Hi,

Thankyou for such a wonderful website. My father lives near Aguilas but is elderly and has been unable to help us. We hope that you will be able to give us some much needed advice.

I am a British, and therefore an EU citizen. My wife is a Russian national but will not be a full UK - EU citizen for 2 years.

We would like to move to Spain permanently beginning with a 1 year resident permit.

The problem that we are facing at the moment is that my wife is technically still a Russian national despite being married to a EU citizen until she applies for indefinite leave to remain.
How should we go about applying for my wife s visa? As all information so far deals with non EU citizens on tourist visas

Another minor problem is that I intend, although living in Spain to continue working for British companies. Can you see this being a problem when we are faced with questions about where I intend to work.

We enjoyed looking at your website immensely and would be extremely grateful for your comments on our situation.

We hope to hear from you soon

Hi Lee

I am so sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you, to be honest I normally deal with clients from the UK and of course they are part of the EU the same as Spain so its easier no visas needed. Even things have recently changed here for them as you no longer need to apply for residents cards if the country you come from is part of the EU.

Anyway first you need to decide what type of visa you're going to apply for then have to fulfill the requirements for that particular visa. Check out
www.spainconsul-ny.org/ for that information. Depending on the type of visa, the process can take several months because authorization needs to come from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Spain before the consulate can issue the visa. Once your visa is issued you used to have to get your residency card in Spain, but this is now not possible. I am unsure as to whether this or something similar would apply but hopefully this will help you on your way. Of course when dealing with government bureacracy things can get frustrating, but it's all part of the "fun". Good luck

Anyway have a look at this website too

http://www.transitionsabroad.com/listings/living/livingabroadin/living_abroad_in_spain_moving.shtml

Where is it you are wanting to end up in Spain?


Kind Regards

Sharon
>
> Lee Osborne wrote:
>> Can you help Americans that would like to be ex pats?
>>
>> Is the process largely different?
>>
>>
>> Lee Osborne