to visit a single Schengen State must still apply for a uniform visa, and that the limited visa is almost never applied for: the consulate offers it when it cannot give the uniform one. What helps is something else: if there is a humanitarian reason — a relative who is dying, an operation, a court hearing — document it in the application, so the consulate has grounds to apply Article 25 before refusing. We have not found any High Court of Madrid judgment requiring a consulate to issue this visa; the rules leave the decision to the State.
Tell us the case
Say which consulate you will be applying to and roughly when you want to travel. Those two facts change the answer more than anything else. We reply the same working day.
If you have already been refused and the one-month deadline is running, write to contacto@spainvisaservice.com with REFUSAL in the subject line and the date on the notification.