Talk Quesada forum

Can someone explain the amount of time you can stay in Spain. I understand it's 90 days at a time 180 days in total per year as a non resident.

We have a house in Spain as well as the UK and are UK residents.

We usually spend about 5 months in Spain,6 or 8 weeks at a time although we were thinking of staying from September this year until January next year.

When we return to the UK do we have to stay for 90 days before we return again or is the 180 days accumulative?

Pete has directed you to the replies on your same query on the Torrievieja Forum.In addition to those...

Previous to this year you would have had no problems staying Septemer to January, many people look to spend winter in Spain for 5 months or so. Yes of course you will have read that after 3 months you had to apply for residency etc but as an EU citizen noone paid any attention to that, no record was kept at immigration on your comings and goings and indeed trying to go through the whole residency process just for a 5 month stay was nonsensical. The main crunch time was that if you spent more than 6 months you would normally be regarded as a fiscal resident , liable for Spanish tax , and that was the more serious point as the taxman might get interested in you. During this year to December 2020 nothing has changed. But as of January next year visiting UK citizens will be subject to the same conditions as other non visa third countries, which seems to involve obtaining an ETIAS travel clearance document which allows 90day stay in 180 days across the whole Schengen Zone.And travel electronically logged on entrance and exit to the Schengen Zone, so enforceable.
So you could arrive this September as normal, but would want to keep alert for information on what to do as December approaches and change of immigration regime applies to govern your exit. I would hope there will be a lot more information made available by the UK government in due course. In the meantime you may need to rely on EU commission information on the ETIAS scheme. I'll find the link and post this.

The ETIAS scheme is designed for short term visitors who don't need a visa. While the time limits involved put the cabosh on all those winter swallows who normally spend more than 4 months, there is almost certainly going to be a way you can stay longer legally (more than 90 days) for the winter in future, it will probably mean obtaining a long stay visa of some kind. I dare say we will find out in the course of this year. This is all assuming you are UK passport holders. (If, for example, you have an Irish passport, there is no change and you can continue to come and go like before.)

Here's a link which explains the ETIAS. https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/es/etias/

And here's current UK government advice. https://www.gov.uk/visit-europe-1-janua ... quirements It doesn't explain the ETIAS though, so a case of wait and see I guess.
The government advice is supremely unhelpful though, even suggests that carrying your laptop with you for business might be an import/export issue (hard to believe) but no help or advice on what to do. Heigh
ho.

And more information explicitly for UK citizens about ETIAS

https://www.etiasvisa.com/etias-news/et ... k-citizens

Shiva wrote:During this year to December 2020 nothing has changed.....
So you could arrive this September as normal

I don’t think that this is entirely true.
It’s being reported that U.K. passport holder details are now being recorded on entry/exit from Spain - at least when entering/exiting via airports and ferry terminals.
Presumably, if you entered in September and had an unbroken stay until December then some questions may be asked, as you would have exceeded the (currentky unenforceable) 3 month maximum stay without applying for residentia.

Of course it’s e timely possible that a person may have left and re-entered Spain via a land border without their details being recorded. This would reset the clock on their 3 month stay (under current regulations), but the immigration authorities may ask to see some evidence of this exit and re-entry.
For people who have genuinely done this - taking their car in to France or Portugal for encampment, then keeping some petrol purchase receipts, and taking some photos along the way would no doubt be a sensible move which could prevent lots of hassle at the airport on your way home.

Anyone planning to enter Spain before the end of the transition period, and exit after the 1st of January 2021 (assuming the date doesn’t change) would be well advised to look out for advice about how to handle this scenario. Presumably applying for an ETIAS visa waiver in advance would be the thing to do, assuming that the ETIAS system is up and running by then.

Pete.

Thank you for your advice and as you said Pete the same query was put on the Torrevieja site by my wife because for some reason it didn't go through on this site at first. Tom

Pete, you say "it is being reported..." re monitoring of movement. Where has this been reported? What kind of monitoring? Not challenging what you say, just seeking clarification. Might this actually be more to with counting traveller numbers? It is certainly not consistent. Arriving at Alicante airport myself two weeks ago they didn't even bother with any passport control, just offloaded everyone into the baggage area.

It would be nice if home owning, car owning non residents would be exempt from taxes such as suma, non resident tax, and costs of services that are not being used e.g road tax, internet retainer etc for periods they are not allowed in the country !