South African Moving to Spain

Hi Jenn and welcome on Expat-blog! You should have a look at the Life in Spain guide, it could help you to find some infos...

Good luck
Christine

Hi Jenn

As an EU citizen, your husband has the right to remain in Spain as long as he wishes. He needs to obtain a NIE document and number from the Foreign Police. This document is called CERTIFICADO DE REGISTRO DE CIUDADANA DE LA UNION By virtue of your being married to an EU citizen you can easily obtain legal residence once your husband is registered. This is normally valid for 5 years, but can be revoked if you cease to remain together.

Be aware that he becomes resident for tax purposes from the moment he registers, unless you are only staying as temporary resident's for a very short time and will not work here. For your husband, it is extremely simple and takes 1/2 an hour or so. It depends which city you are going to live in, but here in Seville, it took me literally 1/2 an hour to get my certificate. It used to take much longer I am told.

I used a lawyer to obtain my wife's permit and it cost me 650 euros. I have neither the time nor the inclination to back and forth working through all the Spanish Red Tape, which can be very frustrating and extremely time-consuming. It was quite a painless process, but took 10 weeks from start to finish. In theory, it is possible to do all the paperwork yourself, but be prepared to have the process dragged out for much much longer than if you go through a good Immigration lawyer.

Hope this helps.

With best regards

Paul Harvey

Hi,

I was wondering if you could assist a fellow South African?
(but with out any connection to EU citizen, other than a potential UK Ancestory Passport, that we haven;t applied for yet)

We are looking to move to Malta, but have since decided to also consider Spain. My husband and I own our own business which generates about R500k per year.

We want to obtain some sort of residencey and I beleive we can apply for a temporary residency which is valid for up to 5 years. We will be moving our daughter 5yrs) and new additiona (due April). Does anyone have any further information or advice?

Thanks!

650€ is very expensive for the CERTIFICADO DE REGISTRO i paid only 50€, although i realise this is very cheap, it is more common at around 100-150€