Hi everyone!

I posted a message over a year ago about the steps to marrying in Spain vs. the US. Well, my (Spanish) husband and I are now happily married (been married for a year --the wedding was a lot of fun!) and I just wanted to post a couple of comments on the process I went through, for those who are interested.

First, it's taken MUCH longer than anticipated for me to obtain the NIE/residency here in Spain after our wedding in Seville last April (Actually, I'm still waiting-- will pick up the card in June). While we were told that this would be processed "immediately" & that I would likely have it within a couple of months, in reality I've had to wait just under *14 MONTHS* for this valuable document (I received a letter containing my NIE & fingerprinting date --set for three months later than the actual letter-- about 9 months after submitting the residency application; however,once fingerprinted, there is a 30 to 45-day lapse before one can pick up her/his residency card).

Second, during this time I have had to *continue paying my private health insurance,* as it has proved impossible for me to use the health system (except the emergency room) without a NIE. My husband and I tried desperately to solve this problem after we were married, talking to the health system's social services counselor here in Seville, but to no avail. My husband's father is a doctor who works for the national health system, but even he couldn't help.

Third, since I was an American "sin papeles" before marrying, I have not been able to leave the country while awaiting the residency permit (at least, that's what my immigration advocate advised-- and he should know, since he used to work for the immigration office here in Seville). I could have risked being stopped at the border & just gone anyway, but chose not to.

Fourth, while the Asociación de Mujeres Progresistas has been very helpful in terms of providing the right forms and escorting me through the system, their advice has not always been accurate or consistent. Before marrying I was told by one of their lawyers that I'd have immediate access to socialized health insurance once married, and that my residency would be a matter of "weeks." I was also told that I'd have the right to obtain citizenship in Spain after only 2 years of legal residency here. However, just a month ago another lawyer from the same office told me I needed 10 years of residency to qualify.

Anyway, I just wanted to give some updated information for those who are considering the pros and cons of marrying/applying for residency in Spain vs the US. The bottom line: if you choose to marry in Spain, expect a long wait for residency, plan in advance for interim health insurance, and use the Asociacion de Mujeres Progresistas for paperwork purposes only. Hope this helps!

Laura**

Hola Laura!!!

Thanks for the information.....but I have a cousin in Spain who married a Spaniard about five years ago and she got her citizenship last year and this is considering she was only married for about three years and then divorced.

Maybe it works differently for everyone or then again maybe she had connections! I'd have to ask her....

Since you were married in Spain ( if you know) could you elaborate on the spanish customs.
For example: Is your wedding band on your right hand or your left and did you have a traditional spanish wedding or a mix and what does that consist of...

I'm not trying to change the subject but eventually I would like to get married in Spain and have tried to find information but haven't been able to find anything on wedding customs from that country

That delay seems strange to me, too...I went through the same process last year, and the whole process took just over six months. In fact, one of my Canadian friends married a Spaniard here a few months ago, and between talking to a lawyer and learning from my experience, it took her even less time, and she already has her residency.

I definitely agree with what Laura says about wildly different advice depending on who you talk to, though. Even different people at the same consulate or ministry gave me different lists of requirements. In the end, my strategy was to try and have every piece of documentation that anyone had requested, on the assumption that it was better to have too much than too little.

Now I'm working my way through the paperwork for becoming an autónomo or freelance worker, which means talking to the tax agencies, seguridad social, and probably a few other agencies I don't know about yet. Add that to the fact that we're buying an apartment right now and you can imagine how familiar I'm becoming with Spanish bureaucracy and paperwork.

As for wedding traditions, I think I've seen a few posts on the subject here in previous months. I know there's a discussion of which hand the band is worn on here , and I think if you search for other posts with "wedding" there are quite a few others. As for my wife and I, we both wear our rings on the left hand, but that might be a combination of carrying over North American tradition and the fact that, like with so many other things, they do it differently in Catalunya.

I imagine the waiting time for residency depends a lot on where in Spain you apply. In my case I applied in Madrid 3 and a half months ago and I still haven't heard anything. They're supposed to send you the letter within 90 days, but when I applied the man working in the comisaría told me that recently it was taking 4 months to get residency in Madrid. So, I'm hoping I'll get mine soon. Another difference is that they've already taken my fingerprints--they did this the day I applied. So, in Madrid you just have to wait for the letter then pay the fees and you can pick up your card the same day. I guess in Seville they do it differently which means you have to wait even longer.

