Residents in Spain as of December 31

ATTENTION: WITH THE ENTRY/EXIT SYSTEM IN OPERATION, THE BENEFICIARIES OF THE WITHDRAWAL AGREEMENT WILL BE OBLIGED TO OBTAIN A TIE (FOREIGNER IDENTITY CARD) TO BE EXEMPT FROM THE NEW CONTROLS ESTABLISHED BY THIS SYSTEM

New requirements for border crossing after entry into operation of Entry/Exit System

With the coming into operation of the new EU external border crossing computer systems (Entry/Exit System; EES, expected in November 2024, and European Travel Information and Authorisation System; ETIAS in the first half of 2025) the Alien Identity Card (“TIE art.50 TUE”) will be the only document that allows the beneficiaries of the Withdrawal Agreement to be exempt from the accounting of their time of stay in the EES and from the request for travel authorisation through the ETIAS.The registration certificate or family card of a European Union citizen will therefore not be enough to avoid these controls.

 

Information addressed to UK nationals residing in Spain before 31 December 2020 and their family members

The Withdrawal Agreement established a transitional period that took place from 1 February 2020, when Britain’s departure from the European Union became effective and it became a third country, until 31 December 2020.

However, the Withdrawal Agreement establishes that United Kingdom nationals and their relatives, third-country nationals, when they were residing in Spain before the end of that transitional period and provided that they met the conditions established, can maintain a regime similar to that guaranteed by the application of Union law (except the right to vote and stand as a candidate in elections to the European Parliament and the exercise of the European Union Citizens’ Legislative Initiative, among others).

This means that certain UK nationals have, under Brexit, a special migration regime based on the Withdrawal Agreement and distinct from that of third-country nationals. Well, the Withdrawal Agreement offers two possibilities for Member States to address the process of documenting this status:

  1. establish a procedure of a constitutive nature, in which a new residence status must be requested within a specific period in the host State (Article 18(1));
  2. not to apply such procedure and to issue, if so requested by citizens, a residence document expressly identifying them as beneficiaries of the Agreement (18.4).

Spain opted for this second option and on the basis of this, and the Commission Implementing Decision of 21 February 2020 on the documents to be issued by the Member States pursuant to Article 18(1) and (4) and Article 26 of the Agreement, on 4 July the Instruction signed by the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, through the Directorate-General for Migration, together with the Ministry of Interior, was published through the Directorate-General for Police.

This instruction determines the procedure for obtaining the document that expressly accredits the beneficiaries of the Withdrawal Agreement as such by distinguishing between those who already had a certificate of registration or family card of a citizen of the European Union, and those who were not in possession of them for various reasons. The established system facilitates the accreditation of the status of beneficiary for those who had fulfilled the obligation to have the registration certificate or the family card since in these cases it is a procedure in a single step before the police offices in which one document is exchanged for another and thus obtain the TIE art.50.

For their part, those who never had the required documentation can go to the Immigration Offices and prove the status of beneficiaries of the Withdrawal Agreement at any time and with any means of proof valid in law. Once the favourable resolution has been obtained, the police offices are asked to issue the TIE art.50 TUE.

With the coming into force of the EU’s new IT systems for crossing external borders (Entry/Exit System; EES, expected in November 2024, and European Travel Information and Authorisation System; ETIAS in the first half of 2025), this card “TIE art.50 TUE” will be the only document that allows the beneficiaries of the Withdrawal Agreement to be exempt from the accounting of their time spent in the EES and from the request for travel authorisation through the ETIAS. That is, the registration certificate or family card will not be valid to avoid these controls.

Therefore, all those British citizens who do not yet have TIE art. 50 TUE, you must request it as soon as possible.

For more information you can consult this guide of possible questions and answers on the situation of UK nationals residing in Spain and their relatives on the occasion of BREXIT. It is also available in English.

In addition, in the following links you can find more information about who benefits from the Withdrawal Agreement and what their rights are:

Those who arrive after the end of the transitional period, that is from 1 January 2021, and in general those who are not included in the application of the Withdrawal Agreement, will be covered by the general regime on aliens, that is, the national regime applicable to third-country nationals.