Hi from Madrid, everyone!

I already have a “residencia permanente” card and have been living and working in Spain for many years (I think I might even qualify for nationality at this point)

But now I have gotten married to a Spaniard, and coincidentally my permanent residence card is about to expire.

So, my question is, what am I supposed to do to renew it: renew it as if nothing had happened at the same place where you would normally renew a permanent residency? or go to the special office for ‘residencia comunitaria’ and get the residency on the basis of that?

My concerns are: a) if I get residencia comunitaria, will it no longer be ‘permanent? in other words, if anything were to happen to my spouse or we got divorced, could i lose the residency? (with the permanent residency i know i would not).
b) am i REQUIRED to get residencia comunitaria since i am married to a spaniard?

of course, i have called the numbers they provide to make an appointment and turn in the papers and they don’t answer the phone. you are supposed to send in an appointment request by FAX and then they call you when they have an appointment time to offer you… amazing! so they could call me at any time from now to never and i have to be prepared to say which of these two options i want. 

thanks for any help, i can’t find any information on this anywhere!

The different residencias depend on the way you originally applied and the original visa you had.  So basically, if you go for residencia comunitaria now, you’re starting the whole process over again.

I have residencia permanente and am married to a Spaniard, but would not go to comunitaria or citizenship because the only difference is that they allow you to vote.

One important thing is not to let your residencia of any kind expire.  Renew the permanente first, then see about applying for the comunitaria.

thanks for the advice, rubi

i re-read my post and realize there is some ambiguity. my problem in getting an appointment is for renewing the PERMANENT residency (they simply don’t answer the pseudo-phone number 913228570 ever, i’ve used skype to try literally hundreds and hundreds of times on different days… and i did send in the faxed request for an appointment, but according to foreign friends, they simply never respond to the fax either!).

for the COMUNITARIA residency, they do answer the phone and gave me an appointment for late October, so i may take that route if the other route simply never comes through. i can’t renew the permanent residency if they will never give me an appointment to do so!!!

this is all complicated by the fact that our honeymoon was supposed to be outside of the EU, and now i am afraid to leave, since my permit will have expired by then… what i’ve been told is that leaving the country is fine, as long as you have the ‘resguardo’ showing that you’ve turned in your renewal application. but since nobody will even let me turn those papers in, i can’t get one!...does anyone know if there is some other sort of document that shows that you have not yet turned in the application, but are attempting to through the long appointment-getting process??? i suppose having an entry and exit stamp in my passport in the midst of all this process would complicate matters even further, huh?

anyway, ?nimo to everyone out there. it is absurd that we have to go through this after living here for sooo many years and already being completely integrated into spanish society.

rubi995 - 24 July 2008 01:27 PM

The different residencias depend on the way you originally applied and the original visa you had.  So basically, if you go for residencia comunitaria now, you’re starting the whole process over again.

PS, regarding this: although i would be “starting over again,” i assume i wouldn’t need the initial visa since i am already here legally… having to go home for the visa would really be the only annoying aspect if forced to ‘start over’, no? plus, my understanding is that the ‘residencia comunitaria’ lasts five years, even the first time you get it… so in practicality, i can’t see much difference between having my second 5-year residencia permanente compared to my first 5-year residencia comunitaria.

aaarrrgghhh! thanks for any and all help, this is so frustrating!