WaypointSur
Edited by Andrew Lawrence
Six weeks of nothing from Seville
Some weeks ago you applied for the convenio especial — Andalucía's pay-in public healthcare. Since then the post has brought nothing, and the health centre, asked twice, says the application is with Seville and the thing to do is email. The email goes unanswered. You are offering to pay, and nobody will tell you whether they want the money.
The scheme is run by the Servicio Andaluz de Salud — Andalucía's health service. The SAS sells it at €60 a month under 65 or €157 a month from 65, and it buys the core public package: the health centre, the hospital, the specialist. Pharmacy prescriptions and some extras stay outside it.
If your healthcare already comes through a job, a pension or an S1 form, none of this is yours, and the rest of your Thursday is free.
For everyone else: after 30 working days of silence, your application counts as approved. Approval is not yet cover. One letter gets you from one to the other.
Thirty working days
The SAS has 30 working days to decide on your application and tell you, counted from the day after it received it. Weekends and public holidays are left out, so 30 working days is about six weeks on the calendar.
An application received on 28 September reaches day 30 on 11 November, once two public holidays are skipped: 12 October, the national holiday, and 2 November, which was an Andalucía public holiday this year. A local holiday, or a pause while Seville waits on you for something, pushes the date later still.
The date that matters is the one the SAS logged as received. If you posted the application, or handed it in somewhere other than an SAS office, that may be a few days after the date on your own copy. Where the two differ, count from the later one.
Past day 30, silence means yes
Once the 30 working days run out with no decision, your application counts as approved, a point the health centre could have mentioned alongside the email address.
Before you lean on that, look for anything that could have paused the count: a letter from the SAS asking for more documents, a Correos delivery slip for something you did not collect, or a message in your online notifications. A request for documents pauses the count, so an application that looks approved by silence may not be.
A yes is not yet cover
Normally, approval is followed by a contract in the post: the convenio contract. You sign it, pay the first month and send it back. Your cover begins on the day the SAS formally completes the contract, not the day you sign, pay or post it.
Your three months to complete the contract start counting the day after the silent approval. Yes, that means the three months can run while you are still waiting for the contract to arrive, which is the awkward part. If they run out and the delay is on your side, the approval lapses, which is one more reason to have a dated letter on file showing you asked. Nothing in the rules sets a date for the SAS to post the contract. So you ask for it.
On 1 October, we looked at how Andalucía sells public healthcare on a monthly contract and what its own pages leave out.
One letter, through a registry
The remedy is one letter, lodged through a registro — official registry. That way it carries a dated stamp. The routes are the counter at your health district, any public registry office, Correos, or the Junta's online registry addressed to the SAS. Email has already shown what it can do here. Our convenio especial guide walks through every step, from the first application to the contract.
The letter asks for two things: a certificate confirming that your application is approved, and the contract itself with the payment details for the first month. Keep the dated receipt, because it shows the day you asked. From that day the SAS has 15 working days to issue the certificate. That limit is in the rules, confirmed November 2026. The contract has no such limit, so ask for both in the same letter.
If writing that letter in Spanish and lodging it is the part you would rather not do alone, the Navigator service can take it on: our Navigators write and lodge the letter in Spanish, chase it, and go to the district office when the application needs someone standing in front of it. It costs €30 an hour in prepaid blocks, with an estimate before we start, or we point you at someone on the Costa who does this well, free. Tell us what's stuck
Spanish-lite
Two lines, one for the counter and one for the letter itself:
Quiero presentar este escrito por registro — I want to lodge this letter through the registry
Solicito un certificado de la aprobación de mi solicitud y el contrato con los datos de pago — I am asking for a certificate that my application is approved and the contract with the payment details
The bottom line
Our read: if you are past day 30, the deadline for a decision has run out in your favour, and the paper you still need has none. You cannot speed the SAS up, but you can put a dated request in front of it, and the certificate's 15 working days is the shortest clock in this story. Write the one letter, ask for both, keep the receipt. If you would rather we lodged it for you, say so.
Nearly there — A. and the WaypointSur team, with a stamped receipt in the drawer.
