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BREXIT

Residency in Spain for UK nationals: Can a lawyer fix application problems and speed up the process?

Several of our British readers have contacted us to say they're having problems getting their residency in Spain, and questioning why there are so many delays. We’ve spoken to several lawyers to find out what most the common residency issues are, how to correct them and why getting legal help might speed up the process.

How lawyers can help with residency issues in Spain
Pascal POCHARD-CASABIANCA / AFP

Gerard Martínez from Balcells Group in Barcelona explained to The Local that the vast majority of residency problems they are seeing now involve foreigners not knowing the best path to residency and not being sure about what their options are.

Most British people who weren’t able to settle in Spain before December 31st 2020 are unaware of how they can legally gain residency in Spain now, he told us.

Mark McMillan from Sun Lawyers in Alicante on the other hand said that most of his clients were those still trying to apply for their TIE residency cards. “If a British citizen obtained their padrón certificate before the end of 2020, the door is still open for them to submit a residency application under the Withdrawal Agreement,” he told The Local Spain.

“But problems arise when people do not provide enough evidence of legally residing in Spain before the end of 2020,” he explained. McMillan added that the padrón certificate is the most widely accepted form of evidence.

READ ALSO: Empadronamiento in Spain: What is it and how do I apply?

But what about those who did not get their padrón certificates for whatever reason before the December 2020 deadline?

Diego Echavarria from Fairway Lawyers in Marbella told The Local that the majority of their time is currently taken up with applying for appeals for those people who have had their residency applications rejected, specifically for not providing enough or the right kind of evidence. 

“The most common rejection reason I see is because people did not have medical health insurance in Spain issued before 2021,” he explained.

“Or maybe they were asked to send extra documentation as proof that they were living here before 2021 and they didn’t,” he said.

Echavarria went on to explain that many British people were trying to apply for residency whilst they were still in the UK and were not actually legally living in Spain at the time, so are therefore not covered under the Withdrawal Agreement.

“Many of these people don’t qualify and get rejected,” he told us.

READ ALSO: How much money do Britons who don’t fall under the Withdrawal Agreement need to move to Spain?

“Documents such as rental contracts do not work as evidence because of cases such as these. You must prove that you were physically in Spain by providing evidence such as transport tickets, mobile phone contracts, credit card receipts from petrol stations, and receipts from supermarkets and restaurants,” he explains.

Photo: PHILIPPE HUGUEN/AFP

“The first thing I do when I get a new client who is having issues with gaining residency under the Withdrawal Agreement, is ask them to provide me with their bank statements over the last six months, so we can get all this paperwork together”.

READ ALSO: Brexit Q&A: What happens if I didn’t register as a resident in Spain by December 31st?

Why are the residency applications taking so long to be processed?

“There are several reasons, but basically all are related to Covid,” explains Martínez.

“First of all, during the first months of lockdown in Spain, the Spanish administration had trouble reorganising itself and figuring out how to manage all the procedures that were carried out in person before. That generated the severe delays that we are still seeing now,” he tells us. 

“Furthermore, due to all existing restrictions, it is harder to get an appointment to get your residency card, hence the whole application process lasts longer”. 

As well as the pandemic – public servants falling ill or having to work from home – Echavarria believes that many of the delays were caused by the fact that everyone was trying to apply or exchange their residency cards at the last minute, all at the same time, and that authorities didn’t have the resources to keep up with the demand, creating a huge backlog in applications.

READ ALSO: BREXIT: What Britons need to know about visas for Spain

So how long are residency applications actually taking to be processed right now and what can you expect?

Martínez from Balcells Group says that on average, residency applications for his clients are taking between three to six months to be processed from start to finish.

Echavarría from Fairway Lawyers agrees, saying that his clients average around four to five months to get their residency cards. “It takes around two months to be approved, then you have to wait and arrange your appointment for fingerprinting, followed by waiting for another appointment to pick up your card when it’s ready,” he said.

Can getting legal help sort out these issues and speed up the residency process at all?

“Yes, we have a tried and tested system to be able to assist our clients to obtain their TIE cards,” says McMillan. “Our law firm has extensive knowledge to assist residency applications and we speak multiple languages, allowing for the process to go more smoothly,” he adds.

