Spain spouse visa for non EEA citizen, British husband.

[rm1982]

Hi,
I am a british citizen currently living in spain and doing business. My wife is a pakistan national with the UK ILR. We also have our three year old son who has British passport. Right now my wife is in pakistan. She has been there for 13 months to look after her poorly mother. I understand that my wife need schengen visa to join me and I obtained information to apply at Spanish embassy in Islamabad, but they said application process may take upto 2 years to complete!!!!
Now im planning to have my wife and son fly over to the UK and then my wife applying for visa at Spain consulate in manchester. I have looked into this option extensively and have prepared all the documents but i only have two questions and that is that could there be an impact on my wife's application outcome because she has not been living in the UK for over a year (surely as her passport will be stamped on arrival in the UK, it will be obvious to know how long she has stayed out of UK). Secondly, one of the visa requirements is that we will need to show airline booking, so how many days or week's gap should i consider between applying for the visa and the flights.
I will really appreciate if any one canclarify.
Thank you.

[ban.s]

Yes, you wife will need schengen visa to join you but usually takes couple of weeks - not years. By EU law, consular authorities must take a decision on short term visitor visa within 15 days.
I don't see any reason for her to fly to UK and then apply from here. Let she apply from ISB with supporting documents presuming she would be directly travelling from there to Spain.

Once in Spain she will need to apply for residency within 3 months of arrival.

https://www.gov.uk/residency-requirements-in-spain

[rm1982]

Thanks for replying.
Thanks also for suggesting to apply from Pakistan but as I have now booked flights to the UK for my wife and our son, We will be applying through Spain Consulate in Manchester.
My question regarding the length of stay outside UK is still unanswered and I will really appreciate for someone to reply if you know the answer please.
Also, they are asking for flight tickets and return dates to be entered on the application form. But, as my wife will be joining me permanently in spain, what should i do about that issue?
I understand that now there is a process in place to apply for spain visa via vfsglobal service and direct appointments to consulate are no longer available. On vfsglobal website, they only provide information about tourist visa but my specific circumstances are not covered. I sent them an email but never got a reply.

[ban.s]

Length of stay outside UK should not have any issue as she holds ILR and presume has UK address.
Return date can be left blank as she would be travelling to join you there. or perhaps can write 'travelling to join EU/EEA spouse'

[rm1982]

Length of stay outside UK should not have any issue as she holds ILR and presume has UK address.
Return date can be left blank as she would be travelling to join you there. or perhaps can write 'travelling to join EU/EEA spouse'

Hi ban.s, Thanks for your post.
I have since contacted the Consulate of Spain in Edinburgh to get a clarification on my situation. Here is an email that I sent them followed by their response, Please can someone advice me if they are giving me correct information because to me, they are going on about some lengthy process (not to book flights!!) but EU law instructs them to process the application as soon as possible (I've read somewhere in 15 days?).

My email to he consulate;
De: xxxxxxx [mailto:]
Enviado el: xxx, xx de diciembre de 2014
Para: . Con. Edimburgo
Asunto: RE: Visa for the Spouse of British Citizen living in Spain

Hi,

Thanks for your reply earlier.

As I explained in my previous message to you, I am exercising my treaty right by living and working (business) in Spain and I am a British Citizen. Just to clarify, My wife will be joining me in Spain on permanent basis along with our 3 year old son who is also British National.
On the application procedure and the application form that you have referred me to, there is a requirement to provide information about the return flights to Uk along with the duration of stay in Spain. But, I need my wife to join me in Spain so that we can live as a family and send our child to school etc. Does she still need to apply under TOURIST catagory? if so, then what should we mention under the Duration of stay section?

I look forward to your reply soon.

Many Thanks

reply to my emamil by the consulate.



Dear Sir

We have sent you the information in regards to a tourist application, since you were not very specific and since your wife has an Indefinite Leave to Remain in the UK. Since she can not have two valid EU residencies at the same time, we understood that she did not want to surrender her residency in the UK.
However, if she wishes to do so, and if she still wants to apply for a Residency in Spain, you can find the information in regards to residency Visas on the attachments.
She still needs to book an appointment though.
Regards

Here is the information attached with the email;

CONDITIONS OF APPLICATION FOR DEPENDANTS OF EUROPEAN UNION NATIONALS:

1. Two visa application forms fully completed and signed by the applicant at the bottom of the page.

2. Two recent passport size photographs with white background.

3. Passport with a minimum validity of 120 days and photocopy of the whole passport, minus the blank pages.

4. Passport of the European national moving or living in Spain and photocopy of the pages with the relevant information.

5. Original Marriage Certificate, or Birth Certificate in the case of ascendants and descendants. In cases where documents are not from the EU the Hague Convention Apostille will be required together with a translation of the documents, proving that the ascendant or descendant is a family dependant. Photocopies will be required of all the documents.

