Hi gang,

I'm American and have been living in BCN for 1.5 years now. For the last year, I was self-employed in the US and periodically transferred money to an account here with no problems. Though I have no visa of any kind at the moment, I come and go every couple of months and it doesn't seem to be an issue. A policeman friend told me that they could care less if Americans are here illegally. Hmm.

Anyway, I got a job here in May, have a contract, and the company's lawyer (supposedly) applied for a visa. Finally I had a date of Oct. 15th for an interview, after which a visa was supposed to be forthcoming pretty quickly. On Oct. 14, the lawyer called and said that due to the change in the law that takes effect Jan. 1, my appointment was cancelled and now I have to wait until January to re-apply.

So here are my questions:

1. Is this lawyer full of it? It seems to me that most work visas are handled a lot more expeditiously than this, but as I have no experience I can't really challenge the situation.

2. Those of you working here, what was the process like and how long did it take?

3. I would like to buy a car. One person explained that I cannot do this without an NIE, another said only a DNI was required. Still another said no problem to buy a car as an extranjero. Given that I have bank accounts, credit cards, leases, etc. here without a problem, is it possible to buy a car and insurance, or must I wait until I have the visa and associated acronyms? What do you guys think?

Thanks for the assistance.

- alan in sitges

I couldn't tell about the rest and I am not absolutely sure about this, but I believe you shouldn't have any problems to buy anything (including a car) being a foreigner.

What you could have problems with, however, is with your credit qualification in case you want to finance it , since foreigners non residents come and go and banks are kind of doubtful.

Not much help, I know, but that's my two cents.