Feeling like a foreigner

Extranjero  ...foreigners here.


Spain is steeped in bureaucracy and paperwork and officialdom

To get Residencia and health cover,  you need NIE  number ( National Identity )  Padron (electoral register), proof of income into Spanish Bank, proof of health entitlement as a British Citizen in Europe, Passport, Deeds to the house, utility bills, passport and passport photos  , and copies of it all, plus the application form  and your family history.

I got all the forms from the Tourist Office. The Town Hall is where you get the Padron by getting there early  before the doors  open at 9am and getting your queue ticket. Then the masses turn up.  2pm they close.

To get residencia  is at the National Police Office by prior appointment, (about 2 weeks wait) and again jockeying for position with the masses  all waiting.  One has to go to the bank with a form to pay the 10.60 Euros tax and come back with the rubber stamped copy.  Then sit there and wait, eventually getting rubber stamped and going to another desk  to get the health cover card, but thats only a temporary one, so another day going to Social Dept  to get a permanant   one. Then you get a temporary permanent one and wait for the clinic to receive  your hard plastic one.

You have to take a translator, no one varies from Spanish, so I paid 70 Euros for a solicitor  to take me for residencia  and for ease and peace of mind. Even so, easy  it is not , the first time, complicated it is an experience, never been a foreigner before.

No cards are  given on the day,  they are prepared and then collected at another date.  So there is no one stop shop, it is multiple stop shops and go slowly.  The Bank has to be told about residencia  and lesser charges as a result.  Also one tries to go to the electricity office Iberdrola,  to wait in similar mayhem and witness much arguing and arm waving,  only to notice an out of date wall poster with a phone number to leave a message with and then they call back at 8pm, and eventually  you get somewhere as opposed to nowhere  and a headache.

Then have to go to the clinic, at least doctor speaks English, after a 2 hours wait, don't take a book take a library.  Hope you are not very ill.  The receptionists are as miserable as sin to get a cita, an appointment.  You have no choice of clinic, its the catchment area and a drive away.

At least the clinics are new and the hospitals. 10%  of the drug fee is what I have to pay on precription and I have to carry my SIP  (medical) card at all times, passport too really and driving licence.  The car  documents have to be carried in the car too at all times.

The Town Hall, Police Station and Iberdola Office, Bankia too are depressing long waiting rooms,  dark dingy drab, need decorating and just add to the experience. Imagine working there every day  YUK. 

A relief  once its done  taking 5 mornings in all to get that much legal and official.