I see that a lot of people are having trouble understanding the regulations regarding EU citizen & spouse situation so I thought I?d add my experience and I hope it helps.
I run a language school in Spain and recently had a British teacher arrive with a Japanese wife. This is the (long & confusing) process we?ve had to go through to get her residency.
Firstly, they arrived with information from the Spanish Embassy in Japan telling them exactly what to do. When we went to the oficina de extranjeria here, they gave us different information. The British Consulate in Malaga gave us still different information. It ended with me standing at the desk is the oficina de extranjeria involving all three desk staff and a person in an office upstairs (who obviously couldn?t come downstairs and deal with the enquiry!) until I had in writing exactly what documents were required. The main problem was that no one had a clue how to deal with Japanese people ? there are a lot of Moroccan immigrants here and they know what they have to do and were trying to tell us that we had to do the application from the country of origin like them. This is not the case as Japanese don?t need a visa to enter Spain. In the end this is what was needed:
? Completed application & 2 photocopies
? Passport ? original & photocopy of every page
? 4 photos in colour with white background
? Document to prove the application with a date of not more than 3 months and given by a civil registry or equivalent ? original and sworn translation & copies
? Documentation of the person through who the application is being done ? original & copies
? Sworn declaration that the marriage exists and that they are not living with any other person from EU person.
The main problems arose from the wedding certificate. This had a date on from 12 years ago when they were married. Extranjeria would not accept this and said we had to give a document with a more recent date, ie. get a legalised copy of the wedding certificate with a recent date. He got this from the church where he was married and the rector put a stamp on it. This then had to be translated into Spanish by a sworn translator.
Also, he (the UK citizen) had to first apply for residency in Spain and get the residence certificate in order to prove that she was OK to be resident. This took about a month.
The sworn declaration is just a piece of paper they will give you which you sign and not (as I originally thought) a sworn declaration in front of a notary.
All this process took quite some time and there was, and still is, a lot of confusion over a stamp she needs in her passport to say that she is entitled to live and travel freely around the Shenzhen states. No one is admitting to possessing this stamp (police, extranjeria) and she doesn?t have it yet. Her application for residence card was put in before xmas (3 months later) and we haven?t heard anything yet, but from my experience it will take at least 2 months to get to the fingerprint stage. In the meantime she can?t work or even go to the government?s Spanish classes as she doesn?t have an NIE number. It?s incredibly frustrating so I would advise anyone in this situation to get all the documents you need before arriving and get them translated into Spanish straight away. The Japanese embassy said that they would accept documents in English if they are issued in the UK but that is just not the case.
I?m sorry if this is a bit garbled. If anyone has any specific questions then do ask and I?ll try to answer them. I?ll keep you posted on how long the process takes and when she gets her residence card.
