avoiding "Residencia"

Started by parito, July 11, 2014, 14:03:59 PM

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parito

Anyone knows what are the fines for not applying for residencia (and providing health insurance and sufficient financial resources ) when staying over 3 months?

I personally know quite a few people who stay year after year and just never bothered. They do have NIE obviously (you need one to buy a car), but getting NIE is a different process to getting "Residencia" to my understanding.

The way I see it, there are 3 layers of "registration"

1. Getting residencia (stay over 3 months ? have to register)
2. becoming spanish resident for tax purposes (stay over 183 days in Spain?)
3. Registering with local council (empadronamiento). Needed for ticket discounts. Mandatory? Optional?

SheilaW

The thing you need to be aware of is that the rules changed back in the summer of 2012 (I remember it as that's bang when we arrived :(). People who were already based here then and had already got residency papers, that were more or less issued on request, will have no problem in the future as they can't take them away, under EU law.

But those who arrive now have no such rights. Being an EU citizen, they can't kick you out of the country (unless the UK leaves), but they can make sure you don't benefit in any way from residency status. What would you do about health care? The UK wouldn't cover you, nor would Spain.

I've seen conflicting opinions but my experience is that even if you have your empadronamiento (which every home owner or long term tenant is entitled to and has no negative effects whatsoever), you won't get travel discounts without the little green "registro" paper. That's for those of us "stuck" out here in the islands, to enable us to have the dubious opportunity to visit the big administrative cities of mainland Spain.

MaureenG

Hi Parito

I read somewhere that the fine for not registering is 300 euros, although I've never heard of anyone being fined (has anyone else?)

However, if you do not get a job where your NI contributions are paid by your employer, or go self-employed ("autonomo") and pay your own NI contributions, you cannot get state healthcare and so will need private health insurance, whether you register or not.

The main problem I see at the moment is that UK citizens retiring early to anywhere in Spain can no longer get their NHS healthcare entitlement transferred to Spain for up to 2 years (as used to be the case) and they are supposed to prove they have enough funds to support themselves until they get their state pension, although it's not clear how they would prove this (particularly if they have only a small regular income but a lot of savings they can live on - how much is enough?). I also wonder what would happen if you were turned down for registration, as you are supposed to have the right to live in any EU country if you are an EU citizen - Does anyone know?   

emmi

#3
The "empadronamiento'  is not obligatory as far as I know, and you do not have to be a Resident to have it - I have a house on the Island but am not a Resident, but I was able to get the "padron"  for purchase of a car, but not for cheap travel. 
It is not linked to Residencia as it is more like a census or electoral roll, and the local government can get more money into is coffers by more padrons - it is explained in this link

http://spain.angloinfo.com/moving/residency/certificado-de-empadronamiento/