Disappointment at the registry office
Sep 22nd 2014, 11:34 pm
#1
Just Joined
Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2014
Posts: 4
Disappointment at the registry office
I feel a bit bad as this is only my second post on this forum, but I thought I should share a bad experience that happened to us today.
Firstly I'd like to say that I love Spain, and I have a lot of respect for the country I've proudly called home for the last 18 months. However after what happened to us today, I'm left feeling deeply disheartened and disappointed with the system here.
Little over a week ago, on the 12th of September, I was lucky enough to marry the love of my life, who happens to be a Spanish citizen. Today, we had an appointment with the registry office of Blanes, the town where we live, to file the paperwork and get everything official. It's worth noting that we had tried to do this before the actual wedding date, but when we went to the office in April to book an appointment, they gave us the 22nd September, stating that, “We'd practically left it until the day of the wedding to do this”. In retrospect perhaps we should have seen this as a warning of things to come.
As with everything here, there's often a mountain of official documents that need to be obtained. As a British citizen, understandably there's even more. So over the last six months, we've been working hard to get everything in order, and experience has taught us to be thorough. To date I've purchased a new official copy of my birth certificate, and have made multiple trips to the British consulate to obtain the required certificates we were told we needed. All of this had to be timed perfectly to coincide with the somewhat strict validity imposed – for instance we were informed that my marital status certificate would only be valid for 3 months from issue. Just those bits of paperwork have set me back in excess of 600 euros, not to mention the lost earnings from the days I needed to take away from work to obtain them. But I figured it would be worth it in the long run after all.
So we fast forward to today at 1:30pm in the registry office, where my wife, her brother and I are sitting with pretty much every bit of paperwork we own, patiently awaiting our appointment. After waiting for some time we were initially spoken to by an unfriendly woman who rudely asked us if we had an appointment. We informed her we did, and off she marched.
Our names get called, and up we go. A different woman starts asking us for our forms and paperwork, and appropriate photocopies, all of which we start handing over. And then things went bad.
One of the requirements is proof of address for the last two years. We have been living in Blanes for the last 18 months, having moved here from Brighton in the UK. Proof of address is fine here as we have official documents from where we have registered with the town hall, but our proof of address from the UK is in the form of a tenancy agreement (and a huge stack of council tax and utility bills with our names on them). Despite only needing the date, our names and the address of our previous residence to be shown on the document, the woman outright refused to accept it. Her reasoning? The date on the document was displayed in English. Apparently there's a huge difference between “12th October 2012” and “12 Octubre 2012”, and it's impossible for a non English speaker to make the leap. She steadfastly refused to budge on this and rather than offer us help or advice, got her colleague involved (the same man who told us we were booking practically on the day of the wedding) who did nothing but be rude and patronizing. At one point he even whistled to silence my wife like a dog, which obviously we didn't take very kindly to. The whole incident left us all feeling helpless, frustrated and very angry with our treatment, and we were eventually escorted out of the building presumably for holding up the next person waiting for the same treatment.
As I say, I love Spain, always have and probably always will, but the sheer amount of bureaucracy and jobsworth government employees here is a nightmare. Ask anyone Spanish and they'll undoubtedly agree with you, and tell you, “It's just the way it is”. Sure it's no picnic in England either, but for all it's faults, at least in my experience even the most frustrating of paperwork problems is still resolved fairly quickly. Regardless, there's no need for staff to be rude and arrogant towards anyone. Our treatment today was utterly disgusting, and considering the big song and dance that the government here make about Gibraltar, it's a sad state of affairs that it currently seems our best option to fly there where we can get everything official in 48 hours.
I hate to rant, but I'm wondering if anyone else has been through a similar experience and if there's anything we can do about it. If anything hopefully this post will at least serve as a bit of a heads up for anyone else planning to get married here, who hasn't been here for the full two years yet.
Firstly I'd like to say that I love Spain, and I have a lot of respect for the country I've proudly called home for the last 18 months. However after what happened to us today, I'm left feeling deeply disheartened and disappointed with the system here.
Little over a week ago, on the 12th of September, I was lucky enough to marry the love of my life, who happens to be a Spanish citizen. Today, we had an appointment with the registry office of Blanes, the town where we live, to file the paperwork and get everything official. It's worth noting that we had tried to do this before the actual wedding date, but when we went to the office in April to book an appointment, they gave us the 22nd September, stating that, “We'd practically left it until the day of the wedding to do this”. In retrospect perhaps we should have seen this as a warning of things to come.
