Hi, I am English currently living in USA. I want to return to Europe and live in Spain. We are hoping to do this in 8 months and am confused, I am not sure if we should get married here in USA or if we can wait until we get to SPain. Also not sure what our first steps should be as far as my American Fiance to allow him to get into Spain. Should I apply first - do I need to or can I just go to Spain and then apply then? We have tried calling the Spainsh Consulate in Miami but we are unable to get a reply. Any information would be a great help. Thanks

Hi wrm11268, (multimadrid)
Although I have some ideas about your visa/residencia questions I will restrict my comments to your fiancé. (by the way, congratulations). My wife and I are Yanks who have been through the process as well as twice through the renewal. I would recommend your fiancé start the visa/residencia application process sooner rather than later. He needs to apply before coming over, not after. I will give you a very brief outline of the steps.

1. Obtain the appropriate visa/residencia application for your situation from the consulate. Often requires several trips, faxes, and emails. Multiple contacts may be required because the staff are known to provide erroneous information. (I was sent on a number of time consuming and costly wild goose chases.) As The Nanny mentioned in one of her responses, you must be able to prove to the Spanish Government you have an income before arriving i.e. employment, pension, interest from a savings account, etc.
2. Either before arriving or soon after contact a Spanish attorney to help you through the residencia process. (Once it comes time for renewal you will know the ropes and can save considerable money by doing it yourself rather than hiring a professional.) This process will require several trips to a National police office, not the local one. You will turn in your documentation, return weeks later to receive a document which you will take to a bank and pay an inexpensive fee, return to the police station and turn in the “paid” statement. Several weeks later you will be notified to come to the police station and provide two identical passport photos and be fingerprinted. You will be instructed to return in 45 days to pickup your residencia card.

This all sounds fairly straight forward. Don’t bet on it. Each visit to the consulate or the police station can take anywhere from 10 minutes to two hours, the latter more common on this side of the pond. Also, it is not unheard of for paperwork to be lost. My last renewal took four months. My wife’s took eight even though we turned the original documentation in at the same time.

Final recommendation is to be persistent, patient and bring a book with you when you pay them a visit. Is all this worth the hassle to live in Spain? Absolutely. I enjoy living in this country. Hope this helps.

I think wyrm's situation is different... She is an EU citizen, so I believe she has to establish residency in Spain first and then apply for a "reagrupación" once they are married. I believe it's called: REAGRUPACIÓN FAMILIAR EN RÉGIMEN COMUNITARIO. You can see info about it here about halfway down the page in part "B":

http://www.mae.es/Consulados/Lima/es/MenuPpal/Visados/V...iar+con+comunitario/

Once this is approved in Spain, I think your husband would have to get the visa issued in the US at whatever consulate is closest to his last address (if he went with you to Spain, he would need to go back to the US to present his papers and get the visa pasted in his passport). I don't think there is anyway to do this before you are in Spain since you aren't a Spanish citizen nor a resident.

It is just ridiculously easy to get married in the US... In many states, it takes about half an hour from start to finish. It requires a lot more waiting and bureaucracy in Spain. If you do get married in the US, make sure to get it certified/apostilled at the same time. You'll need the apostille to make it official in Spain.

Hello
Thank you so much for your replies.
We just spoke to the Spanish Consulate here in Florida. We were told that if we get married here in USA and get the certificate certified/apostilled then we will be able to move to Spain and my husband will be able to work (after going to the local police station) because I have a UK passport. This seems very easy and makes us happy but I am a little worried that we may have been given the wrong information. We called back again and spoke to another person and they said the same thing. Do you think they are making it sound to easy because we do not want to go there and then have to travel back to USA - we are bringing a dog with us (which has its own issues - taking dog into UK first and then going to Spain)and dont want to keep taking him back and forth.
Again thanks for your help so far

Hi, I'm a UK citizen married to an Argentinian - we're researching moving to Spain and what paperwork is involved.

As I understand it, when you are both in Spain your American then Husband can apply for the "TARJETA DE RESIDENCIA DE FAMILIAR DE CIUDADANO DE LA UNIÓN EUROPEA" details of which can be found here: Ministerio del Interior. It doesn't APPEAR too onerous: Your husband will need to fill in the application form, their passport, a marriage (probably translated and apostilled) and the fee, which I seem to remember is the princely sum of €6.80. Compare that with moving to the UK £500 for a spouse visa, then 2 years later £750 for Indefinte leave to remain - which you could then follow with £655 for naturalisation...

Can anyone confirm that this information is correct, thanks.

I am an American married to an Englishman, and we married before we came to live in Spain. We arrived on the usual ´tourist´ visa, applied for our NIEs within a few weeks of arriving here, using a friend´s address; we received our NIEs within a week. (this was up in Lugo, Galicia, btw. Madrid takes longer!) With that document we were able to open a Spanish bank account, which opened a lot of other doors.

From there we got a place to live in Palencia, a Spanish-registered car, etc., my husband applied-for and received residencia as a UK national, and I subsequently applied for residencia as his non-EU wife.

The residencia obviates the need for the expensive hassle of a visa, as it can be used like a USA ´green card.´ I´m told this is perfectly legal and even preferable to some agencies.

It´s been a really long and complicated road, but it´s worth it!

Rebekah