NON-LUCRATIVE RESIDENCIA – CONSULATE IN LONDON

In this post we are not trying to sell you any service or explain how you can obtain this residency!

We are going to go further and show you the reality that ourselves and other legal professionals must face in order to deal with this service.

This situation can easily be summed up in one word: FRUSTRATION

Before Brexit, it was quite easy for our British clients to become Spanish residents if they of course met the necessary requirements. However, since 1^st of January 2021, now that British people are no longer classed as Europeans the requirements have been tightening. We could say that this is something logical since the U.K has left Europe. But we have reached a situation in which the transition period seems to have ended suddenly. The new requirements are almost impossible to fulfil for most of our clients.

And of course, we cannot forget about Covid-19 and the restrictions that were imposed between countries. For example, during ‘lockdown’ our local community borders were closed and the Town Halls in Spain also closed, so given this fact alone you can see how impossible it was to even request a ‘padron’ certificate before 31^st of December in such a small period of time?

That given, we never abandon our clients, and we are there to offer an alternative …

The Non-Lucrative Residency.

To apply for this type of residency, the requirements are harder and the process longer, but for clients wanting to live here this is the only option we have left.

The surprise comes when, after offering this service to our clients and starting to work with them and during the procedure, we realise that we must be practically autonomous and also private investigators.

It is true that information about this process can be obtained on the webpage of the Spanish consulate in London, but it is “discouraging” to say the least to see the official documents where the requirements are shown. The information is also not complete, nor does it specify the exact procedure for such a complicated application.

For example ..

They say that you must have private health insurance contracted with a company that operates in Spain, but it does not specify what coverage it must include, or if it is possible to have waiting periods or copayments. So, if we contract our client a private health insurance with a company that operates in Spain, without specifying anything else, what could happen? It could turn out that my client goes to their Consulate appointment, and they say: This private health insurance is not valid, since it has a waiting period.

The only thing that the client can then do is return home and call us, demanding answers as to why we have taken out this insurance if it was not even valid! Of course, they would be right since they trust us, that we are going to help them in the process and that we are going to do things the right way.

SO ..

What can we as legal professionals do? We can ask questions, request information, investigate … The problem with that is that THERE IS NOWHERE or NO ONE to contact to request information.

The London consulate does not answer calls, they do not answer emails and there is no way to contact them. We have personally spent hours trying to contact them with absolutely no response.

We do understand it is a new process for them and that they may be very busy, but so we are. And they must inform us and let us know in detail the requirements.

All this without saying that it is something SO important for our clients, people who have come to buy a home in Spain, leaving their homes in the UK, and leaving their savings here consuming in our country.

We have previously worked with this type of residency many times in NON-EU consulates and NOTHING LIKE THIS has happened to us. We have been able to contact them easily, and they have helped us with any questions that have arisen, something that we think is how all consulates should operate.

For these very reasons, it is extremely FRUSTRATING for us because dealing with something so NEW for British people, both for the interested parties and their representatives, we believe that we should be able to count on more help from the London consulate to facilitate and be able to assist our clients, as this is what we always do.