Hi Stacy,

Thanks i received your private message.

I thought i had told you what happened sorry, well someone recommended someone different who does all the paperwork for visas etc, she is not a lawyer but an asesora. They said she is very very fast so we called her.

Anyway she said she would charge 90eur for my residency and 120 for my husbands, she seemed really on the ball so we took our papers(we had 2 copies of everything because our first lawyer still had all of our other papers) she gave us a form to pay the 6,80 at any bank you dont need to have an account there you just pay it with the form and they stamp it and give you 2 copies, the next day we had to meet her at the oficina de extranjeros in Almeria. (you have to do it in person) but she guided us where to go and the forms to fill in.

We only waited 5 mins before someone saw us, i think this lady had contacts there. My residency was done super fast all they do is print something off and you show your receipt that you paid the 6,80 and my passport but i would take the EU residency card aswell. I already had my NIE number but if i needed it aswell they would have done it there and then.

For my husband it only took 10 mins, they needed to see-
my residency and my NIE number
the correct form completed. Im not sure what number it is, i will have to check.
marrige certificate with apostille no older than 3 months.
certificate of empadronamiento (my dad did this for me because we are living with my family, so im not sure what you would have to show to get this if you are renting, i assume a rental contract or something like that).
passport size photo of him
his passport (they need to see the original)
the letter from the british embassy saying that our marrige is reconised in England because we got married in Mexico.

And that was it, we didnt need his birth certificate or a record of his criminal records (certificate of penales) .

They gave him his NIE number straight away(my husband can open a bank account now if he wants with his NIE ) and they gave a website and a reference number to check the status of his papers and that was it. And then we felt like a huge weight was lifted from us. We asked the girl now that he has his NIE number are the papers guarenteed to be no problem and we wont need to provide anything else and she said yes so that was great.

We had been stressing so much about all of this and it wasnt even bad and the people in the oficina de extranjeros were really friendly aswell.
Then in less than 3 months he will get a letter telling him when to go for fingerprints, then after that he can work legally and then 40 days after he will oficially receive his community residence card which is valid for 5 years.

I hope that you understand it all, i know how confusing it is when you are just starting I was the same and people would tell me things and it would make me more confused.

Karen

Karen,

I am more relaxed now that I spoke with the agency that I will be renting the place from and they told me they would not need a NIE to rent the place to me and they could help and get electricity and other utilities either transfered into my name for me to move in without the NIE or they would put in the owners name for a month until I take care of everything. It will give the time I need so much to get the paperwork figured out.

I have a couple questions and hope you can help:

1. My wife has Italian passport (through Grandfather relation) but she was born in Brazil. Doesn’t make sense ask her birth certificate. She has her Italian passport. Any idea what will be needed in this case?

2. We were married in Canada and just registered our marriage in the Italian Consulate in Canada but will take 3 months to get it registered in Italy. I got a certified translation of our Canadian Marriage certificate and I am getting it authenticated on the Minister of Foreign Affairs and legalized on the Spanish Embassy in Canada. Will that be enough?

3. Some people told me to apply straight for the EX-16 (Solicitud de Certificado de registro como
residente comunitario o Tarjeta de residencia de familiar de ciudadano de la Uni?n), others to apply for the NIE first and others for my wife to apply first for the Registro Central de Extranjeros and then NIE for both of us and then register our marriage at the REGISTRO CIVIL DE BARCELONA to then apply for the Residencia.

It’s so many different direction that I am lost. I wrote to 3 law firm and each one point in a different direction. I don’t need to be able to work as I gonna keep work for my Canadian Employer. I can work from anywhere in the world mainly.

Please, I need some advices.

Hi there,

1. Your wife will only need her Italian passport to get her residency, her birth certificate is not neccessary anyway.

2. Im not sure about the marrige registration thing because we got married in Mexico and only registered the marrige in Mexico. (I am british). Then in Spain we went to the british consulate in Malaga and they said you can actually register a marrige but we showed them our apostilled marrige cert and they charges us 49EUR and they gave us a letter that basically says that our marrige is reconised in the UK and legal. The oficina de extranjeros accepted it so im not sure about yours.
Just make sure that the apostille is no older than 3 months old because otherwise they wont accept it.

3. Your wife will need to get her residence first because then you are applying for the community residence as her dependant. She will get her NIE straight away. I applied for my residence first, and then my husband did his papers 10 minutes after and it was fine.  When you hand in your papers you will get your NIE at the same time aswell and they will need the marrige registration letter at the same time so you will need to get the marrige registered before or get the same sort of letter as I did. 
This ia the way it worked in the oficina de extranjeros in Almeria, im sure all the other oficinas should work the same.

