10 months ago I got married to my Spanish partner in New Zealand. It was so easy, paid the fee, sumbitted the document and bam, a legal union. We returned to Spain in March this year due to his work after being misinformed on various sites that I was able to apply for visas from Spain…

Once we returned I was told that I am only legally allowed to be here for 3 months on a visitors visa. I have managed to get around this by flying to the UK every 3 months and haven?t had any trouble, touch wood.

An embassy worker told us off the record that we could send our documents to NZ and get them sent onwards to the Embassy in Canberra, therefore ?pretending? we were in NZ. This worked and 4 months later we received our Family Book. (but only after calling them to follow up on the process and being told ?oh yeah, it?s been sitting on my desk, i?ll send it tomorrow?) It?s something you get used to living here. Not a nation for the impatient! (e.g. it took 2 weeks for the notario to stamp the photocopy of our passports - and only becasuse we had to go in twice to remind them that they were sitting on his desk!)

SO NOW…... We?re in a bind. My husband wants to move to the UK, he?s currently in the interviewing process for some great jobs. Because I have a Family Book but no official visa, should I apply for a spouse visa in Spain or the UK? Is it more or less the same thing? I?m prepared to stay in Spain while he works abroad if it makes me legal but I?m not sure how to go about it. We are considering finding an agency that does the work for you but all of the ones i find online or in this forum seem to say ?US and Canadian residents only?.

Any recommendations for agencies or advice on how to approach applying for a spouse visa would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Angela

Hi Angela,

I’m an Aussie married to a Spaniard, it’s a bit different because we got married here but I hope this helps.

As far as I understand it the Spanish residency is not the same as “European residency”. That is, even if you have it in Spain it doesn’t mean anything in the UK. For example, I have Spanish residency but if my husband got a job in the UK I could go with him but I would have to apply for UK residency once there in order to stay.

As far as getting Spanish residency “the NIE” for me it was a case of taking the family book, passport and some other docs to an office, with the forms them giving me an appointment to go to the police to get fingerprinted etc and then waiting for the card. The process took a couple of months once we had the first appointment to show the family book. (I wrote a post on it a while back http://www.spainexpat.com/spain/forum/viewthread/2791/).
By the way, I was told that it can take 2 years to get an overseas marriage recognised here so you getting your family book already is amazing!!

Also, we were told by an immigration lawyer that once you have started the process you are in a sort of legal grey area and you can’t really be kicked out. Actually she told me to avoid travelling because it made it more likely to cause problems.

Best of luck!!

Antipodean,

Thanks for your reply! It sounds like I can apply straight away… The problem is that although i have been leaving Spain every 3 months and getting my passport stamped, I haven?t been staying out for longer than 3 months which means I?ve technically been illegal since July… I understand you had the same experience but avoided travel. With our Family book we should be ok but Just so i?m clear, without a current visa am i ok to apply for an NIE? My husband seems to think I need a visa in my passport first (I have empadronamiento). Sorry for all these questions, I?m a bit tentative about an upcoming trip and don?t think we have enough time to apply beforehand (the last time we tried to get photocopies verified by a notario in Matar? he took 2 weeks!)

fingers crossed

hello,

They don’t actually put any kind of visa in your passport. They just give you a card (with your husband’s full name and DNI on the back!!). You get the number (NIE) when you go to the police station and with that you can work. It’s just that the card itself takes a month or so to be ready.
Based on the advice I got it’s not a problem to apply if you are not exactly legal (you should talk to a lawyer if you’re unsure but this is what a lawyer told me when we did ours). My visa ran out before we got married and it wasn’t an issue for us. Also, we didn’t have to get anything notarised, we just took photocopies and the originals (but the rules seem to be different town by town!).

One more thing, if you’ve been fingerprinted and got the number but don’t have the physical card yet you need to get an “authorisation to return” if you want to travel - this allows you to leave and reenter spain without problems (I put something about that in that other post too).

?moltes gr?cies!

That information saved the day and cleared up a lot of confusion. - you rock!

I have been married to my husband who is a Spanish citizen. We got married in the U.S 2 years ago, so I have the Certificate of Marriage in English. I bought a one-way ticket to Spain since he already is there and am in Australia at the moment. If I provide copies of his passport, our Libro de Familia, and DNI this should be fine for one-way travel?