"The reason I talk to myself is that I'm the only one who's answers I accept."
Posted
According to the portero of my building as of yesterday, Nov. 14th 2006, there are a new number of police on the streets of Madrid who's mission it is to check on your immigration status and permission to be here.
This may be true as I was stopped yesterday after lunch by the police and asked for my documentation and told to keep my hands where they can see them. This may have been because of the new law or effort or maybe because of the suspicious looking person I was having lunch with.
Anyway, be sure to keep a photocopy of your documentation on you when walking around Madrid as you could get stopped and asked at any time. I say copy of your documentation as there is too much pick pocketing and theft going on here on the streets of Madrid to advise carrying around your originals.
[Madrid Rooms: Furnished rooms in flats with shared kitchens & bathrooms.][Spain Directory: Your Spain Yellow Pages.][ Sponsored by: www.madridinsider.com: Free Madrid & Do it Yourself information.]
Posts: 881 | Location: Madrid | Registered: 08 November 2002
maybe because of the suspicious looking person I was having lunch with.
i resemble that remark
i was with Rocco at the time and it was an interesting experience indeedy.
they asked uo for our "papeles" and when we handed them over (Rocco his spanish ID card and me my residency card) they asked us to step out of the main pedestrian street and stand near the wall of a shop (for the firing squad?). when they told us to keep our hands out of our pockets i got a bit worried but they called in our names and ID numbers and after asking us what nationality we were (to which i responded for both of us, saying i was a u.k. and u.s. citizen and Rocco was half spanish and half american), they returned our IDs and sent us on our way.
noteworthy was the fact that half way through the ordeal the original 2 cops turned into 5 as they must have called for backup seeing as me and Rocco are so muscular and intimidating
Rocco had been at a casting earlier that day and was wearing a sweat-suit and he does look a bit on the morrocan side. that may have been why they stopped us in the fist place, it is the only thing that i can think of.
This story is a bit disconcerting. I wonder if my fairly respectable appearance and age (early 60s) will protect me from these types of police "inquiries". At least I'll be legal for my first three months in Madrid while on my tourist visa - I must remember to take photocopies of my passport, et al. with me while I'm out on the town or even running errands in the neighborhood.
Marsha
Posts: 78 | Location: Back in the States, in a boring suburb near Philadelphia | Registered: 08 July 2006
Sure, I read your message, but the idea of being temporarily "detained" by the police is still a bit upsetting. I do appreciate your words of assurance and have no plans of changing my plans to move to Madrid in about two months .
MO
Posts: 78 | Location: Back in the States, in a boring suburb near Philadelphia | Registered: 08 July 2006
That is going to be an interesting scenario indeed, but if I am not mistakened, new EU country citizens will have to wait a while before moving to and working in already existing EU countries. I could be wrong, but the people who are already in Spain from the two countries that you have mentioned, it seems to me, will have it much easier in Spain.
Saludos,
Shawn
"Wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down" - SONG OF SOLOMON, Toni Morrison
Posts: 1252 | Location: Richmond, VA but in MADRID now | Registered: 10 February 2002
I am pretty sure that the new EU countries for 2007 will do the same thing as Poland and Czech Republic and other Eastern countries did. The majority of the people with the ability and skills to work and that want to make cash will go to the UK and the less savory and / or less skilled folk including many criminals and other low lifes will come to Spain.
[Madrid Rooms: Furnished rooms in flats with shared kitchens & bathrooms.][Spain Directory: Your Spain Yellow Pages.][ Sponsored by: www.madridinsider.com: Free Madrid & Do it Yourself information.]
Posts: 881 | Location: Madrid | Registered: 08 November 2002
less savory and / or less skilled folk including many criminals and other low lifes will come to Spain.
...on second thought, I'm going to take my own advice on a previous thread and disengage...
About the general topic of the crackdown: I find this disconcerting, to say the least. I wonder what might have happened if you hadn't had a good story and the expired residency card.
Posts: 1067 | Location: Madrid | Registered: 10 December 2002
I wonder what might have happened if you hadn't had a good story and the expired residency card.
what do you mean? i did not give them a story, jsut told them the truth.
i really do not think they would have done jack if i had not had id on me. perhaps follow me home and make me show it to them but i have a feeling that just telling them i was an american citizen would have been enough.
i have seen cops MANY times in the rastro area on sundays asking foreigners for their papers. normally the foreigners are arabic and or eastern european and do not even speak spanish. time after time i observe the cops just give up trying to make them understand that they cannot be here without papers and then just give up frustrated, leaving the foreigner with a verbal warning (which they do not even understand). the subject/s in question simply walk away, nodding their heads in affirmation when you know they have no clue what the cop was saying (or at least they fake that they don't understand).
what do you mean? i did not give them a story, jsut told them the truth.
That's what I meant, that you have every right to be here (on several levels, UK citizen, husband of Spaniard, long-term American resident), so it's easy for you to satisfy any questions they might have. We know a lot of less-than-legal Americans and other non-EU people who could easily fit into one of "profiles"--so it's a bit troubling to contemplate...
Posts: 1067 | Location: Madrid | Registered: 10 December 2002
- 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 
.
