Talk Quesada forum

Hi has anyone applied for the Spanish healthcare scheme - conenio especial, and if so, can you let me know if it was a difficult process and where to go to apply. I live in El Galan. We are under pensionable age and don't work in Spain but are residents. We want to to do it ourselves, its just a bit of guidance from someone who has already been through the process of applying successfully for the scheme that we need.

Many thanks

Jan

jankw wrote:Hi has anyone applied for the Spanish healthcare scheme - conenio especial, and if so, can you let me know if it was a difficult process and where to go to apply. I live in El Galan. We are under pensionable age and don't work in Spain but are residents. We want to to do it ourselves, its just a bit of guidance from someone who has already been through the process of applying successfully for the scheme that we need.

Many thanks

Jan

I too would be interested in the answer to Jans question.....I was under the impression that if you wanted residency and if you were under pension age and not working i.e. Paying into the spanish system via contributions...that you had to have private health care if you wanted to obtain residency ....please only reply if you know the correct answer ....not what you heard in the pub

Yes, you need private medical insurance valid for one year (you can't pay monthly as you have to prove you are covered for a year).
You can apply for the convenio especial after you have been a resident for a year.
It's been posted on here a few times but this is the link to the Citizens Advice Bureau Spain
That should answer some of your questions but it's from 2015 so not sure if the costs are still the same.

Tip: If you put convenio in the search box on the top right, you'll come up with loads of posts from people who have already gone on to the convenio especial.

Thanks Marcliff already looked on CAB site some of it wasn't that clear but I'll look on this site. Yes, Quesadasteve we've had private medical insurance for 2 year's now. To get residency you must have private health insurance if you don't work and are too young to claim a state pension. You must also have £7500 in your bank account before you can apply for residencia. If I've got any of this wrong I'm sure someone will know for definite as it was a while ago when we applied.

marcliff wrote:Yes, you need private medical insurance valid for one year (you can't pay monthly as you have to prove you are covered for a year).
You can apply for the convenio especial after you have been a resident for a year.
It's been posted on here a few times but this is the link to the Citizens Advice Bureau Spain
That should answer some of your questions but it's from 2015 so not sure if the costs are still the same.

Tip: If you put convenio in the search box on the top right, you'll come up with loads of posts from people who have already gone on to the convenio especial.

Sabadell bank offer a pay monthly private health insurance plan,Sabadell DKV salud........but its a 12mnths contract,

Yes must admit I was a bit worried when I read the reply from Marcliff about the private health insurance. We pay monthly (ours is with Caser) but contract is for a year and we were advised that this one will go towards getting our residency. Hope so as our appt is coming up soon.

Sorry, I meant you can't take it out for a month and pay......bit late but I meant to say you have to show a year's contract.
This is, though, getting all a bit bureaucratic, isn't it? Spain seems to be making it harder and harder to get an NIE or take out residency. Each national police station seems to have its own version of what they want you to show and now I'm told the "proof of income" has to be in a Spanish bank which is, surely, against EU rules on free trade?
A couple I know have been told they can't have an appointment for their residency for 3 months....I mean, that is ridiculous because I can't see that huge amount of people applying. And it means they would have to wait 15 months before getting on the convenio especial.
I've been to the stations at Orihuela Costa and Elche several times over the past 6 years and it's getting harder and harder, with more and more documentation and requirements, as the years have gone by.
It's almost as if they don't want anyone applying.

[email protected] Is our email contact for the Convenio Especiale. He speaks good English based in Alicante (I think). He deals with the finance on the Convenio Especiale but at least he will point you in the right direction. Everything Marcliff has mentioned is correct. €60 per month each. Must pay 100% of prescription charges. Covers you for all medical appointments etc including existing illnesses which is a bonus. Hope this helps

Yes Marcliff I agree, we had to wait for about 4 months for our appt. Furthermore our lawyer did say that a Dutch couple had been turned down because their money was in a bank account in The Netherlands rather than Spain.

As we have had to wait so long for our appt we will only have about 6 months left on our years private health insurance, does anyone know if this will be an issue or are you expected to have the 12 months from your residency appt?

My impression is that Brexit prompted some ex-pats "living under the wire" to regularise their situation, and certainly recent British Consul visits to this area and the associated Costa Blanca News headlines, "Get yourself legal", has resulted in many more Brits looking to obtain residency, which may have lead to the much longer lead times to obtain a Residencia appointment; otherwise, I think the requirements are much the same as they've always been.

We obtained Residencia last year (through Orihuela's Extranjeros office) and, in addition to the usual proof of ID, i.e. passport, NIE, we also had to provide certified bank statements from our Spanish bank account (Sabadell) which proved 6 months minimum income in Spain of Eu 600 per month, a year's private health insurance paid in advance (we only had 3 months left of the current cover) and proof of regular income in the UK - no specific minimum amount was cited by our Gestoria, but my Military pension and my wife's rental income from a property in the UK must have been sufficient.

When we applied, we were told that we had to pay for our private health insurance for a whole year, in order to obtain a certificate that would be sufficient for obtaining Residencia. The reason for this is because people had been buying health insurance on a month by month basis, obtaining their Residencia and then cancelling their insurance. Whilst it seems that Spanish law hasn't changed, various Extranjeros offices are applying the regulations in varying degrees. In Spain: twas ever thus.....