This third Case Study is about the so-called EU Registry Certificate (Certificado de Registro para Ciudadanos de la UE).
Here you can see a picture of my own EU Registry Certificate:
EU citizens are in a privileged position since they have the right to freely move through and reside in other EU countries and those that have signed the treaty on the European economic community.
Any EU citizen or citizen of a country part of the treaty on the European Economic Community or Switzerland has to register in Spain if they wish to live here for more than 3 months and obtain their EU Registry Certificate.
MEMBER STATES OF THE EU AND COUNTRIES PART OF THE TREATY ON THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC COMMUNITY
Germany, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Denmark, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein*, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway*, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Czech Republic, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland**
* Countries part of the Treaty on the European Economic Space
** Treaty of June 21st 1999, between the European Community and the Swiss Confederation, on free personal movement
The UNITED KINGDOM is not on this list anymore, because since July 2020 and until the end of this year, they are subject to a special application process for the Residence Card for UK Citizens. Click here for more info!
The Case
This Case Study is about my most recent client, a man from Portugal who has relocated to Barcelona to live here with his girlfriend who is a Spaniard. He is in his forties and wants to live here indefinitely working as a self-employed business owner.
The Documents
The client had not started building his business yet and we decided to go with the option to apply as a person without projected means of income in Spain. This means that the main documents the applicant has to present (1) economic means, for example a certain amount of € on a bank account and (2) private health insurance.
The client had a Spanish bank account already, which made this step a lot easier of course. He just had to go and get a recent bank extract with the bank's stamp.
We were able to put him in contact with a great insurance agent for one of Spain's best health insurance agencies who provided him with a comprehensive policy and the documents required for the application for the EU Certificate.
We filled in the forms for the client, paid the fee and obtained the appointment at the local Police Station.
The Appointment
As you probably heard, it is not easy to get an appointment for the EU Registry Certificate application in Barcelona. However, we were able to get a timely appointment at the Police Station in Barcelona city on Rambla Guipuscoa and accompanied the client.
We met the client at the Police Station with enough time to have a coffee, to enjoy meeting each other in person and to go through the documents. The client proceeded to sign the forms and after we explained about the process of presenting the application, we went to the Police Station.
We were lucky and after only 5 minutes they called our number. After another 10 minutes, the nice lady behind the counter had reviewed all the documents and returned the originals to our client.
Finally, she put the coveted green paper in her printer and printed out the client's EU Registry Certificate with his NIE (Foreigner Identity Number) and presented it to him. The client now has 5 years until he can apply for the Permanent EU Registry Certificate and can enjoy his time in Barcelona, concentrating on building his business and his life here.
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