US citizen married to EU citizen living in Spain

my husband and i moved to spain 5 years ago. Our children are dual (EU and US) citizens and passport holders, I am EU only, and my husband is American, and we were married in the US. Does anyone know the rules for Americans married to (employed) EU citizens and wanting to apply for Residencia? He never got a visa or a visa extension and now we realise that his most recent immigration stamp is in 2005. thanks!

susana wrote:my husband and i moved to spain 5 years ago. Our children are dual (EU and US) citizens and passport holders, I am EU only, and my husband is American, and we were married in the US. Does anyone know the rules for Americans married to (employed) EU citizens and wanting to apply for Residencia? He never got a visa or a visa extension and now we realise that his most recent immigration stamp is in 2005. thanks!

What EU state are you a citizen of?

Hi JAJ, i am UK citizen

susana wrote:Hi JAJ, i am UK citizen

If he has been an overstayer in Spain, then you may need the assistance of an experienced Spanish immigration lawyer.

do you think that leaving the country and coming back in would solve it?

As mentioned on the spanish consulate website in london, family members of EU/EEA/Swiss citizens who are visa exempt from the schengen zone, can travel to spain as tourist and then apply for the residence card within country. Since you are exercising a treaty right your husband should not have a problem to apply for a residence card in Spain.
However if you want to play it safe, you're husband could exit schengen zone and return and have his passport stamped and then apply for his residence card.

Here's the consulate link:


http://www.conspalon.org/indexeng.html

click on services then visas and have a look at "RESIDENCE VISA FOR FAMILY REUNIFICATION FOR DEPENDANTS OF EUROPEAN UNION NATIONALS"

I think you should be able to just apply for a Residence Card. There would have to be a really good reason for them refusing to issue it, and overstaying his old entry is not good enough. Is he already registered (with the Police?) as a foreigner?

http://eumovement.wordpress.com/info-spain/ has links to the new law which implements Directive 2004/38/EC in Spain.

You might also want to check with the EU’s Signpost service.

How has your husband managed to survive for so long in Spain without any papers or visa? Even Americans can't evade the Spanish immigration authorities indefinitely.

In order to do anything in Spain such as buy a house, buy a car, apply for social services, get a job etc you need a Número de Identidad/Identificación de Extranjero (NIE) which is a foreigner identification number. And of course you cannot get this unless you are legally in Spain with the correct papers.

Flyboy et al,

I am puzzled by the website requirements (for a visa national), which are headed ...family reunification for DEPENDANTS of EU Nationals.. and requires the EU national to have maintained the dependant for 1 year or more prior to application. I am not sure why the spouse needs to be a 'dependant' at all or to have been supported for 1 year or more.

If I was to emigrate to Spain with Oscar, my visa national partner, I don't think the visa for him to get into Spain should depend on me having supported him for 1 year (at least, there is nothing in the Directive to require this).