Hello,

Can someone please give me some advice. I am from the UK and my fiance is American. We currently live in Costa Rica but are looking to move to Spain early next year.
As an UK citizen I know I can live and work in Spain, however where does that leave my fiance.
We plan to get married either in Costa Rica or the UK before we move so at the time of entry into Spain he will be my husband. Does he enter the country on a visitor’s visa? and then apply when we get into Spain to stay there.

I would really appreciate some advice.

Thank you

If you were born in the UK and therefore have full EU rights and you marry a non-Eu (ie American) they will gain rights to enter and live in the EU:

This is taken from:

Regulations covering EU citizens in Spain:

Which members of my family have the right to live in Spain?
The members of your family that are entitled to live in Spain under EU legislation on foreigners are the following:
Your spouse, unless your marriage has been annulled, you are divorced or you are legally separated…...............................................

end of extract.

I think (this is purely a personal opinion) you might be better off to get married in the UK as against Costa Rica (nothing personnel to any Costa Ricans!) as I think the marriage certificate would have more validity in the eyes of Spain and the rest of the EU.

If you want a copy of the document from which I have extracted the above text you are welcome to email me (please put something sensible in the subject field to filter you from Spam!)