6. The EU national should have financially maintained the dependant relative for up to one year prior to the application.

Please note that a Police Certificate or “Certificado de penales”, stating that the applicant does not a have a criminal record might be exceptionally requested under certain circumstances either by the Consulate or the Spanish Police upon arrival in Spain.

Please DO NOT BUY your travel tickets.

A copy of the application form together with all the original documents will be certified by this Consulate General and returned to the applicant.

These documents will be necessary when applying for family reunification in Spain.

The visa will be issued will be given free of charge and will enable the holder to apply for Family Reunification in Spain.

Please note that holders of this visa when in transit to Spain are still subject to immigration control at the point of entry by any other Schengen member country.

[ban.s]

Your wife will initially need to apply for short stay visitor visa as a spouse of a EEA/EU citizen and then once arrived in spain need to apply for residency (information provided in the earlier post).

Take a look here
http://es.vfsglobal.co.uk/Manchester/ee ... uired.html
http://es.vfsglobal.co.uk/london/eea_do ... uired.html

The consulate has asked the same documents as mentioned in the above links. #6 is not applicable as it's for dependent relatives not for spouse or children.

Though the email says not to book ticket but that that doesn't mean it would be a lengthy process.

[rm1982]

Your wife will initially need to apply for short stay visitor visa as a spouse of a EEA/EU citizen and then once arrived in spain need to apply for residency (information provided in the earlier post).

Take a look here
http://es.vfsglobal.co.uk/Manchester/ee ... uired.html
http://es.vfsglobal.co.uk/london/eea_do ... uired.html

The consulate has asked the same documents as mentioned in the above links. #6 is not applicable as it's for dependent relatives not for spouse or children.

Though the email says not to book ticket but that that doesn't mean it would be a lengthy process.

Thanks again ban.s

We will submit our application in few weeks.

[rm1982]

Hi again,
Here is an update on my situation and I hope this information helps out someone out there who might be facing similar circumstances as me.
As you can read from my initial post, I am a British Citizen and now LIVING in spain. I should also mention that in order for me to do my business in Spain, I had to apply for NIE number (Kind of a unique number like we have National Insurance number in the UK). I also applied and received 'Foreigner's Card'. Its a green coloured card that states my nationality, address in spain along with other basic details but it is without my picture on it. I think its important to mention because this card was helpful at the airport.
So basically i needed to have my wife join me in Spain as she is a Pakistan national with the UK ILR. Whoever I asked and got advice from they said that my wife needed a visa to enter spain. In theory it is true but i tried our luck and with some carefully thought out explaination at the airport, we were able to board the flight. Here is how it went;
I booked a flight with Jet2 from Leeds Bradford to Alicante on a SUNDAY. This was important because i personally think that Alicante airport in Spain has least active immigration staff!!! First i thought i will not book any checked bags so we do not have to go to the checkin desks and will proceed direct to security, but when i printed my wife's boarding pass, it stated 'Visa Check' on it, which meant we were supposed to go the the checkin desk anyway, so its worth booking you checked luggage as you wish because you cannot proceed straight to the security if you have a passport that requires visa.
Once at the checkin desk, the lady asked general questions about baggage weighed it and then issued boarding passes for me, my wife and our son. This was encouraging as she never asked about visa and as we had boarding passes now, i was hopeful that visa will not be an issue. She then told us to go to the customer service desk of Jet2 to have my wife's visa checked (Finally!). At the customer service desk i handed over all our three passports. The lady checked the details of my wife's passport on the computer and then called her colleague over, I could hear them confirming among themselves that my wife do need a visa as shown on their computer screen. At that point I started to explain to them that I was living in Spain and working, I then showed them my 'Foreigner's Card' and told them that Under EU regulation we have a right to family life therefore I am taking my wife and our son with me so that we can live together. I also pointed to the fact that I have printed copies of EU Border Guards Guide and also the EU directive. They were satisfied with that information and handed our documents back over to us, we were allowed to board the plane.
Once landed at Alicante, we proceeded to Immigration desks. As usual, there was only one guy at the post and since the flight was full of British holiday makers and pensioners, he was quickly glancing at their passports and letting them pass. When we turned up at the desk, I first showed my passport followed by my son's and finally opened up front page of my wife's pakistan passport. At that point Immigration guy took hold of the passport and without asking any questions or checking for any visa, he stamped on the first page of passport he could find empty!!!
Here we are now, I have registered my family for medical card in spain and soon my son will be going to school. For my Pakistani wife, I will have to now start the procedure to obtain her residence card in Spain which i have been told will be for five years.

So, If you are in my situation, do try flying without visa as i think its not hard and with bit of planning and right sets of documents, you can save time and effort of visiting Spain embassy or consulate who geneally are very unhelpful!
Good luck