As with everything here, there's often a mountain of official documents that need to be obtained. As a British citizen, understandably there's even more. So over the last six months, we've been working hard to get everything in order, and experience has taught us to be thorough. To date I've purchased a new official copy of my birth certificate, and have made multiple trips to the British consulate to obtain the required certificates we were told we needed. All of this had to be timed perfectly to coincide with the somewhat strict validity imposed – for instance we were informed that my marital status certificate would only be valid for 3 months from issue. Just those bits of paperwork have set me back in excess of 600 euros, not to mention the lost earnings from the days I needed to take away from work to obtain them. But I figured it would be worth it in the long run after all.
So we fast forward to today at 1:30pm in the registry office, where my wife, her brother and I are sitting with pretty much every bit of paperwork we own, patiently awaiting our appointment. After waiting for some time we were initially spoken to by an unfriendly woman who rudely asked us if we had an appointment. We informed her we did, and off she marched.
Our names get called, and up we go. A different woman starts asking us for our forms and paperwork, and appropriate photocopies, all of which we start handing over. And then things went bad.
One of the requirements is proof of address for the last two years. We have been living in Blanes for the last 18 months, having moved here from Brighton in the UK. Proof of address is fine here as we have official documents from where we have registered with the town hall, but our proof of address from the UK is in the form of a tenancy agreement (and a huge stack of council tax and utility bills with our names on them). Despite only needing the date, our names and the address of our previous residence to be shown on the document, the woman outright refused to accept it. Her reasoning? The date on the document was displayed in English. Apparently there's a huge difference between “12th October 2012” and “12 Octubre 2012”, and it's impossible for a non English speaker to make the leap. She steadfastly refused to budge on this and rather than offer us help or advice, got her colleague involved (the same man who told us we were booking practically on the day of the wedding) who did nothing but be rude and patronizing. At one point he even whistled to silence my wife like a dog, which obviously we didn't take very kindly to. The whole incident left us all feeling helpless, frustrated and very angry with our treatment, and we were eventually escorted out of the building presumably for holding up the next person waiting for the same treatment.
As I say, I love Spain, always have and probably always will, but the sheer amount of bureaucracy and jobsworth government employees here is a nightmare. Ask anyone Spanish and they'll undoubtedly agree with you, and tell you, “It's just the way it is”. Sure it's no picnic in England either, but for all it's faults, at least in my experience even the most frustrating of paperwork problems is still resolved fairly quickly. Regardless, there's no need for staff to be rude and arrogant towards anyone. Our treatment today was utterly disgusting, and considering the big song and dance that the government here make about Gibraltar, it's a sad state of affairs that it currently seems our best option to fly there where we can get everything official in 48 hours.
I hate to rant, but I'm wondering if anyone else has been through a similar experience and if there's anything we can do about it. If anything hopefully this post will at least serve as a bit of a heads up for anyone else planning to get married here, who hasn't been here for the full two years yet.
Sep 23rd 2014, 5:43 am
#2
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Joined: Aug 2007
Location: Los Martinez
Posts: 858
Re: Disappointment at the registry office
Why didn't you just marry in the UK? It is valid in Spain surely? I think what you may have run in to is the Spanish equivelent of the UK's 'marriage of convenience' laws, that is marry a person to get residency and then clutching the vital residents paperwork dissapear and never see each other again.
However I wouldn't have thought this affected an EU citizen, just those from the rest of the world.
However I wouldn't have thought this affected an EU citizen, just those from the rest of the world.
Sep 23rd 2014, 6:41 am
#3
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Dec 2009
Location: Aracena area Huelva Spain
Posts: 1,631
Re: Disappointment at the registry office
I feel a bit bad as this is only my second post on this forum, but I thought I should share a bad experience that happened to us today.
Firstly I'd like to say that I love Spain, and I have a lot of respect for the country I've proudly called home for the last 18 months. However after what happened to us today, I'm left feeling deeply disheartened and disappointed with the system here.
Little over a week ago, on the 12th of September, I was lucky enough to marry the love of my life, who happens to be a Spanish citizen. Today, we had an appointment with the registry office of Blanes, the town where we live, to file the paperwork and get everything official. It's worth noting that we had tried to do this before the actual wedding date, but when we went to the office in April to book an appointment, they gave us the 22nd September, stating that, “We'd practically left it until the day of the wedding to do this”. In retrospect perhaps we should have seen this as a warning of things to come.
