A visa can only be annulled on a ground that would have been enough to refuse it.
Having the visa in your passport does not mean the matter is closed. Article 34 of the EU Visa Code allows it to be annulled if the conditions were not met when it was issued, especially where there was fraud, and revoked if they are no longer met. In Spain this can be done by consulates and by the Comisaría General de Extranjería y Fronteras, the national police's immigration and borders headquarters (Art. 33 of the Immigration Regulation, Real Decreto 1155/2024), and a national visa is revoked when the authorisation it is based on ends (Art. 46). Each decision is notified in writing, with reasons and a right of appeal, except where the holder is the one who asks for the revocation.
The Court of Justice said it in Air Baltic (C-575/12): a visa remains valid until it expires, unless an authority of a Member State annuls or revokes it by a specific decision and on one of the grounds that allow it to be refused.
Updated
Annulment, revocation, giving it up, and appeals
Annulling is not revoking
A visa is annulled when it emerges that the conditions for issuing it were not met on the day it was issued, in particular where there are serious grounds for believing it was obtained fraudulently. It is revoked when the conditions have ceased to be met afterwards. In principle the issuing State does this, but another Member State may, and must then inform the first. The Court of Justice adds that the grounds are the same as those for refusal under Article 32 (Koushkaki, C-84/12, para. 43; Air Baltic, C-575/12, para. 35).
Who decides in Spain
For a short-stay visa EU law applies, and the competent authorities are the consular offices and the Comisaría General de Extranjería y Fronteras. A national visa is revoked when the authorisation that gave rise to it is extinguished, and annulled when the requirements were not met on issue. The decision must give reasons, with the facts, statements and reports it relies on, and state the available appeal, the body that hears it and the time limit (Art. 28.6 and 28.7).
What happens at the entry check
Not carrying the supporting documents for the trip is not an automatic ground for annulment. If the police refuse entry, they annul or revoke the visa where Article 34 so provides: they stamp it 'ANULADO' (annulled) or 'RETIRADO' (revoked), cross out the sticker and hand over the standard form with the reasons. The decision is recorded in the Visa Information System. Refusal of entry takes effect immediately, and appealing does not suspend it.
Giving it up, appealing, and once you are inside
The holder may ask for the visa to be revoked; in that case there is no appeal. In all other cases the decision can be appealed in the State that took it, under its law: in Spain, an application for reconsideration (recurso de reposición) and a court action. If you have already entered on a national visa, the dispute is about the authorisation. Ending it for fraud or forgery (Art. 200.2.b) requires proceedings opened by the authorities, with a hearing of at least ten days. The proceedings lapse after six months, and the outcome can be challenged by an application for reconsideration or taken straight to court (Art. 202).
Three cases where the visa had already been issued
Yes. In Air Baltic (C-575/12), a judgment of 4 September 2014, an Indian national arrived in Riga from Moscow in October 2010 with two passports: a new one containing no visa, and his old one, which held a multiple-entry Italian Schengen visa valid until 2014. The Indian authorities had cancelled the old passport, with a note that valid visas were not cancelled. Latvia refused him entry and fined the airline 2,000 lats. The Court of Justice ruled that cancellation of the passport by a third country does not annul the visa, because only a competent authority of a Member State can do that, by a decision of its own, and that the Borders Code does not require the visa to be in a valid travel document. Travel with both passports.
Yes, but with proper legal representation. Article 65.2 of the Immigration Act allows appeals to be lodged through the consulate when the foreign national is not in Spain. In STSJ AND 14214/2024 of 18 September (appeal 326/2023, Seville), a judgment of the High Court of Andalusia, a traveller had been refused entry at the port of Algeciras 'for having his visa revoked'. The appeal was brought by the legal-aid lawyer who had assisted him before the police, with a record signed in the presence of an interpreter. The Algeciras court refused to hear the appeal and the High Court upheld that decision: instructions given at the police station do not cover the court case; a notarial power of attorney or an apud acta appointment made before the court is needed. It ordered him to pay €300 in costs. Nobody ever examined whether the visa had been properly revoked.
Not on its own initiative. In STSJ M 3720/2026 of 6 March (appeal 567/2025), the Government Sub-Delegation in Almería had granted a Moroccan man a residence and work authorisation without regard to the national employment situation because he was married to a resident (Art. 40.1.a of the Act). The consulate in Rabat refused the visa because, after the interview, it considered the marriage fraudulent. The High Court of Madrid held that the consulate had overstepped by reviewing what the competent body had decided: if it had doubts, it should have reported them so that body could consider reviewing its own decision. It quashed the refusal, declared the right to the visa and ordered the administration to pay €500 plus VAT in costs. The case was governed by the 2011 regulation. Today Article 46 ties revocation of a national visa to the extinction of the authorisation, which the Government Delegation or Sub-Delegation declares after hearing the person concerned (Art. 202).
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.