Hi Xenopus,

I can't answer all of your questions, but I can comment on getting married in Spain! I am also looking at marriage in Spain, and it appears to me that it would be easier to do so in the UK.

Most of the autonomous communities (such as Catalonia) require that both parties are resident and registered at the town hall for two years before allowing a marriage application to be lodged. It does appear that the Spanish Consulate here in London will open one on your behalf, but you may find that you still hit problems (we are going to try that route ourselves, and use Madrid which in theory has standard spanish laws which allow a non spanish citizen to marry a spaniard even though both are not resident).

You will need a birth certificate from your own country, with an Apostille of the Hauge, translated into Spanish, a certificate of no impediment to marriage from your own country, with an Apostille of the Hauge, translated into Spanish, and a document from your consulate here in London that says where you have been living for the last two years (a statuatary declaration is supposed to be sufficient.) There is then a three to six month delay until the wedding is set up in Spain from what I have gathered to date.

Or you can marry in England at your local town hall, but I have heard wind of non English applicants having to write to the Home Secretary to OK if first? You may want to follow that up, but my advice would be that you should not attempt to marry in Spain unless you have no other option

www.ukvisas.gov.uk has great information about what you need to stay in the UK, you'll notice that if you have been together for > 2 years you don't even need to marry to apply for the non married partners visa.