Query about 90 day stay in Spain for Irish passport holders.

Hi All,

We arrived in Spain to do some house hunting on 13th Oct 2022. We checked with our Spanish solicitors about tax residency beforehand and they confirmed that the 183 day tax residency counter will start afresh on 1st Jan 2023 in line with the Spanish tax year so we can stay for 183 days from then before becoming tax resident. So far so good.....

However, we have seen contradicting information online regarding the 90 day stay rules. Our query relates to the 90 day maximum stay rules (without registering with Spanish authorities) for an Irish (EU) passport holder. We have seen references online that state you must leave within 90 days or risk fines and you cannot not come back for another 90 days and other references that state, you can leave on day 90, stay a night in France or Portugal and then return a day later to restart your 90 day counter from scratch. I know at the moment, the rules for UK passport holders mean they can only stay for 90 days in a 180 day period but some online references are stating EU citizens can get around it by exiting and re-entering a day later.

Anyone know the facts in this instance?

Cheers.

John & Angie.

My Irish friend has stayed beyond 90 days nothings ever happened to him and a few others, you have a golden passport enjoy it and stop worrying, i wish my partner had one there are several Brits looking for Irish Grandparents

Gasgit wrote:My Irish friend has stayed beyond 90 days nothings ever happened to him and a few others, you have a golden passport enjoy it and stop worrying, i wish my partner had one there are several Brits looking for Irish Grandparents

Cheers Gasgit and thanks for reply.

Regards.

John.

the problem is the person traveling with the holder of an irish passport, and they have a British passport

can they stay as well....it's not clear

Barry martyn wrote:the problem is the person traveling with the holder of an irish passport, can he orshe?

its not clear

Hi Barry,

Both people are EU citizens with Irish passports.

Cheers.

John.

I think gasgit is probably right in practice. Neither Ireland nor the UK have ever been in Schengen and when the UK was in the EU Spain turned a blind eye to the Schengen rules. This may therefore continue to apply to Ireland.

If you wanted to strictly follow the Schengen rules then travelling to Portugal or France, for one day or 90 days, wouldn't help as they are also in Schengen, so you wouldn't be leaving the Schengen zone if you went there.

You would be left with returning to the UK or Ireland, but in practice your Irish passports will probably be sufficient for the time being.

If you have an EU passport it won’t be stamped at the airport so in practice you can stay as long as you wish.

earlybay wrote:If you have an EU passport it won’t be stamped at the airport so in practice you can stay as long as you wish.

Hi Earlybay, thanks for your reply. We arrived by car and our passports were scanned at the border control but they were not stamped as you mentioned. However, I imagine there is some digital record of our entering the country and I guess when we leave our passports will be probably scanned again. I am waiting on a reply from our solicitor as well but immigration is not something they specialise in so they may not be able to give me the exact legal situation hence posting here.

Cheers.

John.

Paul Uden wrote:I think gasgit is probably right in practice. Neither Ireland nor the UK have ever been in Schengen and when the UK was in the EU Spain turned a blind eye to the Schengen rules. This may therefore continue to apply to Ireland.

If you wanted to strictly follow the Schengen rules then travelling to Portugal or France, for one day or 90 days, wouldn't help as they are also in Schengen, so you wouldn't be leaving the Schengen zone if you went there.

You would be left with returning to the UK or Ireland, but in practice your Irish passports will probably be sufficient for the time being.

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your reply. Like many things in Spain, not everything is black or white. We have also asked our solicitor here and await their reply but this is not their area and they may not be able to give me a concrete answer. I don't want to arrive at a border to be faced with a large fine. I imagine pleading ignorance with border control wouldn't get me very far. Lol.

Cheers.

John.

It will be interesting to hear what the "legal" answer is when you get it. I suspect it will be different from the 'in practice' one.