The ban starts running on the day you leave, not the day it is imposed.
Anyone expelled from Spain is barred from entering for the period set in the decision: up to five years, and up to ten if they are considered a serious threat (Art. 58 of the Immigration Act, Ley Orgánica 4/2000). The ban extends to the States with which Spain has an agreement and may be entered in the SIS (the Schengen Information System), where the consulate sees it and refuses. An irregular stay without expulsion does not in itself create a Spanish entry ban, but an expulsion order that was never carried out does bar entry until the proceedings lapse or the order becomes time-barred (Art. 11 of the Regulation). Before applying for a visa, find out what decision exists, since when it has been running, and whether the alert is still in the system.
In July 2026 the High Court of Madrid upheld the refusal of a visa to a Moroccan man who said he had been expelled more than ten years earlier: as long as the alert stays in the SIS, the consulate refuses, and it was up to him to ask for it to be deleted.
Updated
How long it lasts, how to avoid it, and what extends it
Up to five years, or ten
Expulsion carries a ban on entering Spain, extended to the States with which Spain has an agreement. Its length is set according to the circumstances of the case and cannot exceed five years; only if the person is a serious threat to public policy, public security, national security or public health can it reach ten, with a prior report from the Comisaría General de Extranjería y Fronteras. Expulsion also extinguishes any authorisation and closes any residence or work proceedings under way.
Leaving in time avoids it
If the proceedings concern irregular stay or working without authorisation (Art. 53.1.a and b of the Act), no ban is imposed on someone who leaves Spain while they are under way, and a ban already imposed is revoked if the person leaves within the voluntary departure period. The departure must be reported: by filling in the form at the police exit check, or by going to the Spanish consulate with documents proving it. The information reaches the body that ordered the expulsion through the Comisaría General.
Expulsions not carried out, and return
Entry is barred for anyone who was expelled and is still within the period, and also for anyone with an expulsion decision issued against them, unless the proceedings have lapsed or the order has become time-barred. The limitation period for the expulsion does not start until the ban period ends, with a maximum of ten years. Anyone who comes back during the ban is sent back (devolución) without further proceedings, and the period starts again.
When there is family in Spain
An expulsion for irregular stay or unauthorised work that has not been carried out is revoked if residence should be granted on the exceptional grounds of Articles 31 bis, 59, 59 bis or 68.3 of the Act. For the other exceptional circumstances, it is revoked even if the application is declared inadmissible, where the initial analysis shows clear signs that it should be granted. A relative of a Spanish national can be refused a visa on public-policy grounds only if their personal conduct is a genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat. The Court of Justice also requires the relationship of dependency with the EU citizen to be examined before residence is refused on the sole ground of the ban (K.A., C-82/16).
Three questions from people who were expelled
Because the alert is still in the SIS, and the judge will not delete it for you. In STSJ M 9742/2026 of 13 July (appeal 1312/2025), the Consulate General in Larache refused a visa to a Moroccan man who wanted to join his mother, a Spanish national, because Spain maintained an SIS alert with an entry ban. He argued that he had been expelled more than ten years earlier and produced a decision of the Government Delegation in Madrid of 9 March 2011 concerning his expulsion with a ten-year ban. The court dismissed the case: nobody disputed that the alert was in force when he applied for the visa, and he himself could have sought its deletion through the channels EU law provides, and had not done so. It ordered him to pay €500 plus VAT in costs. First get the alert deleted; then apply for the visa.
They run from actual departure from the territory of the Member States, not from the date of the decision (Ouhrami, C-225/16, 26 July 2017; repeated in Freie Hansestadt Bremen, C-446/24, 23 April 2026, para. 25). And the length has to be justified. In STSJ M 13351/2025 of 7 November (appeal 593/2025, Section Ten), the Government Delegation in Madrid had expelled a Colombian man for irregular stay with a five-year ban. The first-instance court reduced it to one year, because the maximum had been imposed without explaining why. The High Court went further: it annulled the expulsion, because the only aggravating factor was an arrest over a brawl whose outcome in court nobody had checked. Each side paid its own costs.
If the expulsion was carried out, the High Court of Madrid has held that a ban still in force is enough to refuse. In STSJ M 2333/2024 of 25 January (appeal 942/2023, Section Ten), a Moroccan father of three Spanish children applied for residence on family-ties grounds (arraigo familiar). He had been expelled in 2012 following a conviction, with a ten-year ban; he came back, was sent back in August 2015, and the period restarted, running until 27 August 2025. He had asked for the ban to be revoked, and the Sub-Delegation in Toledo had told him four times that it could not be. The court upheld the refusal: revocation under the Regulation only covers expulsions for irregular stay or unauthorised work that have not been carried out. Each side paid its own costs. The case was decided under the 2011 regulation. The Court of Justice adds a nuance: if your child depends on you to the point of having to leave the Union, the ban is not enough to refuse your residence without examining that dependency (K.A., C-82/16).
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.