Hello,
I am a US citizen currently in Shanghai. In mid-September, I will begin a 2-week intensive Catalan course at the Universidad de Barcelona followed by a 5-months-long internship at a research center nearby, with financial sponsorship from my American university. By the time all this was settled, I was already in Shanghai but learned that the Spanish Consulate here only issues visas for Chinese citizens or foreigners with a residence permit (which I don’t have since I’m in Shanghai for just a few weeks). The law is that I cannot stay for longer than 90 days in a 180-day period without a visa. I’ve contacted consulates, looked at official websites, asked my host centers, but am no further along. The ambiguity is compounded by the fact that my course is only 2-weeks long and the internship takes up the bulk of the time (so is a student visa really justified?) Common sense tells me that since I won’t be taking away paid work from a local, and since this is still part of my training as a student, a student visa should be appropriate.

In any case, I need to obtain some kind of visa in order to stay in Spain for 6 months continuously. SO, can I apply for it in Spain? 

Any advice would be really appreciated.
Thank you!

Hello. I have also been accepted to the University of Barcelona for the 2011/12 year and was wondering the same thing. I applied very late to the university (early July) and barely made the admissions cut. I was accepted into my program but cannot obtain a formal letter of acceptance from the UB until the faculty of my program received certain documents of mine in order to obtain the authorization of the president since I am a foreign student. Since I need that acceptance letter to apply for my visa, I can’t apply until the staff of the university return from vacation. I need to get to Barcelona by August 29 for the Catalan course so my plan was to just return to the US and pick my visa up and return to Barcelona. The lady in the consulate office in NYC was pretty clear that my only options were to just wait for the visa (which could potentially land me in Barcelona after classes begin) or just go and then return to obtain the visa so I am assuming there is no way to obtain a temp student visa or get it there?