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My spouse and I are looking to holiday in Spain. I'm a UK national and she is a Chinese national so needs a visa. We have been researching visa requirements and one thing that has cropped up is that a no objection letter is required. My wife is self employed as a piano teacher and as such we don't have any way of meeting the stipulated requirement which is as far as we can see:

For self-employed workers: copy of trade license, accountant letter and last year proof of paying taxes.

We have the following issues with this:

  1. She doesn't need a trade license to be a piano teacher
  2. Her turnover is low enough and business expenses almost non-existent so she doesn't use an accountant to file her tax returns

Additionally, she won't be paying for the holiday, I will - can I use my own bank statements to meet the financial requirements?

For clarity - we both live in the United Kingdom and she is on full leave to remain with a BRP.

Hope this is clear enough - but really appreciate any help any of you may be able to give us. Many thanks!

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    In many countries, to be able to provide any service, you need to register your business, file returns, pay taxes, etc. That is definitely the case in the UK. If she hasn’t done that, she is not self-employed, she is unemployed or a housewife.
    – jcaron
    Jun 4 at 21:55
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    @jcaron In the UK you can be a self employed sole trader without having to register a limited company. I know this because I did it for many years. As I mentioned in the original post, she files tax returns as a self employed sole trader and not as the director of a limited company. She is therefore not unemployed nor is she a housewife. We can provide tax returns - we just cannot provide a trade licence (as one does not exist for her line of work) nor can we provide an accountant's letter or a letter of no objection.
    – jb_11216
    Jun 4 at 22:12
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    “Letters of no objection” are usually for people who are employed, where the employer says it is OK for the employee to leave for the given time. More common in countries like India than in Western Europe, though.
    – jcaron
    Jun 4 at 22:40
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    I had a similar (though non-identical) issue (was applying through the French Embassy in Bahrain for a Portugal Schengen visa), where I was simply unable to meet the requirement that asks for an employment certificate as the company I worked for simply didn't have one (and more crucially, I was remote). We had no choice but to give up, as our attempts to clarify this with the embassy were not fruitful and we did not want to risk a visa rejection.
    – Leaderboard
    Jun 5 at 4:12
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    Applying as a spouse of a British person is probably better proof of intention to return to the UK than is someone with a very small-scale new business with little profit (such that she'd lose nothing if she didn't return). Hence applying as a housewife would be more pleasing to Spanish immigration.
    – Stuart F
    Jun 5 at 9:22

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