The visa you wil get will allow you to work anyway if you dont need to work and its valid for 5 years.

I hope this helps a bit, sorry i dont really know about the whole marrige registration thing.

karen

Thanks a lot Karen. I will follow your steps and will post the results in here. I will go to the Italian Consulate today to see if they can give me a similar letter.

yeah definetly let me kow how you get on.

I was so worried about doing all the papers and that it would take months and months but (touch wood) so far its been very easy.  I just hope my husband gets his papers soon so I can totally relax!! I think im going to have a celebration party once he gets his papers because I was stressing so much about it all!

Hi Karen,

I’ll try to respond to the question you posed in your private message regarding the NIE and the right to work for non-EU spouses of EU nationals. An immigration lawyer that volunteers for the Spanish Red Cross responded to a query by an Argentine who was applying for a ‘tarjeta comunitaria’ which would be what your spouse and I have applied towards.  The Argentine stated he had applied for the card; however, he was told that it would take at least 3 months to receive the card. His questions were: (a) When can I look for work? (b) Can I be enrolled in the Seguridad Social without a ‘tarjeta comunitaria’ (c) What are my rights?, (d) What other measures can I take in my present situation ?

The site where the question and response are possed can be seen directly at the following link:

http://www.migrar.org/asesoria/consultas/foro/?id_consulta=12499

The lawyer responds as following. (I’ll translate to English for others who do not understand Spanish):

With respect to the right to work and WHEN (in theory) one can legally work, the lawyer states the following:

(My translation) Unless your application is to be considered under the provisions for EU nationals because of your descent from a Spanish national or a national of the EU, the Royal Decree 178/2003 clearly recognizes the right to undertake any activity, either as a self-employed person or as an employee of another.  The non-E.U spouses of Spanish nationals or other nationals of other E.U. member states residing in India, and their offspring younger than 21 years of age (or older than 21 years and economically independent), HAVE THE RIGHT TO WORK FROM THE MOMENT they enter the purview of the laws that govern E.U. nationals. 

(Original text) Salvo que tu acceso al r?gimen comunitario haya sido por ser ascendiente de espa?ol o nacional comunitario, es indudable el reconocimiento que el Real Decreto 178/2003 hace del Derecho a desarrollar cualquier actividad por cuenta propia como por cuenta ajena, en igualdad de condiciones que los espa?oles para las personas que tienen r?gimen comunitario. Tanto los c?nyuges de alguna nacionalidad extracomunitaria de espa?oles o de nacionales de alg?n pa?s miembro de la UE que residan en Espa?a, como los descendientes menores de 21 a?os de estas mismas personas ( o mayores de 21 que vivan a sus expensas) tienen derecho a trabajar desde el momento en el que acceden al r?gimen comunitario

***********

My translation) : Even through the right to work is recognized from this moment, in practice, there is a lag-time because in order to enroll a non-EU national in the Seguridad Social, one must have a NIE.  Furthermore, this number (the NIE) is generally not obtained until one’s application under the laws applicable to E.U nationals has been processed.

(Original text) Aunque el derecho a trabajar se reconoce desde ese momento, la pr?ctica lo retrasa un poco, ya que para poder dar de alta en la Seguridad Social a una persona extra-comunitaria, es necesario tener un NIE, y normalmente este n?mero no llega hasta que no contestan sobre la solicitud de r?gimen comunitario.

**********

So, essentially, an applicant is in a no-man’s land until he or she has an official response to the application 😊

😊

:ahhh:  :roll:  😝

rofl, “residing in India” should be changed to “residing in Spain”..

my brain was elsewhere when typing.

😊
bye

Hey,

thanks so much for that and doing the translation aswell.

Im sorry im still a bit confused because you said that you dont get your NIE until the application is processed.

My husband has his N.I.E number already he received it on the day we went to the oficina de extranjeros, he just hasnt given the fingerprints or received the card yet.

What do you think? thanks for your help.

Happy Easter

Karen

Happy Easter back to you Karen,

I went back fishing amongst the legal consultations at the same website and came back with the following situation.  A Spanish national who married a Brazilian national, applied for the Tarjeta de familiar de ciudadano de la Uni?n, and he was given a NIE by the Seguridad Social while awaiting the final approval of the application.

Here is the original link for you to read if you’d like:

http://www.migrar.org/asesoria/consultas/foro/?id_consulta=53996

The question posed was the following: Can the Brazilian spouse work with the NIE that was assigned to him or her while awaiting the outcome of the application ?

