CrunchyFr0g

My Spanish wife and I are due to travel to Spain on the Santander ferry next week, where we would be staying with my wife's mother and brother who she hasn't seen since before Covid.

We've just now learned about the Carta de Invitacion - too late for her mother to apply for it.

I can't find very much information about how it's being enforced after May 2021.

Does anyone have any experience of whether Brits are actually being turned away at the border if they plan to stay with in-laws?

Any experience greatly appreciated.

Millhouse

No one has ever asked me where I'm staying.

bobd22

I don't think it is being enforced? Certainly earlier in the year we had family visit and it was never mentioned whatsoever.

DLC

My sister just visited and she wasn't asked for it.

Barriej

Not needed we have had various visitors this year and some came by ferry.
Not asked for and its not being enforced.
To be honest I think the whole thing was blowup by the gutter press, trying to find ways to annoy normal folk.

spainrico

Forget it....

CrunchyFr0g

Forget getting in or forget worrying about it?

Thanks for the responses. It looks like it's not an issue.

Mark604

Took a ferry from Italy to Barcelona just a week ago and never asked for it or even thought about it.

spainrico

Good point! Forget about the letter....it is not currently required.

rspltd

My son and family arrived iin Lanzarote yesterday and sailed through the airport in 2 1/2 minutes - no travel details submitted, no passport stamped and picked whichever queue they wanted.

spainrico

The advice is to get passports stamped:

Passport stamping

Check your passport is stamped if you enter or exit the Schengen area through Spain as a visitor.

Border guards will use passport stamps to check you’re complying with the 90-day visa-free limit for short stays in the Schengen area. If relevant entry or exit stamps are not in your passport, border guards will presume that you have overstayed your visa-free limit.

You can show evidence of when and where you entered or exited the Schengen area, and ask the border guards to add this date and location in your passport. Examples of acceptable evidence include boarding passes and tickets.

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-ad...y-requirements

Yorick

The passports will be scanned in UK or here, And same going back to UK,

rspltd

I think , as often happens in Spain, the reality is often at variance with the rules if it judged to be expedient. The same scenario occurred for a friend only yesterday travelling to Paris by Eurostar, who was cursorily examined, no stamp and allowed to go. In fact he said it was quicker than before Brexit.

DLC

If you're not a resident you really should ask for that stamp on the way in in case the person who stamps you on the way out got out of the wrong side of the bed that morning.

growinspain

The police doing checks on the streets or roadside do not have the technology that the ones in the airports - ferry terminals have... Not getting a stamp could cause trouble or a long delay for you..

Not getting a stamp is really not something to be bragging or happy about