I'm also surprised that Laura wasn't able to use the Social Security system since I've been able to use it without my N.I.E. My husband went to one of the Social Security offices with his health card (tarjeta sanitaria), my passport and our libro de familia. He just had to fill out a few forms and then they gave him a paper that authorized me to use his Social Security number to go to the doctor. They said they couldn't give me the actual health card without an N.I.E. but I've been able to choose a doctor and I went once to her office with just the paper they gave me, and I didn't have any problems.

Wow, what divergent experiences we've all had! Had I known, I would have gone directly to Madrid with all my paperwork & saved myself a lot of grief. NEW RESIDENCY-SEEKERS BE ADVISED!

I'm also amazed to hear about how easily you guys got into social security after our fruitless 3-month pilgrimage through the various centers here Seville (I swear this "baroque" city is a red tape nightmare). We, too, went to two of the social security offices-- then to the central administrative office-- and were rejected at every turn. The liason for foreign residents even gave me a short lecture on how I should just sit tight and not complain, since I came from a filthy rich country where the health system was not socialized, and I was lucky to even be here at all and to have my insurance paid for by "los Andaluces" (as though working and paying taxes was not something foreigners did here!). Of *course* the US health system is a scandal, but that was not the point. Even my husband, who is extremely reserved and polite, was fuming when he left her office.

Ah well, así es la vida. Considering that my only punishment for living illegally in Spain for nearly four years was only a slightly long residency wait and a year of extra Sanitas payments, I can't really complain. We *did* buy an apartment in the interim so at least I was able to fill my post-wedding time visiting pisos, banks, talking to abañiles, overseeing furniture installation, etc. etc. (By the way, my not having residency meant that our first choice lender, ING Direct, would not finance our home loan until I did- we ended up going through the local Bankinter, who signed me on as the "avalista"--student loans and all!)

As for wedding rings, I never really looked into the matter. We almost did a wedding with no rings at all & when we got them I just decided to put mine on my right hand, since I'm left-handed & I don't like having a ring on my writing hand). I wouldn't say that there was *anything* exceptionally Spanish about our wedding. Our ceremony was bilingual, in a Catholic church, and the mass is the same all over the world. Well, yes, there was on thing that surprised me & that I would have changed had I learned about it before the actual day of the wedding (no rehearsals here), which was the velvet "throne" they set up for you on the altar- it was extremely high and formal and I, my husband, my father and his mother had to sit up there during the entire ceremony. I didn't like being so high or having just those two parents singled out. The "toma de dichos" (interview with the priest before the wedding along with two witnesses) is also something I don't think happens in the American Catholic ceremony. (??) Another Spanish detail is that we were obliged to buy our flowers through the parish itself- at much higher prices than usual- and then the church got to keep them. Despite this injustice, it worked out fine because the parish arranged a meeting between all the couples who married that same weekend & we all then split the costs of the flowers.

The fact that our nuptials were celebrated in two languages also meant that I got to make up my own vows in English, since the priest left that part of the ceremony to me. He was pretty flexible & let me incorporate different non-Spanish touches such as the unity candle-- another rite I sort of half-remembered, half-invented-- escorted seating, etc. For the unity candle, we had my sister and brother-in-law light two small candles on the altar candle, hand them over to my husband and me, and then we lit our own candle from them. A lot of people we spoke to before the wedding were very opposed to the escorted seating thing, since it's the custom here to stand around outside until the bride arrives, but afterwards they all said they loved it! We had the musicians play several "background" pieces while people were arriving & it worked out just fine. Another thing we did was to have a one-page program explaining the various American parts of the ceremony, with a little letter thanking people for attending & telling them about the church, one of our favorite historical places here in Seville.

The guests, who were mostly Spanish with the exception of my immediate family and American friends, seemed to really like these deviations from the "norm" & to this day people often tell me how original our wedding was & how much they enjoyed it.

Well this message is growing, as usual, but if anyone wants more wedding/property buying info I'd be happy to share!

Ninas, I forgot to ask you about your cousin. Can you give me some info on her situation? Is she from the US (no immediate Spanish relatives)? I am still not clear on requirements for obtaining citizenship for US-born residents of Spain & any info would be very useful! Thanks,
Laura * (Seville via California)

Laura in Seville

Thanks for the info Laura!!!

