quote:

The new problem is that I need to prove that I will have health insurance in Spain.

This means health insurance that will cover you while in Spain, so it doesn't necessarily need to be Spanish insurance, but any kind of health insurance that will cover your health expenses while you are in Spain. Our students are required to have insurance too (if not by the consulate, then by us) and this can even mean that one of their parents' work insurance will still cover their expenses while abroad. The way this usually works later is that once in Spain you go to private medicine, pay in cash or credit card and then send the receipt to your US (or whatever country) insurance and it refunds your expenses. The lazy moron at the consulate could have probably explained this, but hey, you better start getting used to the "funcionario" work ethic.
Anyway, if you do want to get Sanitas your best bet will be to call them, for sure. Good luck.

quote:

and they are still Spanish through and through (with a little cuban thrown in for good measure)

Wow being a Cuban who has lived in Spain for almost 12 years, that strikes me as a very scary combination.
Good luck getting your visa and keep us posted.
Lena

brilliant Lena!!!

mariposa can get a policy back in u.s.a. before she leaves that will cover her in spain. then when she arrives, she can get spanish insurance (1,000,000,000 times cheaper) and terminate the u.s. policy.

sound feasable?

saludos,
jer...

Thanks Lena, that's a good option--I wonder if our current insurance would do the trick... I'll admit, given my past traumatic experiences in the Spanish bureaucracy, I'm afraid to give them any excuse at all to not allow us in...

To hedge my bets, I also found an English guy in Madrid who arranges Sanitas insurance, mostly for expats. Night and day there on the responsiveness.

He said that there is a workaround for paying via a bank account (by calling in a credit card number) and suggested that I start the coverage a month before I arrive so that I could get the documents in time to apply for the visa. For a family of three it will be around $100 a month (vs. the almost $800 a month we pay now).

The website is a little confusing, but there is a lot of information here:

http://www.e-agentelocaldeseguros.com/Healthinsurance.htm

His email is davidharris@wanadoo.es

Another day, another trip to the comisar�a. This time I strayed from my own counsel and arrived there on a Friday at about 11:45 AM. There was no queue outside and about a five minute wait inside.

Handed over my forms, and a photocopy of my passport, my visa, evidence of my enrolment, my health insurance, and my financial support (a "certificado de saldo" from the bank). She stuffed them all in an envelope and told me that I'd hear back from them in the post in about two months. Didn't have to supply any photos. That comes later, she said.

I spoke to someone else from the university who's already been through all this and she said that in her case she had to wait much more than two months, perhaps because her application overlapped with the Christmas holidays. She said after the long wait she had to go in and get her fingerprints taken and finally they issued her with an NIE. So will report back here in a couple of months to see if my experiences coincide her hers!

marisposita, i have seen that guys ads in a few of the ex-pat newspapers here, always wondered if he offered any decent service.

thanks again Greguito...

quote:

I spoke to someone else from the university who's already been through all this and she said that in her case she had to wait much more than two months, perhaps because her application overlapped with the Christmas holidays.

that brings up a new possible problem. since it is now may, if you do not get yours by the end of june, perhaps it will not come through until sept. due to the summer july & augusts slow down here (slow down is an UNDERSTATEMENT!!!).

i am curious to see how long it takes them.

saludos,
jer...

Ah, the health insurance saga continues. I can't get the letter from the Sanitas guy until the policy starts... So I may need to pay for at least a month of coverage that I will not be able to use (doubling up with my current insurance). I'm going to see if my current insurance will do the trick for the visa before I do this. This is fun... [REVISIONIST NOTE: I ended up just getting a letter from my current insurance broker, see post below for details]

Greguito, you should get that NIE by the time you're going back home... What happens if a person on a student visa neglects to get their NIE and student residency? Not sure I'll have the energy this summer to wrangle with the bureaucrats.

The process of getting my criminal record (or lack thereof) for the visa from the DC government was unbelievably absurd. My favorite moment was when I went to pay to have my record "authenticated" (which means they slap a gold sticker on it). It cost $10. The man who went before me paid with $10 cash. I went up to pay and only had a $20 bill. She lady behind the counter told me that she could not make change. I very sheepishly and hopefully pointed out that the previous guy had paid with $10. She didn't budge (or just refused to do the math) and directed me to go back down 8 stories and out to the hotdog vendor on the street for change. It had taken me 20 minutes to get through security to get into the building and I was with my toddler at naptime, so I just gave her the $20 and told her to donate the rest to charity. Sigh.

mariposita, love the change story :jeje:

quote:

Not sure I'll have the energy this summer to wrangle with the bureaucrats.

if you are referring to those in madrid, not to worry, you won't even get the chance. the only way you could possibly end up fighting with (or seeing for that matter) the bureaucrats here is if you go to the beach in Alicante and end up stepping on their beach towels/blankets by mistake :jeje:

saludos,
jer...

quote:

the only way you could possibly end up fighting with (or seeing for that matter) the bureaucrats here is if you go to the beach in Alicante and end up stepping on their beach towels/blankets by mistake

Ha, so true. It's so sad how the bureaucrats here have to be nasty and unhelpful all year round with no extensive vacations. Viva Espa�a!

Greguito--
A couple of questions about your registration at Complutense...

When you got your certificate from them for the Visa, had you paid your tuition in full?

Or had you just paid a deposit?

If you paid in full, did you pay for the entire year or just the first trimester?

