Spanish Residency Permit

Spanish Residence Permit

As a citizen of Great Britain, or a subject of the queen thereof (I am no longer sure), before the Brexit referendum, my chances of gaining a Spanish Residency Permit were very high. I was an EU citizen, after all. Now, the situation is far less clear, because who knows when that status will be withdrawn?

So, I think that it is best to get my permit before the British government ruins my chance.

In fact, I have been going down that road for the whole of June and July and we are now into August. People told me that it was a simple matter for a European, so what went wrong?

A good question, but the answer is just about everything that could. I have spoken before about the  Catch 22 situation of not being able to obtain health insurance without a bank account and not being able to get e bank account without an NIE (national security number), but you need health insurance to get an NIE. However, there is a way around that problem, if someone wants to help you.

Anyway, I opened a bank account in late July, but wasn’t told that the money I needed to quantify for the permit had to be in it. My money was in the UK. No good, so we had to cancel that appointment with the police for the permit and it was rescheduled for August 11th (three days away).

I went to the bank today to get proof that my average annual balance (saldo medio anuel) is above 5,200€, but after three weeks with 6,000-8,000€ in it, my average is 2,800€. There is nothing I can do to raise my average balance to 5,200 by Thursday, so that means cancelling another appointment. Rescheduling can easily mean a delay of three weeks and that will mean that my wife will have to go back to Thailand, unless we can extend her visa. If she goes back, then I will have to go with her, because she is too insecure to travel long haul alone.

Two return flights to Bangkok and three weeks there to obtain a new visa (like last time) and we are looking at spending about £2,000 in order to have another shot at a Spanish Residency Permit for her.

This really annoys me because I was sure that money was the least of our problems, but as resources flow through our fingers, it could easily be the next issue that blocks our residency in Europe.

And that is always assuming that the British government doesn’t cock it up for us first.

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All the best,

Owen

PS: Update: I got my visa on August 18th, but still had to return to Thailand because it is not possible to extend a Schengen visa past ninety days and, you have to wait three months between applications. We were given some very bad advice by solicitors over there.

Podcast: Spanish Residency Permit