quote:

"... not all board members follow the rules and just renew their international driver�s license or "play dumb" if they get stopped."

Hey!!! I resemble that remark

Actually, this board member has not yet been stopped but has a bit of an identity complex going on. You see, I am both an American and a British citizen but I only have a US license. Oh dear, I am sooooo confused and perplexed I just don't know what I am supposed to do

Saludos,
jer...

well visa update! although once again I want to clarify that this may only apply to someone in my predicament (American/Canadien) married to spaniard. Well I went to the police office on General Pardi�as. Waited in the line etc... I actually needed less than the instruction sheet indicated. I needed:

1 original and 1 copy of the following:

official application
my passport
my husband�s DNI (not passport)
our libro de familia
my visa (to reunite a family)
three passport size pictures.

Luckily this time I had all that and a ton more.

Supposedly they will send me a notice to pick this up in two months and voila I am a resident and I can work (legally).

Hope this helps someone.

P.S. Finally with regard to the driver�s license debate. I am sure I will break down eventually and obtain a spanish driver�s license. I am not worried about the written part but who knows about the driving part ( I mean i may not yell the right profanities at the other drivers or honk enough) :jeje: Seriously though do you have to take a course here if you already have a license from the states. Because I have heard that they are expensive and I am less than thrilled about the idea of driving around with a big L posted in my car.

Chica - you haven't been on the string for a while but I need to ask you a question. I am also married to a Spaniard but now live in the U.S.A. I had an immigration attorney in Spain do some leg work for me on getting some papers together (all of our cert. de matrimonios and libro de familia were lost in a shipment). and the attorney said that all I need to take the consulate in Miami is the Certificado de Matrimonio to start the process.

Does this ring true with you?

Hi TJGuy --

What your attorney says makes sense to me. If your offical docs (libro de familia, etc) got lost in shipment, you should be able to take your certificado de matrimonio to the consulate and they can begin to reconstruct your paper work.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

Maraslattery--

Regarding driving school, I have *heard* (not confirmed) that regulations have changed and you can register yourself to take the driving tests without the backing of an autoescuela, but I am not sure how that is done. When I took the on the road exam, I did it in the "autoescuela" car. Over the next couple of days I will do some digging around to see if I can find confirmation on that.

As far as autoescuela is concerned, I too was bummed that I couldn�t just exchange one license for another. I did the autoescuela route and paid approximately 250� which included three months of classes (unlimited attendance), 7 on-the-road lessons, materials, and exam fees (for both the written and on-the-road). The only thing I had to pay apart was that damned "L".

I hated driving with that "L" in the back window as I discovered it made me a target for those who wanted to abuse those who they thought were new drivers (cut offs, etc). A Spanish friend said just to lie it down in the back (not stuck to the window) and if stopped by the police, play dumb and say that it must have fallen off the window. For a year it worked for me and I was never stopped.

Hey Chica, not to get too off topic but... what does an "L" run these days??? (�).

Saludos,
jer...

p.d. By the way, the "L" is not for "Learner" but rather "LEPE" :jeje: :jeje: :jeje:

I think I paid either 6� or 9� for the "L"... Can�t remember.

Ok, this thread talked about some of this stuff... so my husband is from Colombia and I am from the US. We both live here, ummm, illegally (not because we want to but because the govt is officially on my shit list and has denied my papers AGAIN and hasn't responed about his yet BUT we are not focusing on that because we are trying to go the us anyway).. now, to get to the point, we are doing paperwork for an immigrant visa for him in the US..everything was going SO SMOOTHLY... and one of the papers we now need is from the police dept in Spain saying he has done nothing bad (which he hasn't).. antecedentes penales..ok.. so we go to the place and they say that since he entered illegally they can't give him the certificate but he should go to his embassy and they send someone to do it.. so he calls his embassy and they say they won't do it cause he entered illegally and doesn't have a visa here. ok, i don't want to talk about the stupidity of beaurocracy or our desperation/depression.. we just want to live legally and happily ever after in some country that accepts us (preferribly the us!).. so my question, does anyone know how to get around this? We need a document from the police in Spain saying he has done nothing illegal or some way to make the US govt understand we don't have that..someone, somewhere out there must have been in the same situation once?????? Beaurocracy is killing us, paper by paper........................... Luckily, luckily, I am an optimist and am sure that we will get through this somehow..

ok, nobody ever responded to this one but i just wanted to let you know if anybody is in the same situation ever.. if you need antecedentes penales from spain for the us embassy but can't get it because you don't have a visa to be here legally, you can get a certified paper (on c/san bernardo, where they do the antecedentes penales) saying that they can't give it to you. This way the us embassy can contact them directly for your information to find out that you haven't committed any crime here in spain.... this may seem like bollocks but it's helpful and you need to know it because the person at the information desk there will tell you there's no such thing, but there is... so that's one solution.

thanks julie!!! that will surely help others in the future.

i am guessing that the "(on c/san bernardo, where they do the antecedentes penales)" is the central info office of the ministerio de justicia at san bernardo, 45 (metro "noviciado") - http://www.mju.es.
please correct me if i'm wrong.

always good to give exact addresses if possible since san bernardo is a pretty long street.

saludos,
jer...

So..way back at the start someone was asking about a US citizen marrying an EU citizen (non-Spanish) and moving to Spain.
I think.
Anyway, that describes me. I plan to apply for a "reunite the family" visa in NYC in September, soon as my UK-citizen husband gets his required Residencia.
Can anyone tell me if my Reunited Family Visa allows me to work in Spain? If not, what must I do to get that clearance?
Rebekah