I'm interested to see if anyone else has found themselves in this situation. My wife and I have just moved to Spain as I have been offered a job here. As my wife is a UK national she is in the process of applying for her TIE card and number. This means that we need to demonstrate the following
- She has sufficient means to live in Spain
- She has an acceptable level of health insurance
This should be fine as the income and benefits from the company employing me meets both criteria. The challenge is that we need to confirm with the Spanish authorities that we are legally married. Because we were married outside of the EU this means requesting a certificate of foreign marriage recognition with the UK consulate which would also be a fairly straightforward process if it weren't for the fact that we must supply a TIE number as part of the application.
So a nice, neat catch 22 situation. In order to obtain a recognition of foreign marriage certificate we need a TIE and in order to obtain a TIE we need a recognition of foreign marriage certificate.
If anyone has been in a similar situation I'd very much appreciate information on how you managed to get off this roundabout. Note that we already have a lawyer working with us to get this sorted. I'm primarily interested in learning of others experiences.