If you are having friends or family to stay this year in your home remember that the official invitation to visit Spain from the police could take up to two months to obtain. As we have said it is not a legal requirement for Britons but it could make life easier when you arrive in Spain because the "invitation" states where the visitor will be staying and who.
The reason why the invitation exists is simple; when a person travels to Spain and crosses the country’s borders, he or she must explain what brought them to the country and where they will be staying. It is usually required to show that the person has a round-trip plane ticket, sufficient financial resources, hotel reservations in all the places he or she intends to visit, etc.
However, this document can not be obtained in a matter of days. Firstly, the person who is inviting the visitor must take all the relevant documents to the police station. They must be legally resident in Spain and have the necessary paperwork. The police will then process and issue the invitation.
The official invitation is only for non-European Union citizens because EU residents have free movement of travel.
The invitations comes on top for the 90 day rule which means that non-resident Britons can only stay in Spain for 180 days a year in two blocks of 90 days.
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What a load of nonsense.
Other countries (where an automatic 3 month visa applies to a UK passport), are only interested in that you have a valid return ticket.
Poll Will you be coming on holiday to Mallorca this Easter? Perhaps not the most inspired poll question for a local-focused English newspaper in Spain?
I’m sure the police have got much more pressing things to do than this nonsense.
Legally resident? So I'm a property owner, and EU citizen, but not a resident, so can't have my brother from Canada and his Chinese wife visit, whether I'm home or not?
More clickbait 🙄 You know, in some communities, if you want to paint your bedroom, technically, you're obliged to get planning permission; A professional painting service must submit a presupuesto and stating which room(s) color, type of paint, what kind of tools they'll use... for approval by the ajuntamento. Although nobody ever does this (or likely doesn't even know about it) and AFAIK, it's never been enforced, anywhere (besides, impossible to enforce anyway), but if you choose to indulge this process, they'll be happy take the fees and process it. As this elusive police invitation thing has apparently been on the books since 2007, and to date, I'm not aware of anyone ever asking for it from anyone ... It sure smells like more tabloid sensationalist clickbait.
And if you want to scare residents off completely from inviting British guests why don’t you also add the cost of processing an application (€75 I believe) plus a further fee (max €10) for the actual invitation letter which, incidentally, has to be mailed or couriered to the visitor before their visit. A scanned copy isn’t accepted. Or is all that going to be in your next instalment of this saga?!