I think first you need to decide how long do you want to live in Spain for. If its just for a few months, then its not worth the effort.

The Spanish embassy was right in their advise that she needs to apply for an EEA spouse visa ( which in theory should be free of cost and quicker than normal application since its under EU rules and not under Spanish rules ) but it might take much longer in practice. Then applying for a residence card once in Spain can take upto six months at least.

She doesn't have to apply for EEA spouse visa since she you can travel to Spain together and apply for resident card for her but the risk is it might take longer than three months in which case she would become illegal in Spain.

Good luck

 

As per the EU Directive, your wife is allowed to travel with you to any EU country ( except your home country ) without any visa for upto three months.
So technically she doesn't need any visa at all, you can simply go there and apply for the residence card for her, but in practice, quite a lot of the immigration officers don't even know the law even though they are there to implement it.

This is why I would recommend you get an EEA family visa for her just to be on the safe side. A good idea would be to check with the embassy what is the longest term they can issue this visa for. I suspect it will not be for more than six months but not sure. If they could issue it for longer, then you wouldn't need to apply for RC in Spain.

On the other hand, there is no harm in getting an RC which is issued for five years and gives her exactly the same rights as yours in terms of working etc.

She is not going to become illegal IF you apply for residence card WITHIN three months of your arrival in Spain, because once you apply for residence card, they are gonna give you proof of your application which would actually be proof of her legal residence.

Also have a read here. It can be useful.

http://www.ukgovabusesexpats.co.uk/Arti ... 0.2007.htm


Good luck !

 

I don't know if my experience will help at all but here goes...

I am a british citizen, married to a moroccan citizen. We got married in gibraltar (uk) as well as in morocco, but that was only because the uk doesn't recognise moroccan marriages and vice versa. So we have two marriage certificates. We were living in morocco at the time we got married because i was working there.

Work then asked me to move to marbella but i needed a visa for my wife, i applied to the consulate in morocco for a visit visa initially because i knew getting a visa for moroccans to enter spain was particularly difficult (in view of "the war on terror" and the current paranoia concerning muslims) not to mention the sheer number of moroccans who want to come to spain. Anyway, i obtained the visa for 10 days and we came to spain for our "holiday". Shorlty after returning to morocco i applied for a longer term visa for my wife on the basis that i would be doing some work in spain over the coming months and wanted her to be with me. This resulted in the issue of a multiple entry visa allowing her 90 nights maximum stay in spain over the next 6 months. With this we moved to spain and i started working from our marbella office.

I appreciate much of the above paragraph will be irrelavant for your spouse as i don't thin they require a visa to enter spain for a period upto 3 months.

Whilst living here i then applied to get a "tarjeta de residencia" or residence card which is valid for 5 years and also allows her entry to any of the shegnein countries.

The form for the residence card can be found here, http://www.mir.es/sgacavt/modelos/extra ... /ex_16.pdf

more useful info on residence in spain can be found here, http://spain.angloinfo.com/countries/sp ... u_citizens

the process for getting the card was fairly simple really
- we went to malaga and got an appointment date
- we prepared the necessary papers (proof of right to reside in spain (visa), marriage certificate translated in spanish by offical translator) certificado de empadrimiento (this is given by your local town hall and is effectively a proof of address - obtain this asap on arrival in spain and as for one certificate for the both of you), a photocopy of every page of your spouses passport, an apostilied copy of your marriage certificate dated within last 3 months and 3 passport sized photgraphs.
- we then had to wait around 1 month for the letter of acceptance to arrive in the post
- with this we went to the police station where you get a form and go to the bank and pay 10€, bring the certificate back to the police station with the letter of acceptance and two passport photos, you will give fingerprints and sign a form, the police will give you a receipt.
- then its a case of waiting 45 days for the residence card to arrive at the police station. They wont notify you so you just have to go and collect it. We did ours over xmas and it still didnt take longer than 45 days (surprising considering the laid back spanish way)

thats it in a nutshell. Compared to the nightmare i am currently having trying to get my wife a visa to come to live in the uk with me, i'd say the spanish system was pretty straight forward.

One piece of advice though is do your research to ensure spain recognises a canadian wedding and make sure you get an apostiled or notarised (by a spanish notary) copy of your marriage certificate dated in the last 3 months. I missed my first appointment because the original marriage certificate i submitted was too old, luckily another appointment was only a two wee wait but could have been longer.

Another thing worth checking in your case is whether your spouse needs a visa to be in spain, it might be worth getting one anyway if it isnt too difficult but i don't know you'd need the spousal visa as we didnt have one of these, just a regular tourist visa allowing my wife to stay in spain for three months.

Hope this helps

 

Hi,

No there is no risk to become illegal because according to EU law (when you submit your case in local authorities for residence card they will issue you a certificate of residence which is valid for 6 month and according to Law residence card must be issued within a six month)

Best luck,

 

Hi guys,

I've been reading your posts with interest. I am a UK citizen and am marrying an American girl. We are both moving to Valencia with my work. Im trying to understand if the information you are giving applies to us as well. I was told I dont need to register the marriage in the UK as any marriage in the USA applies to the UK as well.

We are confused about what to apply for. Should we apply for an EEA spouse visa while she is still in the USA? We are getting married in November and then hoping to move to spain in December. If we apply for the EEA spouse visa, can we then apply for the residency card etc from within spain? And will that allow her to work? Is there anythign else needed!?

Ugh questions questions, and thanks for your help. I would appreciate if anyone could help us further.

Thanks!!
Rhys