"The only normal people are the ones you don't know very well."
Posted
Hi all,
Just got my Schengen Visa from the US, based on my marriage to an EU citizen, which is great! Now I have the priviledge of trying to apply for my tarjeta de residencia and NIE. Assuming I manage to get that done and accepted :jeje: , I still have to wait 3 months or more to actually get the card.
The woman who gave me the visa told me I couldn't leave the country again until I have my tarjeta. Is that true? I have my husband's family reunion to attend in France in 3 weeks, and we'll be traveling there and back by train. Anyone know if this will be a problem and/or if there are special permissions you can apply for to leave the country if you have a stamped residence card application? Any difference if it's train travel versus plane?
Fabrizio, I didn't know you HAD to get a spanish driver's license especially if you have no intention of driving.
However, I've not been troubled at car rental places when I've presented my american driver's license with my passport. Now I've not been stopped by the po-lice yet so....
Anyway, can one just apply for an international driver's license instead of a spanish one?
Posts: 289 | Location: Madrid via DC via Mexico via ... | Registered: 01 August 2003
No, international driving licences are not valid for residencia holders. But unless the system is wildly different on the mainland to the Canaries, you have one year from date of residencia to get your Spanish licence, if you own and drive a car of course! If you just want to hire a car then I am sure the US licence backed up by passport is completely okay!
________________________________________ Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional
If you use a foreign credit card and have an international drivers license, then the rental company shouldn't pick up on you being a resident, and they will rent you a car. However, if you get in an accident and it is serious, the police will pick up on it.
I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.
Posts: 652 | Location: Mostly from Miami, FL. - Born in San Remo, Italy | Registered: 30 April 2004
Juliette- sounds like we may be in the same boat here, albeit with a few twists.
I got my Spanish (not Schengen) residency visa in Hong Kong and the consulate there told me that I could transit through another Schengen country (i.e. France) on my way to Spain but once I set foot in Spain, I shouldn't leave until I got my "tarjeta de residencia," and I should do that within 90 days of arriving in Spain. My visa is valid for exactly 90 days.
I got here in May and still don't have the tarjeta. I've been a couple of times to the comisaria in Calle Madrazos, 9. The last time I went (about six weeks ago) they told me that to even submit the application for the tarjeta, I needed to have an appointment. They give you a phone and fax number to contact to arrange the appointment. The phone number is impossible- I must have tried 30 times a day for 10 days, it's always busy. I sent a fax, then a week later, I hadn't heard anything yet. That was when I decided to take my chances and just join the log queue. Same story- couldn't even get in the building without an appointment. When I told them I'd faxed the week before, they told me that on average it took them three months to call people back and give them appointments. I then told them that my visa was expiring in August, and they said that as long as I kept the fax transmission receipt showing that I did send in the request for an appointment, I was legal, and I had nothing to do but wait for the call back. When I asked whether I could leave the country, even for another Schengen country, he said that if my visa was a single-entry one (which it is), no, but I could travel freely in the Schengen states once I got my tarjeta.
Aargh! Not the most helpful answers. In previous trips to Germany, France and Spain, I used to get multiple-entry tourist/business visas valid for the Schengen states- that's what it said on my visas. This time around I got a single entry visa valid for Spain only, allowing transit through the Schengen states.
You may want to double-check if your visa is a single-entry one, and if it's valid for Spain or Schengen states. I would guess things are more lenient for US citizens, or spouses of EU citizens, than they are for Filipinos- with us, Spain tends to be very, very paranoid. (I need a visa to ENTER Spain for any reason, while you don't- so maybe that's another reason for you to be able to leave and come back.) I decided against going to the Eurocopa in Lisbon for this very reason- didn't want to get stuck outside Spain. The only good thing is that being stuck within Spain's borders for several months is not such a bad thing at all...and for as long as I don't have that tarjeta I can go on using my foreign driver's license...
Hope this helps.
Posts: 132 | Location: Manila | Registered: 28 February 2004
Just to follow up, I can indeed travel between Schengen countries despite my one-entry Schengen visa. Perhaps as Sunny said, it depends on where you are from originally?
Also I highly recommend the immigration office at General Pardi�as during August. No appointments needed, no lines, cheerful staff (relatively), better experience overall than any of the ahem...many...other times I have been there.
________________________________________ Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional
jejejeje, i was about to say that madsue did not log off the board on that computer at puerta de toledo but i did not know you used that place too jules (then i remembered about your dsl changeover).
that is too much :jeje:
madsue, you should alwasy log off the board afterwards if using a pc that is not your own or your risking identity theft :jeje:
- rent or buy a cell phone from me for your stay in spain, more info at 
- already have a cell phone, get a spanish SIM card for it at 
Oh dear!!! That could be happening all over Madrid then :b: . I presumed that once the money run out I was logged off!!!