As with everything here, there's often a mountain of official documents that need to be obtained. As a British citizen, understandably there's even more. So over the last six months, we've been working hard to get everything in order, and experience has taught us to be thorough. To date I've purchased a new official copy of my birth certificate, and have made multiple trips to the British consulate to obtain the required certificates we were told we needed. All of this had to be timed perfectly to coincide with the somewhat strict validity imposed – for instance we were informed that my marital status certificate would only be valid for 3 months from issue. Just those bits of paperwork have set me back in excess of 600 euros, not to mention the lost earnings from the days I needed to take away from work to obtain them. But I figured it would be worth it in the long run after all.
So we fast forward to today at 1:30pm in the registry office, where my wife, her brother and I are sitting with pretty much every bit of paperwork we own, patiently awaiting our appointment. After waiting for some time we were initially spoken to by an unfriendly woman who rudely asked us if we had an appointment. We informed her we did, and off she marched.
Our names get called, and up we go. A different woman starts asking us for our forms and paperwork, and appropriate photocopies, all of which we start handing over. And then things went bad.
One of the requirements is proof of address for the last two years. We have been living in Blanes for the last 18 months, having moved here from Brighton in the UK. Proof of address is fine here as we have official documents from where we have registered with the town hall, but our proof of address from the UK is in the form of a tenancy agreement (and a huge stack of council tax and utility bills with our names on them). Despite only needing the date, our names and the address of our previous residence to be shown on the document, the woman outright refused to accept it. Her reasoning? The date on the document was displayed in English. Apparently there's a huge difference between “12th October 2012” and “12 Octubre 2012”, and it's impossible for a non English speaker to make the leap. She steadfastly refused to budge on this and rather than offer us help or advice, got her colleague involved (the same man who told us we were booking practically on the day of the wedding) who did nothing but be rude and patronizing. At one point he even whistled to silence my wife like a dog, which obviously we didn't take very kindly to. The whole incident left us all feeling helpless, frustrated and very angry with our treatment, and we were eventually escorted out of the building presumably for holding up the next person waiting for the same treatment.
As I say, I love Spain, always have and probably always will, but the sheer amount of bureaucracy and jobsworth government employees here is a nightmare. Ask anyone Spanish and they'll undoubtedly agree with you, and tell you, “It's just the way it is”. Sure it's no picnic in England either, but for all it's faults, at least in my experience even the most frustrating of paperwork problems is still resolved fairly quickly. Regardless, there's no need for staff to be rude and arrogant towards anyone. Our treatment today was utterly disgusting, and considering the big song and dance that the government here make about Gibraltar, it's a sad state of affairs that it currently seems our best option to fly there where we can get everything official in 48 hours.
I hate to rant, but I'm wondering if anyone else has been through a similar experience and if there's anything we can do about it. If anything hopefully this post will at least serve as a bit of a heads up for anyone else planning to get married here, who hasn't been here for the full two years yet.
Firstly I'd like to say that I love Spain, and I have a lot of respect for the country I've proudly called home for the last 18 months. However after what happened to us today, I'm left feeling deeply disheartened and disappointed with the system here.
Little over a week ago, on the 12th of September, I was lucky enough to marry the love of my life, who happens to be a Spanish citizen. Today, we had an appointment with the registry office of Blanes, the town where we live, to file the paperwork and get everything official. It's worth noting that we had tried to do this before the actual wedding date, but when we went to the office in April to book an appointment, they gave us the 22nd September, stating that, “We'd practically left it until the day of the wedding to do this”. In retrospect perhaps we should have seen this as a warning of things to come.
As with everything here, there's often a mountain of official documents that need to be obtained. As a British citizen, understandably there's even more. So over the last six months, we've been working hard to get everything in order, and experience has taught us to be thorough. To date I've purchased a new official copy of my birth certificate, and have made multiple trips to the British consulate to obtain the required certificates we were told we needed. All of this had to be timed perfectly to coincide with the somewhat strict validity imposed – for instance we were informed that my marital status certificate would only be valid for 3 months from issue. Just those bits of paperwork have set me back in excess of 600 euros, not to mention the lost earnings from the days I needed to take away from work to obtain them. But I figured it would be worth it in the long run after all.
So we fast forward to today at 1:30pm in the registry office, where my wife, her brother and I are sitting with pretty much every bit of paperwork we own, patiently awaiting our appointment. After waiting for some time we were initially spoken to by an unfriendly woman who rudely asked us if we had an appointment. We informed her we did, and off she marched.
Our names get called, and up we go. A different woman starts asking us for our forms and paperwork, and appropriate photocopies, all of which we start handing over. And then things went bad.
