Pocaloca

You have to remember who this legislation is really aimed at - not well-heeled Brits who have carefully planned their retirement, but East Europeans who arrive with nothing. The Brits are just caught up in it because you can't treat different EU countries' citizens differently.

lynnxa

yes - you have to prove to the govt that your healthcare is paid for - which is what the UK will do if you get a state pension - you have to produce form S1when you go to register....

you can go to a Spanish state doctor or hospital if you don't qualify for state healthcare.... but you'd have to pay

Fred James

I'm not sure what you mean by becoming "Fully Resident". This is not really a residency issue, it is a registration issue.

The law says that to stay in Spain for more than 90 consecutive days you have to register and to do that you have to prove health cover and sufficient resources. If you can't do that in theory you can't stay.

Don't confuse this with tax residency which is an entirely different matter and potentially completely separate to this registration process. You can be tax resident but not required to register depending on the pattern of your visits.

Its a crazy system!

mikeglover

If i didnt want to pay for medical insurance, but instead decided that i was happy to pay privately, i presume that they would say that i had not demonstrated that i had healthcare in place and so would refuse my request for residency. Is it a definate requirement of living here ( i know that we would become 'fiscally resident' and therefore obliged to pax income tax etc ) if we are here for over 182 days a year, to obtain full residency?

Fred James

No, having the money to be able to go private is not acceptable - you have to have something in place such as reciprocal health cover or insurance. Can you afford a heart transplant?

EsuriJohn

They are also trying to weed out those UK Brits who wrongly use the EHIC card to scam health cover even when they are full time resident in Spain.

mikeglover

But then, the ehic only covers emergency treatment, not ongoing so relying on ehic would be very risky. This is probably a daft question but i read somewhere that once someone becomes 'resident', they forego access to the UK health service. If one plans to stay for more than 90 days at a time, say, 4 consequtive months a year, they have to register and prove they have income and health cover. Does this mean though, that once they have registered, they then lose all access to UK health service? If so, what about the other 8 months they spend in the UK ? I appreciate i am probably missing quite a few points here so apologise for my naivety

Pocaloca

You wouldn't register as resident in Spain if you were only going to be here for 4 months of the year though, would you? The 90 day rule is for people planning to actually live in Spain, not people who come for extended holidays but still have their main residence in another EU country. So you would be able to use your EHIC and stay registered with the NHS.

mikeglover

So you can stay for more than 90 consecutive days without having to register as long as you dont intend moving here full time?

njf

Our experience in Marbella last month was pretty smooth. As a 63 year old recent retiree, for proof of income, I produced a certificate from my Spanish bank (for which I paid about 13€) confirming the total amounts in our two accounts with them. They did not ask to see proof of 'income'.

They did want proof of medical cover but we had recently signed up with Sanitas for this to cover us at least until I get to 65. I showed them the Sanitas policy.

After queuing for about an hour and a half before they opened, we were first in line. We were out within half an hour of getting in clutching our nice new residencia cards.

Pocaloca

Well, officially you are supposed to register after 90 days but I can't imagine why anyone would be expected to do that if they had a return date to go back to their home in the UK.

mikeglover

Good point

Fred James

They would also have to go through the rigmarole of signing off the register every time as well.

I said it was crazy! It's hardly surprising no one bothers.

Pocaloca

As I said earlier, you have to step back and remember why these changes were introduced. The intention was never to prevent relatively well-off Northern Europeans coming here for a fix of winter sunshine, but to slow down the mass immigration from Eastern Europe. They don't come to Spain for a long holiday, they come to look for work - and these days there isn't any. So after 90 days they have to show proof of income or return home.

Fred James

I somehow don't think they will bother to attempt to sign on the register - they will just stay here and there is little that can be done to check how long they have been here.