If you, or anyone you know have been granted a retirement visa for Spain - or if you have advice of any kind on this subject! -  I would be eternally grateful for your response!!!

I am American married to a Spaniard and we have 2 children. My (American) parents are now retired and want to move to Spain close to their only child and grandchildren, and they have been trying to apply for residency visas - unsuccessfully - for the past 10 months through the Spanish Consulate in San Francisco. Apparently their first application was rejected, though they were not informed of this and after several attempts to get an update from the Consulate they were simply told to reapply with no further explanation.

I know from my own experience with Spanish administration how difficult it is to successfully navagate Spanish bureaurocracy: it took me 1 year trying on my own plus 1 and 1/2 years after I hired a lawyer before I finally managed to get my first work permit / residency card. And the only reason I believe I was successful at all was that the lawyers had the benefit of experience and knew exactly how to demonstrate that I met all the prerequisites and qualified for the visa I was applying for.

We have contacted lawyers on both sides of the Atlantic, but unfortunately it seems to be unlikely that we will find a lawyer either side with experience in retirement visas - not only are the requests for such visas uncommon, but also the applications have to be submitted through the Spanish Consulate in the U.S. so spanish lawyers are unlikely to have any experience (as several law firms here have already told me) and would be unable to intervene on our behalf, and likewise an American lawyer would not be familiar with Spanish law & administration.

So now I am trying looking for the next best thing: someone who?s applied and has been granted a retirement visa! HELP?!?!?

Visa and Residency Information for Spain

Cut and pasted from http://www.internationalliving.com

NOTE WE CANNOT ACCEPT ANY LIABILITY FOR ERRORS OR OUT OF DATE INFORMATION WE SUGGEST YOU CHECK THE ABOVE
WWW FOR ANY UPDATES.

  An Overview of Spanish Visas and Residency

U.S. citizens can visit for up to 90 days without a visa.
If you wish to remain in Spain for more than 90 days, you must obtain a
visa/residency permit from the Spanish embassy, or your local consulate
in the U.S. before you come to

Spain. At certain (unspecified) times, a limited number of visa
applications will be accepted each day, on a first-come, first-serve
basis. You should try to be at the embassy/consulate office before 8.30
a.m.

    Retirement Visa

You can apply to live in Spain as a retiree, providing you don?t intend
to work. To apply for this visa, the following requirements must be
submitted to the Embassy in person, and by previous appointment:

? Passport valid for a minimum of six months, along with three
photocopies of the personal information and photo page

? Money order for $100 to cover processing charge

? Four recent passport-size pictures

? Original marriage certificate, and a photocopy (if applicable)

? Certificate of good conduct issued by the police department of places
where you have lived for six months or more during the past five years,
along with a Spanish translation, and one photocopy

? A medical certificate printed on a doctor?s letterhead, verifying that
you are free from yellow fever, cholera, and the plague, and drug
addiction, and mental illness, along with a translation into Spanish,
plus a photocopy

? Original certificate of a public or private institution, stating that
you receive a pension, and specifying its monthly amount (the annual
minimum is $10,000, increased by $1,700 for each dependant), plus one
photocopy

? Proof of any other source of income and/or properties in Spain, plus
one photocopy of each document.

Processing your application may take up to six weeks.

also see:
VISAS INFORMATION

LEGAL STATUS OF NON-EU CITIZENS IN SPAIN

http://extranjeros.mtas.es/es/general/Folletos_informativos.html

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Hope that helps.

Hmm, Rob, are you saying our visa page doesn’t have all of that plus more?

Sorry boss! I assumed (bad move) they had looked and needed more.

No problem. Good to know other resources anyway. But indeed I believe our main visas page covers that entirely, plus more.

Hello to both (Rob and the Expatriator) - I really appreciate your responses, thank you, but I?m familiar with the high level description of the pre-requesites; the problem is more often than not knowing exactly what kind of documentation the Spanish Government will accept as proof of compliance!
I?m really hoping that I might be able to find someone who has successfully gained this type of visa (retirement) so I can benefit from their actual experience…including whether their application was rejected, were they informed, how long did the application process actually take, etc.

Well then I’ll leave it open to someone who’s been there (as I have definitively not yet arrived at that point in my life where this is an option).

Anyone?