It’s been a busy couple of days since the new ruling regarding British citizens who wish to register as residents in Spain under the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement was published last Saturday. We’ve been speaking to National Police stations, with Foreign Office departments and provincial headquarters.
The new process
The Spanish Government has set out a new, two-stage application process for British citizens to apply for the new TIE style residency card. British citizens who currently hold an EU style “little green card/A4 paper” (certificado de registro de ciudadano de la unión) pass directly to Stage 2 of the process.
Stage One: New applicants only
First-time residency, applications can be made either at the provincial Foreigner’s Office, online using a digital certificate or via a legal services representative.
Its worth noting that the new law states that once the application has been submitted, the authorities have a maximum of 3 months to respond.
On receipt of the application and supporting documents, the Office will issue either a resolucion favorable document, accrediting your right to move onto Stage Two or a requerimiento document, requesting further documentation. If they ask for further documentation, you’ll have 10 days to present it.
Stage Two: Current residency cardholders and new applicants who have had their application approved
To qualify for Stage Two, you need to have either a:
- EU style residency card (certificado de registro de ciudadano de la unión)
- Resolucion favorable (as mentioned above)
At this stage, you’ll be able to process the new TIE card at your local National Police Foreigners Department. Once the application has been made, the card will take around a month to come through.
The new law published in the BOE states that British citizens with the current EU residency style card have no obligation at the moment to exchange them for the new TIE style card, though many are choosing to do so and appointments are readily available now in most areas.
We are in the process of contacting all of our current clients and informing them of how the changes will affect them and their residency application, and we are also starting new applications for both stages 1 and 2.
If you would like to know more about getting a residency from scratch (stage 1 and 2), or you already have an EU residency style card and wish to exchange it for the new TIE style card (stage 2) you can book a call or contact using this link https://upsticks.es/book-a-call/