I’m a Singaporean nationality and recently got married to a British national in Gibraltar end of July this year. My husband works in Gibraltar and lives in Spain. I have a Working/Holiday Visa for the UK and have been flying back and forth visiting him in Spain.

What action do I need to take to live with him legally in Spain?

Is it true that I have to apply for a family reunification visa for Spain? If I do, can I apply for it whilst I’m in Spain through a lawyer? Or can I apply for it in the UK instead of flying all the way back to singapore?

My husband will be applying for a NIE and Residency card soon and I understand that will take a long time to process.

Any help or advice will be very much appreciated.

kind regards,
Alina

After sending the first post, I did a bit more search on the internet and I came upon this website.

http://www.conspainmiami.org/Visados/REGFAMEU.htm

says on the top page:

Residence visa to reunite a family member with a Spaniard or a Citizen of the European Union resident in Spain

As of the 16 of May 2005, citizens of the following countries do NOT require a visa to establish residence of family regrouping with a member of the European Union in Spain:

ANDORRA, ARGENTINA, AUSTRALIA,  BOLIVIA, BRAZIL, BRUNEI, BULGARIA, CANADA, THE CZECH REPUBLIC, REPUBLIC OF SLOVAKIA, SOUTH KOREA, COSTA RICA, CHILE, CYPRUS, EL SALVADOR, ESTONIA, GUATEMALA, HONDURAS, HUNGARY, ICELAND, ISRAEL, JAPAN, LATVIA, LIECHTENSTEIN, LITHUANIA, MALAYSIA, MALTA, MEXICO, MONACO, NICARAGUA, NORWAY, NEW ZEALAND, PANAMA, PARAGUAY, POLAND, REPUBLIC OF CROATIA, REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA, ROMANIA, SAN MARINO, SEYCHELLES, SINGAPORE, SWITZERLAND, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, URUGUAY, VENEZUELA, HONG KONG(SAR), MACAO(EAR) and citizens of THE EUROPEAN UNION.

I’m a bit confused. Does this mean I don’t need to apply for any sort of visa and that I can apply for a Residency with my husband in Spain?

I believe that means that you still have to show proof of your marriage, but perhaps that you don’t have to apply for the visa de reagrupacion familiar.

That’s surprising though, and confusing. When you find out please let us know what the situation is!

Hello.

My husband is currently waiting for a reply from a lawyer in spain. WIll let you know how that goes:)

hi Expat,

Looks like things are not looking too good for us here. I called a Gastoria in Estepona and told her where I’m from and if it was possible for me to apply for Residency here in Spain. She said yes, no problem, all I and my husband needed was to get certificate of Empadronamiento and go to her office afterward to get this done and over with. My husband took an off day and we were told we would get the Empadronamiento within one day. As it turned out, we needed to wait a few days because of some documents I needed to proof of my Change of Name in my passport, which was fine.

Anyway, after a morning out on the road getting this Certificate done, we decided to go back home and called the Gastoria office to tell her we couldn’t make it on that day and wanted to make an appointment for another day. Out of the blue, I decided to ask her the same Question I asked from the very first call. ‘I’m a Singaporean, I just want to confirm you can do this for me.’ At this point, she told me to wait and went to check. When she came back, she told me I needed to get a visa first. But I’m already in SPAIN! I don’t need a visa to enter any EU country. We decided to leave it at that.

I called the Spanish Consulate General in Edimburgh, told them exactly what happened and I have lived in the UK for 2 years (but not a resident there) and now married to a British citizen and was wondering if I could apply for a Reunification visa there and the guy told me to send them an e-mail. I sent an e-mail with my questions and all the reply I got was, ‘Please send us your address’ and I replied with the full address. A day later, I received an application form to apply for a Schengen Visa of which I don’t need at all.

Since my Visa is expiring soon for Spain, we have decided to let this apartment go (not fulfilling its 11 months contract) and move to Gibraltar. We have found an apartment and will be moving in in less than a week time. Looks like it’s easier to get things done in Gibraltar as my husband works there and we have visited the Immigration Department about applying for a residency there.

We were upset but not angry about all these. Maybe in the future, things will look up a bit more as we do intend to reside in spain for a few years in the near future.

kind regards,
Alina

Hmm, sorry to hear about all that. It’s so typical to get vague and uninformative responses from consulates these days… 😉

Glad to hear it’s worked out with moving to Gibraltar instead. Next time though I think you’d just need to do the normal visa de reagrupacion and you’d be set.

Sorry for this late response. If your husband can show Spanish residency for more than one year with a one year more of validity, he just can apply for family regrouping.