We just got our certificates today and I have a feeling that we are going to have a problem, because it explicitly says that we haven't paid the tuition in full...

Regarding insurance, my current insurance rep agreed to write a letter saying that our insurance will cover us in Spain. I think this will do the trick and we will be able to start Sanitas in July when we arrive...

P.S. Good god--I just found out that I have to go all the way to Richmond (from DC) to get my son's birth certificate authenticated. He was born right across the river (never again!!). I don't even own a car, so that means I have to rent one so I can drive 100 miles to get a gold star. This process is starting to drive me insane...

quote:

originally posted by mariposita:
[qb]When you got your certificate from them for the Visa, had you paid your tuition in full?

Or had you just paid a deposit?

If you paid in full, did you pay for the entire year or just the first trimester?[/qb]

I had paid the first trimester in full, but it wouldn't matter if I hadn't, because the embassy would accept it either way. It's standard procedure at the Complutense to only open up enrolment immediately prior to the course, so it's often not even possible to pay far in advance, even if you want to.

In my case, the courses after this trimester, I haven't paid for them yet and nor can I. They're simply not ready to accept enrolments and payments yet.

So you won't have any problems with your certificate because this is definitely the standard procedure.

Thanks Greguito--

That is a huge relief! One other question... did your certificate say that the course was 15 hours per week? I noticed that you mentioned 20 hours in a previous posting.

P.S. How do you like the classes so far?

quote:

originally posted by mariposita:
[qb] Thanks Greguito--

That is a huge relief! One other question... did your certificate say that the course was 15 hours per week? I noticed that you mentioned 20 hours in a previous posting.

P.S. How do you like the classes so far? [/qb]

The certificate said something like "15 compulsory hours per week and up to 10 additional optional hours". In the case of the (Australian) Spanish embassy, they didn't have any problems with this. I am sure that the (US) Spanish embassy will be the same; they probably see these Complutense-related applications all the time.

Can't really complain about the classes so far. The professors definitely know their stuff.

quote:

The certificate said something like "15 compulsory hours per week and up to 10 additional optional hours".

Ah, they left off the part about the 10 optional credits on our certificates. I'm planning on turning in our forms this Friday...we'll see if it makes any difference.

We went to the Spanish Embassy in DC today with our dossier of papers (I have never in my life been more well documented). Perhaps all of my neurotic and obsessive preparation paid off, as they accepted everything without a single question and told us to check back in two weeks (though she said it may take up to a month to process).

Now, just to show that I'm crazy, I feel nervous that they accepted everything so easily... Do they ever reject applications after they have accepted the paperwork and put their official stamps on everything?

Once I have the visas in hand, I'll thoroughly document the whole process here... just don't want to jinx it yet.

Also, funny story (well for me, not for the protagonist). As I was waiting at the counter, a man came in to file his paperwork for a visa. He had come from Raleigh, NC. He only had a plane reservation, and had not yet bought the actual tickets. They would not process his paperwork until he provided the actual tickets. He said he didn't want to buy the tickets until he knew he was getting a visa and that their website hadn't mentioned anything about the tickets (which is true). A battle of wills ensued, and escalated with much debate for at least 15 minutes. I was getting nervous, because I was next in line. Another window opened up and a different woman took our papers. At the end, I realized that she hadn't asked for my tickets. I asked her if she needed to see them and she just waved me off and never even glanced at them. The other guy and the woman behind the counter had irreconcilable philosophical differences--no tickets, no visa.


P.S. Big thanks to all. I really don't think I could have made it this far without the moral support and nitty gritty details on this site. You guys helped me to save me a lot of money and time and this thread has been like group therapy for me during this process. Just let me know if you need anything from the US (I'm coming the first of July)--I'd love to repay your kindness.

Ok, so I got a letter from the police yesterday, less than a month after lodging the last batch of forms. Looks this will be one of the last steps to get the "Tarjeta de Extranjero". The letter reads something like this:

quote:

En relaci�n con su solicitud de Autorizacion [sic] de Residencia, y a fin de confeccionar la Tarjeta de Extranjero, en virtud de lo dispuesto en art�culo 52 de Real Decreto 864/2001, de 20 de julio, y con los efectos previstos en el art�culo 53 de dicho Reglamento, deber� presentarse en esta oficina sita en MADRID, CALLE GENERAL PARDI�AS NUM. 90, el d�a [the date of the appointment], a [the hour of the appointment], aportando la documentaci�n que a continuaci�n se indica:

The appointment is a few days from now. The list of things I have to bring is:

• La presente citaci�n
  
• 3 fotograf�as tama�o carnet, en color, con fondo blanco (si procede)
  
• Pasaporte, C�dula de Inscripci�n o Documento de Viaje en vigor
  
• Resguardo de la solicitud
  
• Residencia anterior (si procede)
  
• Justificante de ingreso de la tasa de expedici�n (Mod. 790), por importe de 5,26 euros
  

You pay the money at your local bank. I did it across the counter at my local Caja Madrid branch. You just fill out the form (it comes in triplicate), pay the money, the bank stamps it and prints some receipt text onto it, keeps a copy, and returns the two remain copies to you:

quote:

LUGAR DE PAGO

A trav�s de ENTIDADES COLABORADORAS (Bancos, Cajas de Ahorro y Cooperativas de Cr�dito), en las que no es peciso tener cuenta abierta, mediante la presentaci�n de este documento de ingreso