A good friend of ours, an American woman living in Barcelona since September, was just put in detention today in London for traveling from Spain with an over-extended Visa (over 3 months). She was going to visit friends there for a week. She is being shipped back to Barcelona (at least they're not sending her to the US) tomorrow morning on the first flight.

Thought you all should know.

Juliette and Roland

ouch!

saludos,
jer...

Did she have Residencia? The folks at my Internationals office tell me I don´t need a visa if I have my Residencia card, but I hear these things and still wonder...

rebrites, i may be wrong but if she had residency, they would not have detained here and sent her back to barcelona.

as jules said, she was simply over her 3 month legal stay as a tourist. jules said "visa" but i am sure she did not mean an actual visa but rather an entry stamp in her passport which is what americans get.

if they sent her bac to spain, she must have been totally illegal.

jules?

saludos,
jer...

quote:

Did she have Residencia? The folks at my Internationals office tell me I don´t need a visa if I have my Residencia card, but I hear these things and still wonder...

You can cross that one off your list of worries. The way things work in Spain, the visa is only valid for the first time you enter (or for multiple entries during a finite timespan). You don't renew it once you have residency. Once you apply for residency, this supercedes the visa. As long as you keep renewing your residency, you'll never need a visa again. If you let your residency lapse, you might have to go back to the US and get a new visa (though after three years of residing in Spain, that isn't usually necessary, either, as long as you can prove arraigo).

I know I wrote about this in another thread and actually, I am not sure it is the case of your friend, but yes, London is a bitch if you are here illegally past the three months tourist visa on your passport. why?

both times i went to london i got interrogated on the way back and nearly missed my flight. not by immigration officials, by the airlines. once easy jet, once argentinean airlines. i couldn't understand why the airline cared at all, so i did some research and here is what i posted before:

technically, if you fly into spain and spain says no, the airline is responsible to send you back where you came from. the cheapie airlines do not have funds set aside (or insurance) for this type of repatriation so they try to minimize their losses by being hardass on your legal status.

the first time this happened to me, i can't remember what caused them to let me board. the second time, it was my sanitas card. they took that as proof that i lived here.....so, the question is...was j and r's friend detained by immigration directly or did it originate with the airline and then go to immigration.

i've been flying back and forth from the US on an expired tourist visa for 5 years and never once had a problem. in the us, they just check to see all is hunky dory with your docs and not to see how many months you've been over your visa (though I guess they legally could) and in spain...well, half the time they don't even glance at my passport, just stamp and EL SIGUENTE!

Totally agree with Candy. The Brits are real bit***s for this kind of stuff, it's funny but I have gotten interrogated by them too, but before being allowed IN when I'm arriving from Spain. They always want to make sure that I have a return ticket to Spain or something, as if I would want to ask for assylum in their country or something. And yes, I was born in Cuba but I travel with a US passport and a valid Spain residency card. I find it very annoying and obnoxious on their part. What's the word for someone with an overlarge superiority complex? Really, I like London just fine, but wouldn't trade it for Madrid or many places in the US for anything.
Juliette, keep us updated with your friend and with what happens when she gets back into Spain, will they let her in? Legally Spain could deny her entry but the questions is if Spain is also cracking on this kind of stuff. Good luck to her.
Lena

Hi all, sorry been AWOL the last few days. She was stopped at the immigration booth after getting off the plane and was taken directly into detention.

She was sent back the next AM and fortunately, got into Spain with no problems.

We hear England is cracking down and all, and she shared a detention cell with 5 others in the same boat (but not all from Spain), so it seems to be their current hobby.

who wants to go to dreary old London anyway, when you´re already in SPAIN?