Help needed please for Spanish tourist visa for my thai wife who is a uk resident with ILR.

[totw]

Hello all, any Help would be much appreciated.

I understand that all documents need to be provided but do proof of paid flights and travel insurance really need to be provided as stated on the Spanish embassy site ?

I have read conflicting requirements on both the embassy and vfs sites. I do understand that vfa can sometimes prove to be difficult with answering questions and not making things easy, Please can anyone give info of their experiences of applying for a Spanish tourist visa for a Thai wife with UK ILR and also waiting times for an interview and also receiving the visa, we are due to travel in 5 weeks if all goes well.

Many Thanks Thaivisa peeps.

[Donutz]

If you are a UK citizen and you and your Thai wife are going or joining eachother on a holiday in an other EU country then she is entitled to a free, swiftly and easily issued visa. Your wife is a family member if an EU citizen (you) and therefor does not need to answer the questions with an * on the Schengen application form.

Infact she only needs to:

- ID herself (passport)

- ID the EU family (you passport or copy)

- Proof that you are family by showing the marriage certificate (legalized by the authorities of the country thst issued it, if it's a Thai certificate that would be the Thai ministry of foreign affairs). Legally there is NO need for any silly statement or fancy stamps from your embassy. The Spanish do mention this on the VFS site but that is <deleted> (VFS isn't always competent anyway). If you have official documents of a family link that should be sufficient, they could only ask for more incase they suspect fraud (ie the documents are questionable and do not sufficiently proof an official family relation). You will need an official and legalized translation of the maritial papers in a language the embassy can understand.

- An indication that you two will be traveling to Spain or joining eachother there. This could be a written (and signed) statement by you. If you wish you could throw in a airplane ticket reservation for the both of you but you are not legally obligated to do so.

- No need for hotel reservations, insurance etc. they are not entitled to ask for this at all.

You fall under the Freedom of Movement rights (2004/38) which the Schengen visa rules (810/2009) are in line with.

There is no need to go via VFS, you can contact the embassy directly, they cannot interview her, an appointment must be granted within 2 weeks, the visa should be issued ASAP (max 15 days).

Read more in the Schengen sticky, it includes some links aswell.

If the embassy does not cooperate for some reason, complain with the authorities (Spanish foreign affaurs, the EU Home Affairs, the EU representation in the UK/TH/...), and contact Solvit. See the sticky.

Edited June 4, 2014 by Donutz

[7by7]

<snip>

Proof that you are family by showing the marriage certificate (legalized by the authorities of the country thst issued it, if it's a Thai certificate that would be the Thai ministry of foreign affairs).

Actually, it is the translation that needs to be legalised; the marriage certificate is already a legal document.

As such legalisation of translations is not required for UK visas, it is possible that you, totw, like many other Brits, including myself, didn't have it done in Bangkok.

In which case, you can do so at the Thai Embassy in Kensington.

I don't know if Thai consulates elsewhere in the UK can do so.

Schengen Visa FAQ is the sticky Donutz refers to.

[Donutz]

There might be no need to have a Thai marriage document legalized by the Thai MFA but it could help, that way the embassy cannot refuse the document as a possible fraud or unofficial copy (and thus unrightfully decline the visa or ask for further evidence such as registration of the marriage in the EU country which is not a requirement at all). Thats the advice I have seen from immigration lawyers.

Indeed a legalised translation would be needed so the embassy can ensure that the Thai document is infact a marriage document.

Just as you aren't required to have airplane reservations, a hotel reservation etc. but if you already have those you can ofcourse submit them for an even stronger case. Just as you could include paperwork of your marriage being registrated in the country of the spouse aswell.

[7by7]

<snip>

Just as you could include paperwork of your marriage being registrated in the country of the spouse aswell.

I don't know about other European countries; but it is not possible to do this in the UK.

As far as the UK is concerned, a marriage legally registered in Thailand, or anywhere else, is a legal marriage and cannot be legally registered again in the UK.

All a couple can do is deposit their original, foreign marriage certificate with the General Register Office and obtain copies from them later if required; which has no real advantages over keeping it safe at home.

[Donutz]

In other countries you can register a foreign marriage, in the Netherlands you can register it with your local manucipality which will then registrated your maritial status to married, one can then obtain a print of this household status. You can also register it with a national department ("landelijke taken" in The Hague) which can provide a record of your maritial status aswell.

Some embassies seem to unrightfully ask for such registration evidence, the Spanish embassy in BKK for instance asks for something along this lines:

"Spouses of EU / SCHENGEN / UK Citizens are advised to submit an approval letter of Marriage from their respective Embassies along with the Thai Marriage Certificate. Just a stamp on the Thai Marriage Certificate from the respective Embassy will not be adequate."

Nonsense ofcourse.. Atleast the Dutch embassy cannot provide such documents since they do not excist, the closest thing would be a registration from the Dutch authorities back home but you cannot be obligated to provide such papers, you may not even have registrated your marriage outside Thailand to begin with..

[totw]

Thankyou @Donutz.

Your info is a great help and releives a lot of my worries as we only have a few weeks to get the visa before the planned travel date, can i please ask you to tell me if you know if i can book an appointment over the phone and if so the best number to use, i am not being lazy in finding this info myself its just that i cant get through to the number i have found, its constantly engaged, or do i need to book online ?

Thanks soo much again Donutz.

[Donutz]

The Spanish embassy in the UK?

London: http://www.exteriores.gob.es/Embajadas/LONDRES/en/Pages/inicio.aspx

Contact: http://www.exteriores.gob.es/Embajadas/LONDRES/en/Embajada/Pages/HorariosLocalizacionContacto.aspx

Edinburgh: http://www.exteriores.gob.es/Consulados/EDIMBURGO/en/Pages/inicio.aspx

Contact: http://www.exteriores.gob.es/Consulados/EDIMBURGO/en/Consulado/Pages/LocalizacionContacto.aspx

If you can't get to them by phone, sent them a mail. I personally prefer e-mail if time allows for it so that any response is recorded and can be used against them if they say something that is actually incorrect or in violation of the rules. Ofcourse you could also record phonecalls I suppose. Embassies I e-mailed usually responded within a few working days, or if they didn't it wasn't really urgent or easy to contact them over the phone (I contacted several embassies in Thailand regarding their illegal attempts to direct people to VFS or TLS...).

You can find all their embassies here:

www.exteriores.gob.es/Portal/en/ServiciosAlCiudadano/Paginas/embajadasconsulados.aspx

How "odd" then when you type "Spanish embassy UK/Thailand/whatever" you get VFS in the top 3 results and are very lucky if the actual embassy webpage is anywhere on page 1-3.... I'd think that it's clearly an attempt to get people to go via VFS (set up the website so that certain keywords attract google or do not attract google, as to increase or limit traffic to the website...).

Edit: if they have got decent staff they should arange an appointment within 2 weeks (article 9) and directly at the embassy (article 17, no obligation to use VFS). If they indeed are, I don't know... They currently possiy are in violation of regulation 810/2009 (schengen visa code) by providing no sufficient info on their website... They don't direct to VFS on their site, but they don't tell you how to apply eithet and google leads you to VFS...

Edited June 4, 2014 by Donutz