One of the requirements is proof of address for the last two years. We have been living in Blanes for the last 18 months, having moved here from Brighton in the UK. Proof of address is fine here as we have official documents from where we have registered with the town hall, but our proof of address from the UK is in the form of a tenancy agreement (and a huge stack of council tax and utility bills with our names on them). Despite only needing the date, our names and the address of our previous residence to be shown on the document, the woman outright refused to accept it. Her reasoning? The date on the document was displayed in English. Apparently there's a huge difference between “12th October 2012” and “12 Octubre 2012”, and it's impossible for a non English speaker to make the leap. She steadfastly refused to budge on this and rather than offer us help or advice, got her colleague involved (the same man who told us we were booking practically on the day of the wedding) who did nothing but be rude and patronizing. At one point he even whistled to silence my wife like a dog, which obviously we didn't take very kindly to. The whole incident left us all feeling helpless, frustrated and very angry with our treatment, and we were eventually escorted out of the building presumably for holding up the next person waiting for the same treatment.
As I say, I love Spain, always have and probably always will, but the sheer amount of bureaucracy and jobsworth government employees here is a nightmare. Ask anyone Spanish and they'll undoubtedly agree with you, and tell you, “It's just the way it is”. Sure it's no picnic in England either, but for all it's faults, at least in my experience even the most frustrating of paperwork problems is still resolved fairly quickly. Regardless, there's no need for staff to be rude and arrogant towards anyone. Our treatment today was utterly disgusting, and considering the big song and dance that the government here make about Gibraltar, it's a sad state of affairs that it currently seems our best option to fly there where we can get everything official in 48 hours.
I hate to rant, but I'm wondering if anyone else has been through a similar experience and if there's anything we can do about it. If anything hopefully this post will at least serve as a bit of a heads up for anyone else planning to get married here, who hasn't been here for the full two years yet.
) If you pretend you didn't know a certain paper is needed for whatever you need to do next... It probably won't be. There are certainly so many rules they can't possibly know them all. Is it the actual marriage certificate you need or something else?We wanted to update the Padron a few years ago but nobody seemed quite sure how to do it then. Well we actually needed the certificate this year...So we went back and asked for it again. This time it was ten minutes a bit of photocopying and, as they say Ya esta! Best wishes and have a wonderful life together. I'm sure this struggling together will if anything strengthen your marriage! Take this as a bit of a lesson. If you can avoid tangling yourself in red tape...do. Always ask yourself if there is an easier way like the other poster said. If you'd known about it...you'd have probably married in England!
Sep 23rd 2014, 7:20 am
#4
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Joined: Apr 2010
Location: London (mainly)/Oliva
Posts: 2,137
Re: Disappointment at the registry office
I am sorry for the position you found yourselves but bureaucracy can be over the top in Spain. I am sure you shall get sorted.
This clip has been posted many times before but pretty well sums up Spain's love of the forms etc. Always makes me smile.
Good luck
This clip has been posted many times before but pretty well sums up Spain's love of the forms etc. Always makes me smile.
Good luck
Last edited by johnnyone; Sep 23rd 2014 at 7:24 am.
Sep 23rd 2014, 7:27 am
#5
MODERATOR
Joined: Mar 2007
Location: Costa Valencia
Posts: 14,800
Re: Disappointment at the registry office
I feel a bit bad as this is only my second post on this forum, but I thought I should share a bad experience that happened to us today.
As I say, I love Spain, always have and probably always will, but the sheer amount of bureaucracy and jobsworth government employees here is a nightmare. Ask anyone Spanish and they'll undoubtedly agree with you, and tell you, “It's just the way it is”. Sure it's no picnic in England either, but for all it's faults, at least in my experience even the most frustrating of paperwork problems is still resolved fairly quickly. Regardless, there's no need for staff to be rude and arrogant towards anyone. Our treatment today was utterly disgusting, and considering the big song and dance that the government here make about Gibraltar, it's a sad state of affairs that it currently seems our best option to fly there where we can get everything official in 48 hours.
I hate to rant, but I'm wondering if anyone else has been through a similar experience and if there's anything we can do about it. If anything hopefully this post will at least serve as a bit of a heads up for anyone else planning to get married here, who hasn't been here for the full two years yet.
