I read the story about the woman in Gibraltar being refused entry to Spain because of no exit stamp therefore border staff assumed she had overstayed. Also head stories of passengers returning back to the UK through Alicante airport and NOT receiving an exit stamp. What is going on. Also does anyone know what is happening to British nationals that have gone over the 90 days. I know what the rules written down are but so far I can’t find examples of fines or entry bans to British nationals. Where I live is absolutely full undocumented British. Surly by now people should be falling foul of This rule. And if the stamps are so important for entry/exit then why are some airports not doing them.

Putting stamps in passports is a manual activity and mistakes can happen. If you're non resident and don't get a stamp make sure you keep proof that you've left, or arrived in Spain. Currently, there's no other way for the border guard to check.

The Britiah in Portugal page on Facebook published some stories of people being fined a couple of days ago, one of them on the way to GB from Santander with a car. It’s happening.

Do you know which thread that was and I’ll have a look.

As has been said on a number of other occasions when you've mentioned this, it is highly unlikely that anyone will be pulled up for overstaying until they cross a Schengen border. If they're living in Spain and don't ever holiday outside the Schengen area, or want to return to the UK for anything, they could remain undetected for yonks, unless they did something silly or got caught out on some other administrative omission which occasioned a look into their immigration status.

How do you know your area is "absolutely full" of undocumented British?

It was posted by Ged Capper on 22 Oct. I found my way back to it by searching for Santander.

I think this may be the link
https://m.facebook.com/groups/Lovely...0063099073887/

Alot of people who I have talked to haven’t even got a TIE or residencia. Been in Spain for years. I think the general message is don’t go home (UK) and you will be fine. Just like how alot of Americans and other third country nationals settle in Spain.

That's OK until they get stopped by the police at a random check and show their UK licence. With no entry stamp on their passport they are clearly illegal.

I don’t think the usual police that don’t work at the ports and aero ports are dealing with visas. Even people I know who have to sign on at a police station don’t really get bothered on the overstaying. There are third country nationals that reside in Spain and have done for years and years no bother as long as you don’t go through the ports. Plenty of Americans and Russians in Spain. Not for me that Though I couldn’t fully commit to staying in any country forever.

Maybe you could push the boat out and post a link this time.

Maybe things are so bad where they come from, that's a prospect they can endure in exchange for relative safety, security and a chance of a reasonably regular income. And, possibly, a hope that they can find or be presented with a path to regularising their immigration status. It's not unheard of ...

However, the difference between them and UK nationals who have been living in Spain for years is that the latter have not necessarily committed any offence which could lead to their automatic expulsion - certainly not on the residency documentation issue alone - whereas the former have.

An interesting development on the dreaded Brexit passport stamping saga for the British.

We arrived back in Malaga this evening from our third unavoidable trip back to the UK in quick succession. On the way out, my (British) partner was about to have their passport stamped so we intervened and the border official made a phone call to their boss who said the passport should not be stamped because my partner is resident in Portugal. So we dodged that bullet but on the way through immigration at Malaga this evening, the border official ignored us and stamped the passport. When we objected, he asked if we were family so we produced our civil partnership certificate and he crossed out the stamp. This was solely on the grounds that I am an Irish national and we have a civil partnership - he took a photo of the certificate. Meanwhile, the queue behind us was really building up.

I sense the Spanish officials have very little sympathy because the British brought these problems upon themselves but one thing is for sure, if you overstay, you will be caught and punished.

Legal EU residency trumps any passport stamp hence the strong government advice to exchange green residencias for TIE's which are instantly recognisable by border control officials and airport check-in staff across the entire community.

Arguments against exchanging are both specious and facile and IMO it's about time the Spanish placed a 'drop dead' date on residencias effectively making an exchange mandatory.

Personally I have little sympathy for those who find themselves in difficulty because of their refusal to do so.

The above example involves a Portugal resident. Portugal hasn’t issued cards yet.