Spanish Visa

Spanish Visa

The Dreaded Spanish Visa (part 502)

Published by Owen Jones on 13 January 2017
The Dreaded Spanish Visa (part 502)

The Dreaded Spanish Visa (part 502)

The Dreaded Spanish Visa (part 502)

If you have not been following this tale of abject misery, it started in December 2015, with no emails to the Spanish Embassy in Bangkok receiving an answer. In May 2016, an embassy official told us not to bother going for the 180-day Schengen visa (for spouses of EU citizens), but just to apply for residency when we got there.

That didn’t work, and my wife had to leave, suffering a nervous breakdown in the process. Anyway, we tried again in November, for the same visa, and were told that we were ‘missing a few documents’. It has taken us two months to get them, so I applied for an interview yesterday. I was told that short-term visas of 90 days’ duration were available from a subcontractor. ‘No’, I replied, ‘I want the long one’.

Their reply was: ‘We don’t know what you want, and don’t think you do either’.

How sodding rude is that?

They added that they can only grant 90-day visas, but that is not what they said in May and November last year. It seems like they are just trying to wear us down until we give up. However, if that happens, or our money runs out trying, my wife and I will be separated by 11,500 km… and perhaps for ever.

It has made both of us cry several times, and, as I said before, affected my wife’s mental health. If it wasn’t so important for one of us to maintain a grip, I would go over the edge soon as well.

So, we have an appointment for the twelfth, and processing takes ten to fifteen days. My visa, which cannot be extended again, expires on the 23rd, which gives us a day’s grace.

I’m afraid that the future is not looking rosy and I am worried that that might push my wife over the edge again.

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All the best,

Owen

Podcast: The Dreaded Spanish Visa

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Back to Square One

Published by Owen Jones on 19 September 2016
Back to Square One

Back to Square One

Back to Square One

As some of you will know, I tried to fulfil my twelve-year-old promise to my wife during the summer and move us to Europe to live. We were both looking forward to it, and I was sure that I had done enough research to make it work. However, when we arrived, I sought the advice of a few expats and hired a solicitor to help me obtain my residency permit. As a member of an EU country, I am entitled to one, so long as I show that I can support myself. When that has been granted, my wife is allowed to live with me, again, so long as we can support ourselves.

The solicitor agreed and we set the wheels in motion. I was advised that it would take three or four weeks. My interview was scheduled for six weeks later. However, the day before it, it was realised that my paperwork was not in order. The next appointment was for a month later. That went the same way. We now had ten days to get both our permits. I got mine a week before my wife had to leave, so we left together.

We are now back in our Thai village, back at square one like in a real life game of Snakes and Ladders – a very costly one. My wife took the who affair personally and it has made her ill. The problem, said the solicitor was that our marriage had not been validated.

However, a couple doesn’t have to be married! Partnerships have the same rights as married couples, so there was absolutely no need at all to have to leave. Now, though we have to wait three months in order to reapply. We are both as sick as dogs about how this has turned out, but I have not had to see a doctor, my wife has.

Does anyone have any advice on the matter? (Only serious replies, please, I’m not in the mood).

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All the best,

Owen

Podcast: Back to Square One

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