As I say, I love Spain, always have and probably always will, but the sheer amount of bureaucracy and jobsworth government employees here is a nightmare. Ask anyone Spanish and they'll undoubtedly agree with you, and tell you, “It's just the way it is”. Sure it's no picnic in England either, but for all it's faults, at least in my experience even the most frustrating of paperwork problems is still resolved fairly quickly. Regardless, there's no need for staff to be rude and arrogant towards anyone. Our treatment today was utterly disgusting, and considering the big song and dance that the government here make about Gibraltar, it's a sad state of affairs that it currently seems our best option to fly there where we can get everything official in 48 hours.
I hate to rant, but I'm wondering if anyone else has been through a similar experience and if there's anything we can do about it. If anything hopefully this post will at least serve as a bit of a heads up for anyone else planning to get married here, who hasn't been here for the full two years yet.
Problems and complaints should always be addressed to a moderator who will look into the matter and deal with it efficiently and fairly. Our members who post in the Spain Forums are usually friendly and helpful with a wealth of knowledge about the issues of living in Spain. I hope that you enjoy your time participating in the forums.
Please let me know if you need any further help.
Rosemary
Sep 23rd 2014, 9:28 am
#6
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 7,749
Re: Disappointment at the registry office
We didnt have any problems. The whole process was easy, but we did get all documents officially translated into Spanish. That is normal process
Remember that there are 46 million people in Spain. Some are great, some are horrible. Like anywhere else really. Your experience is just that, an experience, but it shouldnt put you off anything else
Oh and by the way, I thought Catalunya isnt Spain
That's what they like to tell us anyway!
Sep 23rd 2014, 9:34 am
#7
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 982
Re: Disappointment at the registry office
Why didn't you just marry in the UK? It is valid in Spain surely? I think what you may have run in to is the Spanish equivelent of the UK's 'marriage of convenience' laws, that is marry a person to get residency and then clutching the vital residents paperwork dissapear and never see each other again.
However I wouldn't have thought this affected an EU citizen, just those from the rest of the world.
However I wouldn't have thought this affected an EU citizen, just those from the rest of the world.
I am sure many will say it can and has been done many times without problems over here in Spain and I'm sure that's true, in fact my son and his wife attended the wedding of UK friends in Nerja only a couple of weeks back, so obviously any potential problems were overcome although I don't know the details.
Sep 24th 2014, 7:31 am
#8
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Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 2,675
Re: Disappointment at the registry office
We got married a year ago and although we have lived here for many years, we decided on a UK Register office (note not Registry!) just to avoid the kind of problems outlined by the OP. We may have been wrong and over cautious I accept but all went smoothly and very friendly with the staff plus friends and family could attend without problems of travelling over etc.
I am sure many will say it can and has been done many times without problems over here in Spain and I'm sure that's true, in fact my son and his wife attended the wedding of UK friends in Nerja only a couple of weeks back, so obviously any potential problems were overcome although I don't know the details.
I am sure many will say it can and has been done many times without problems over here in Spain and I'm sure that's true, in fact my son and his wife attended the wedding of UK friends in Nerja only a couple of weeks back, so obviously any potential problems were overcome although I don't know the details.
Sep 25th 2014, 7:29 am
#10
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Joined: Jun 2010
Location: Disneylandia
Posts: 1,824
Re: Disappointment at the registry office
I am sorry for the position you found yourselves but bureaucracy can be over the top in Spain. I am sure you shall get sorted.
This clip has been posted many times before but pretty well sums up Spain's love of the forms etc. Always makes me smile.
spanish bureacracy - YouTube
Good luck
This clip has been posted many times before but pretty well sums up Spain's love of the forms etc. Always makes me smile.
spanish bureacracy - YouTube
Good luck
Great when you see someone get one over on the jobsworths.
ciao for now,
'o nonno (el abuelo)
Oct 23rd 2014, 8:51 am
#11
Just Joined
Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2014
Posts: 4
Re: Disappointment at the registry office
Thanks everyone for the messages of support. Decided though to opt to take a short holiday to Gibraltar and make it official there rather than deal with the headache ... although now we're currently waiting on a copy of my other half's birth certificate from the same office 
so who knows how long that'll take!
Lol! Indeed, although that seems to be all the media want's to talk about here. Aside from the occasional joke, "You should learn Catalan too" some of my Spanish friends say to me when I bumble my way through Spanish .. it really seems to just be a vocal minority who really want independence.
so who knows how long that'll take!Lol! Indeed, although that seems to be all the media want's to talk about here. Aside from the occasional joke, "You should learn Catalan too" some of my Spanish friends say to me when I bumble my way through Spanish .. it really seems to just be a vocal minority who really want independence.
Oct 23rd 2014, 9:40 am
#12
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Feb 2007
Location: Land of no recession
Posts: 10,718