“At our office, we try to devote as much time as needed for the client to fully understand all the options they have, and then, after analysing their situation, we devise the best possible alternative to help,” explains Martínez.

“Yes it definitely speeds things up, not only because foreigners save a lot of time when it comes to knowing what documents to prepare and actually preparing them, but also because we submit all applications online through a platform enabled by the Spanish government, which is just for lawyers,” he adds. “We also know how to get appointments faster, even during these times”.

Echavarria tells us that hiring a lawyer can definitely help because they know all the correct paperwork to provide with each application and exactly what evidence to gather, from lots of experience. “Getting a lawyer can also help avoid rejections and having to go through an appeal,” he explains. “But most lawyers cannot help speed up the actual process once the application has been submitted,” he warns, saying that it will still take four to five months to get the residency card in your hand.

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GIBRALTAR

UK soldiers expelled from Spain after crossing from Gibraltar posing as tourists

Spain has expelled four Royal Navy servicemen who crossed the Spain-Gibraltar border on foot three times in a single day while dressed in civilian clothing, with Spanish media claiming they were checking the porosity of the border.

UK soldiers expelled from Spain after crossing from Gibraltar posing as tourists

Spanish police expelled four British soldiers from Spain on Monday night, removing them from the country and sending them back to Gibraltar after it emerged that the four Royal Navy personnel had entered Spain illegally while “posing as tourists”, as the Spanish press has reported.

The incident comes a week after the British Navy carried out military drills in the waters surrounding Gibraltar, the British overseas territory that Spain still claims sovereignty of, and amid the seemingly never-ending negotiations between Spain and the UK to finally settle a post-Brexit deal.

READ ALSO: Gibraltar Brexit deal ‘close’ as Brits crossing into Spain use fake bookings

The expulsions, now reported in the Spanish press by Europa Sur and confirmed to El Periódico de España by official sources, occurred after the four soldiers arrived in Gibraltar on a civilian flight and entered into Spain. They also had return tickets via Gibraltar.

They then reportedly passed themselves off as tourists and entered Spain on foot, staying at a four-star hotel in La Línea de la Concepción, the town in the Cádiz province of Andalusia that borders Gibraltar.

Stranger yet is that they crossed the border at La Línea on up to three occasions in the space of a few hours.

READ ALSO: What Brits need to know before crossing the border from Gibraltar to Spain

Spanish authorities detected their presence because two of the soldiers tried to return to Gibraltar at night.

At the border, Spanish police officers enquired as to the reason for their entry, to which the soldiers replied that they were on their way to work and brandished British military documentation.

The police decided that their entry into Spain had been irregular because they did not meet the Schengen Borders Code requirements demanded of non-EU citizens entering EU territory.

According to Europa Sur, Spanish police then asked the two soldiers to call their colleagues in the hotel in order to collect their luggage and return to Gibraltar, which took place at midnight on Monday 18th March.

The Spanish press has stated that it is common for soldiers to try to stay in Spanish territory by concealing their military status and entering while posing as tourists.

The motive for the soldiers’ presence, particularly their repeated trips across the border, remains unknown.

The military drills in the area seem to suggest that the soldiers may have taken part in or be due to take part in further exercises and wanted to enter as tourists.

Spanish media also suggests that they could have been testing the porosity of the border, though these claims remain unsubstantiated.

Gibraltar’s post-Brexit status still remains unresolved. The EU and UK government are now onto their 18th round of treaty negotiations after the framework agreement between London and Madrid made on New Year’s Eve 2020 essentially ‘fudged’ the border issue, leaving Gibraltar’s status within the Schengen area undefined.

Spain’s Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said in late-2023 that “we are very, very close” to finalising a Brexit agreement.

“I would sign a deal with Britain over Gibraltar tomorrow,” Albares told journalists at the time. Yet no agreement was made, despite the Minister’s positivity, nor the appointment of former UK Prime Minister David Cameron as Foreign Secretary.

Albares’ comments came at a time when it was reported in the Spanish press that many UK nationals have been using fake hotel bookings in order to try and bypass the Schengen rules and trick their way through border checks.

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