French Senator Proposes 6 month Homeowner Visa

I'm with Kingy0 here...I don't actually understand the reasoning. People who would have maybe spent 6 months are now spending 3 plus the odd week, and are then going back to their home country to spend their money there instead!

However - it is what it is. Maybe the UK will reciprocate with an equivalent deal for EU citizens at some point.

Darro wrote:It's not an April fools joke but I can see significant resistance due to the highly discrimatory nature of the proposal in it being for 2nd home owners only.

I shouldn't imagine many who are not property owners would be looking to stay beyond the 90 in 180.

"The United Kingdom continues to be the country that sends the most people to Spain with 18.2% of the total.

In February, a total of 784,496 Brits arrived in Spain, representing an increase of 35.6% compared to a year earlier.

Compared to the pre-pandemic year of 2019, the (tourist) expenditure figure for February was 12.9% higher"

https://www.thelocal.es/20230403/spain- ... n-february

Not sure which part of the above demands concessions for holiday home owners.

Not only EU citizens.

183 days has been the rule in UK for decades, long before the EU and is nothing whatsoever to do with Brexit.

jpeg wrote:

BNT162b2 wrote:I'm with Kingy0 here...I don't actually understand the reasoning. People who would have maybe spent 6 months are now spending 3 plus the odd week, and are then going back to their home country to spend their money there instead!

However - it is what it is. Maybe the UK will reciprocate with an equivalent deal for EU citizens at some point.

EU citizens are allowed to stay in UK for six months

Exactly. So maybe the UK should match what the EU consider is the better option...90 days in a rolling 180.

It MUST be better all-round, as that's what the EU rule is.

Kingy0 wrote:I think the question should be why the EU has the 90 day rule in the first place. It's not for Brits or home owners to want to benefit from special arrangements since brexit but, there is a fundamental question to be asked of the EU as to why they insist on the 90 day rule for extended stays. I have no idea why that is but have to accept it. As a so called swallow of 20 years I have spent a considerable amount of euro's which would well exceed that of individual holiday makers but must concede that overall holiday makers would collectively bring in far more than swallows. So at the moment I like all other second home owners have to stick to the rules. However, there is no reason why people should not advocate for a change to the 90 day schengen rule for the EU. Most other countries such as the UK and USA have a 180 day rule so seems reasonable that we ask the EU to consider a change.

It's not a coincidence that the 90 days in the 90/180 Schengen rule aligns with the individual member states' residency laws. Prior to Brexit, UK citizens were required to register their presence in Spain if they stayed beyond 90 days, but because we had Freedom of Movement, the authorities couldn't easily check movements across internal borders with no control, and they didn't care anyway. Expats helped to confuse the issue by calling the registration process "Residency" - it wasn't, that's why our Green cards said, "Certificado de Registro" on the front, not "Residencia". The problem is that "swallows" think they've had their right to stay longer than 90 days taken away - they haven't, they should always have been complying with Spain's residency laws, but Freedom of Movement allowed them to ignore that requirement without getting caught.

Kingy0 wrote:I think the question should be why the EU has the 90 day rule in the first place. It's not for Brits or home owners to want to benefit from special arrangements since brexit but, there is a fundamental question to be asked of the EU as to why they insist on the 90 day rule for extended stays. I have no idea why that is but have to accept it. As a so called swallow of 20 years I have spent a considerable amount of euro's which would well exceed that of individual holiday makers but must concede that overall holiday makers would collectively bring in far more than swallows. So at the moment I like all other second home owners have to stick to the rules. However, there is no reason why people should not advocate for a change to the 90 day schengen rule for the EU. Most other countries such as the UK and USA have a 180 day rule so seems reasonable that we ask the EU to consider a change.

No, UK and USA do not have a 180 day rule in one go. You can only stay in the USA visa free for 90 days whereas US citizens can stay in UK 180 days visa free.
Australia the same without a visa, 90 days for UK citizens but Aussies in UK 180 days.
Plenty of other countries have to abide by the same rules.

And what about the Americans who are buying homes in Spain? Lots more especially in Mallorca but they are restricted to 90 in 180 as well. Last year, more than 1200 Americans bought second homes in Spain and with the upcoming direct flights from USA that could increase significantly. Over 30,000 US citizens own homes in the Schengen area. 7,000 in Portugal and double that in France. Change the rules for them as well?

Sounds more like Brits are special so a special case should be made. Imagine the uproar from countries that would still be restricted to 90 days if a special case was made for UK.

Oh, and all this was well known before the Referendum.

The only difference is the UK was a member of the EU and shares the same Continent. There is a lot of goodwill towards the UK within EU member countries and a genuine sadness and regret that the UK left. I believe that EU countries would like the UK to stay as closely aligned to the EU as possible.

Bee

Bee wrote:The only difference is the UK WAS a member of the EU and shares the same Continent. There is a lot of goodwill towards the UK within EU member countries and a genuine sadness and regret that the UK left. I believe that EU countries would like the UK to stay as closely aligned to the EU as possible.

Bee

Sorry for hijacking your post.