(The lawyer answers):
Con el NIE que le han dado, y la solicitud de tarjeta de r?gimen comunitario pueden darle de alta en la Seguridad Social, pero eso no impide que si se detectara alguna irregularidad en el procedimiento de solicitud de tarjeta comunitaria, y se acabara denegando, el alta en la Seguridad Social tendr?a que ser anulada desde el inicio, y por lo tanto, para evitar posibles incidencias, la mayor?a de empresas y empleadores/as prefieren esperar a que este resuelta la solicitud para comprobar en la resoluci?n la amplitud de derechos que confuiere la situaci?n de residente comunitario.

(my attempt to translate)
With the NIE assigned to your spouse, and the application for the card, the applicant can be enrolled in the Seguridad Social, but this does not rule out the possibility of the denial of the card because of the detection of an irregularity. Because of this, the applicant’s enrollment in the Seguridad Social could be cancelled, and consequently, the majority of firms and employers prefer to wait until there has been a official ruling on the application.  This is done in order to confirm that the applicant has the legal rights corresponding to an E.U resident.

************

Which means, I think, that unless a final ruling is made on the application: in the form of a card or some other proof of approval, that one will most likely not be able to work.

Someone mentioned somewhere on another forum that the NIE is just a number that does not reflect your legal right to work.  The right to work is evidenced by another document, like the Card for family members of EU Citizens, etc.

Hope this helped.
Bye
😊

karen301081 - 21 March 2008 01:59 PM

Hey,

thanks so much for that and doing the translation aswell.

Im sorry im still a bit confused because you said that you dont get your NIE until the application is processed.

My husband has his N.I.E number already he received it on the day we went to the oficina de extranjeros, he just hasnt given the fingerprints or received the card yet.

What do you think? thanks for your help.

Happy Easter

Karen

Hi I have been doing a lot of readings in the forum and could not get specific answers,
I was wondering if someone can help.

I not from the EU and am planning to get married with a spanish, we had all the papers ready and applied, so they gave us an interview with the judge after 4 months, the 23rd of June.
anyway i was wondering that after we do the interview and get married, I should be applying for a residence permit to live in spain, i have read somewhere in the forum that we need to have a certificate of empadronamiento to apply, but this is not mentioned in the required documents to have a residency permit! we are applying in Madrid so maybe the certificate of empadronamiento is applicable in barcelona only ? anybody knows from Madrid ?

One other question, does anybody know if its legal to start working just after applying for the residency permit, or should I wait to have this permit to start working, because i am reading that it takes 8 months to have it.
if not is there a legal way or any alternative to be able to work at this time ?

hello i (non eu member living in spain for 2 years )am in a great confusion about marrying my polish girlfriend in spain. can anoyone help me what are the document needed from both parties and what are the detail processes before applying for civil marriage in spain? will my girfriend has to apply for NIE before marraige?i would be greatful if someone could help me? waiting for the nice regards from you people.

Hi Karen,

I went today for the second-step, for the fingerprinting at the Comisar?a de Polic?a prior picking up the card.  I was not given a NIE, I just have to go to the designated office after 30 days in order to pick up my card.

😊

quick update.

Ive been checking everyday for the status of my husbands papers on the website they gave us at the oficina de extranjeros, it has been saying EN TRAMITE’.

Anyway I emailed the oficina and asked about the process of the papers and they said that they were granted on the 10th March, we just have to wait for the follow up letter.

We only handed the papers in on the 22nd Feb so my husband has been granted the visa in about 2 and a half weeks, they also said that because the papers have been approved he can work legally now. All he has to do is go to the oficina de extranjeros and give his fingerprints and then wait for his community residence card.

Everything has been very smooth so far, we are going to the oficina on wednesday so fingers crossed it will be no hassle.

Stacey- I hope you are well, I had a baby girl named Sofia last Thursday and the hospital here in Spain was great!!!

Well my husband went for the fingerprints today in Almeria and it all went smoothly. He just has to go back in 1 month to pick up the community residence card.

In total all a very easy process.

Papers got approved in 2 and a half weeks (and he could work legally)  and my husband arrived in Spain as a normal tourist.

Good luck to everyone.

Hi karen,

This is shilpa from India.I saw ur posts and thought to take some precious advice from you.My husband has come to Spain, Madrid in the month of june end on work permit and is entitled to bare the family expense.I am 3 months pregnant and now we wish to move to spain as soon as possible.Am i eligible for that according to the spanish embassy.Can a pregnant woman who is non resident of spain come and stay with her husband and deliver the baby in spain.Kindly guide us.

Thanks
Shilpa