I would have to speak to my cousin in Spain to find out how/what she did but I'll let you Know in this post next week.

In regards on why some aliens have to wait longer to apply for the spanish citizenship, depending where are you from (coming from latin american countries you will only need 2 year of legal residency to apply for citizenship, 1 year if you are married to a national from Spain, your parents or grandparents are/were from Spain, etc, or you are a refugee, and some other cases, and 10 year for the rest)

Further info:

Citizens of Spain's former colonies can apply for a Spanish passport after only 2 years of residence
Ordinarily, you must first be a resident in Spain for a staggering 10 years before you can be naturalized. Refugees are granted citizenship after only five years residence. And citizens of some of Spain's former colonies can apply for a Spanish passport after a period of only two years of residence. As there is no shortage of citizenships available from the former Spanish colonies, this can prove an easy path into the EU. Former Spanish colonies include most of Central and South America, except Brazil, which was a colony of Portugal. It is worth noting also that those of Spanishjewish descent can also apply for a Spanish passport after two years of residence. Purchasing a home is not a requirement for obtaining citizenship. And with or without citizenship you'll likely have the legal right to work, though you may have to prove six months of residence.

Laural,
WOW, did you ever post this at the right time for me. Here is my situation and I am looking for advise from anyone who has any to offer...
I am American and my fiance is Spanish. We live in the US, and have been legally married here for 6 months and are working on getting his greencard here. Since nobody in our lives knows that we are legally married our real wedding is next summer (July 15th at Los Geronimos in Madrid if anyone is interested:) and we are really having a hard time knowing what steps we need to take. As of right now, we plan to stay in the U.S. for one or two more years because we are earning some pretty good money here and are saving up, but after that we are moving to Spain to go back to school. Is there anything we can do now ahead of time that will make it easier to get my residency card once we go to Spain? Hearing your experience makes me a little nervous.
About the wedding, did you have any trouble making changes to the ceremony? I would like to make changes, but my fiance thinks that in Spain they are pretty strict about these things (I don't think he has much experience with weddings though:). Also, I am really interested in a bilingual ceremony because I do not want my family and friends to be totally lost so I am kind-of interested to hear how you handled that situation. Anyway, thanks everybody for your posts, they are all so informative!

I don't think there's much you can do ahead of time since you can only apply for residency once you and your husbsand are actually living in Spain. Even if you could get the card now you'd end up losing residency since you're going to be living in the US for a few years (you lose residency if you're out of Spain for more than 6 months in a year). Unfortunately, there's nothing you can do to speed up the process once you apply either--just hope that they're not too busy when you apply

Are you having a religious or a civil ceremony? I know that in a civil ceremonoy you can pretty much do what you want. There's an official part of the ceremony that they have to follow, but since it only takes about 5 minutes many couples like to add poems, music, etc. to make the ceremony a little nicer. But, if it's a religious wedding they may be stricter--you'd probably have to talk to the priest who's marrying you and see what he says.

By the way, I wrote here a few weeks ago that I was still waiting for my residency to be approved--well, 2 days after I posted that I got the letter with my NIE. However, I was a little misinformed (which seems to be the norm here). I was told that in Madrid once the letter arrived I could go pick up my residence card anytime, but when I got the letter I found out that they had assigned a day and time that I have to go get it. So, I still have to wait until May 18 to get the actual card which means a total wait of 4 and a half months.

Wow! Does this ever bring back memories!

My husband and I have just celebrated 4 years of marital bliss! I remember going through everything that so many of you have posted... including a bilingual ceremony!

We got married in the States and then had the marriage legally recognized once I arrived here in Spain. Our ceremony was a protestant ceremony and boy was it a challenge to find a bilingual pastor! But we did!

My wait for residency, once all the appropriate paperwork was handed in, took 5 months back in 2001/2002... and that was applying when we were living in Segovia.

Good luck to those of you who are going to the process now. The best piece of advice that I can give you is be patient and enjoy the ride!

I was married in Madrid ten years ago (wife is Spanish national). We returned to the U.S. About three years ago I had a shot at a job in Spain so my wife went to the Spanish consulate in San Francisco to start the process for work permit, etc. for me

They told her to forget it, that this could only be done in Spain.

Anyone have any different experience trying to process the work permit etc. from within the U.S.?