# Which extranjeria offices are the best?



## director1 (Dec 28, 2013)

I will be applying for my tarjeta de residencia once I move to Spain with my wife (she is Spanish, I am American) in the next month or so. From reading others’ posts it is clear that some extranjeria offices approve residency applications extremely quickly while others can take ages to approve and issue an eventual tarjeta de residencia. It looks to be luck of the draw in some cases, but my sense is that if you put in your application at a “good” and helpful office that it will be done swiftly with little wait and few obstacles.

We are worried that going to one of the extranjeria offices in a big city such as Madrid or Barcelona will ensure that an approval could take many months. We are not sure yet where we are going to settle in Spain so we were thinking that it might be good to rent an apartment initially in a city/town that is known to have a fast and efficient extranjeria office in order to speed up getting my tarjeta.

Does anyone out there have any experience with cities' extranjeria offices which are known for being particularly fast and not very busy so that things are processed quickly?

Thanks!


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

director1 said:


> I will be applying for my tarjeta de residencia once I move to Spain with my wife (she is Spanish, I am American) in the next month or so. From reading others’ posts it is clear that some extranjeria offices approve residency applications extremely quickly while others can take ages to approve and issue an eventual tarjeta de residencia. It looks to be luck of the draw in some cases, but my sense is that if you put in your application at a “good” and helpful office that it will be done swiftly with little wait and few obstacles.
> 
> We are worried that going to one of the extranjeria offices in a big city such as Madrid or Barcelona will ensure that an approval could take many months. We are not sure yet where we are going to settle in Spain so we were thinking that it might be good to rent an apartment initially in a city/town that is known to have a fast and efficient extranjeria office in order to speed up getting my tarjeta.
> 
> ...


It si normal to apply at the one for where you live.


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## director1 (Dec 28, 2013)

baldilocks said:


> It si normal to apply at the one for where you live.


Right, but we don't live anywhere yet - and as we're quite open to where we live in Spain (we both work freelance) we thought we'd start off with picking somewhere that has as little bureaucracy and as few waiting times as possible for getting started with our new lives.


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

director1 said:


> Right, but we don't live anywhere yet - and as we're quite open to where we live in Spain (we both work freelance) we thought we'd start off with picking somewhere that has as little bureaucracy and as few waiting times as possible for getting started with our new lives.


... but then won't you have to go through it all again to change the address on it?


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## director1 (Dec 28, 2013)

snikpoh said:


> ... but then won't you have to go through it all again to change the address on it?


Well yes, we would have to empadronar ourselves somewhere else if/when we move - but the much more bureaucratic tarjeta de residencia stuff would only have to be done once.


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

director1 said:


> Well yes, we would have to empadronar ourselves somewhere else if/when we move - but the much more bureaucratic tarjeta de residencia stuff would only have to be done once.


For us EU peeps, the address is on the green 'residencia' thingy so OUGHT to be changed when we move.


Isn't it the same for you on your residencia card?


I agree about the padron but that is something else again.


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## director1 (Dec 28, 2013)

snikpoh said:


> For us EU peeps, the address is on the green 'residencia' thingy so OUGHT to be changed when we move.
> 
> 
> Isn't it the same for you on your residencia card?
> ...


Well, I can't speak from experience but my sense would be that, if it needs to be done, changing an address on a tarjeta de residencia would be easier than getting the tarjeta in the first place.


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## bandit1250 (Aug 5, 2014)

avoid the one at torre del mar, there is a certain person there that can speak fluent English but depending on how they are feeling that day will choose whether to or not, on both my trips there they decided not to speak any English and made the whole experience a very time (and costly, threw the towel in and payed for a gestor) consuming experience. before anyone tries to defend the 'I am not speaking English this is spain' we are talking about somebody employed in the FOREIGNER DEPT.


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## director1 (Dec 28, 2013)

bandit1250 said:


> avoid the one at torre del mar, there is a certain person there that can speak fluent English but depending on how they are feeling that day will choose whether to or not, on both my trips there they decided not to speak any English and made the whole experience a very time (and costly, threw the towel in and payed for a gestor) consuming experience. before anyone tries to defend the 'I am not speaking English this is spain' we are talking about somebody employed in the FOREIGNER DEPT.



Hey Bandit –*Thanks very much for that. What a nightmare*– it amazes me what happens to people who get put into desk chairs with a bit of authority.

I have been thinking about getting a gestor / lawyer as well to facilitate the tarjeta process. Would you definitely recommend it? Can I ask how much you paid and what you got for it? Did they make things take less time?

Cheers!


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## 213979 (Apr 11, 2013)

director1 said:


> Hey Bandit &#150;*Thanks very much for that. What a nightmare*&#150; it amazes me what happens to people who get put into desk chairs with a bit of authority.
> 
> I have been thinking about getting a gestor / lawyer as well to facilitate the tarjeta process. Would you definitely recommend it? Can I ask how much you paid and what you got for it? Did they make things take less time?
> 
> Cheers!


I think that is overkill. As long as you and your SO have all your documents up to date, a gestor won't be able to expedite the process.


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## bandit1250 (Aug 5, 2014)

hi, I normally will give things a good try before surrendering but when you know you are on a loser discretion is a better part of valour, anyways I payed about E100 (yikes I hear you say) for my NIE to be processed if there are two of you requiring a lot of paperwork then I would recommend that you shop around town a get a quote for the full lot I would think it would come in a lot cheaper than doing it piece meal so to speak, take black and white copies AND colour copies of your passports as the new anti forgery techniques sometimes causes the copy to be not quite crystal clear enough (although after much debate with the aforementioned person they decided that as it was getting close to coffee break they would allow it through!!) go figure that one.


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## bandit1250 (Aug 5, 2014)

o yes they will my friend o yes they will, have you not seen the video on youtube about Spanish bureaucracy well worth a watch.


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## director1 (Dec 28, 2013)

elenetxu said:


> I think that is overkill. As long as you and your SO have all your documents up to date, a gestor won't be able to expedite the process.



Thank you elenetxu. Though I thought that's -exactly- what gestors are meant to be able to do –*expedite processes, help jump through hoops and speed things up. No?


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## director1 (Dec 28, 2013)

Hey Bandit –*

Wow, €100 sounds like a bargain! I was quoted €400 by a lawyer in Bilbao to guide me through the tarjeta de residencia process. For me the NIE was fairly simple done through the London consulate but the same consulate made getting the libro de familia take more than 6 months*–*only because they didn't tell me I needed to have my US birth certificate apostilled (which on its own takes 2-3 months because of city, county and state jurisdictions needing to all sign off on the same document –*try orchestrating that bureaucratic train wreck while you're living abroad!). a gestor really could have helped us out in that case*–*which is why I'm really considering getting one for the tarjeta de residencia. TBH, id rather pay a little bit of money than be 4 months in the hole on some documentation –*penny wise, pound foolish as they say.

that's a really super suggestion to take both black and white AND colour copies of the passports. i completely hadn't thought of that being an issue!


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

director1 said:


> Thank you elenetxu. Though I thought that's -exactly- what gestors are meant to be able to do –*expedite processes, help jump through hoops and speed things up. No?


no, not really

most will have appointments ready booked, so you might get an appointment more quickly - but beyond that they can do nothing if you don't have all your papers

they can of course advise you as to what papers you need - but that info is available on the govt website anyway

I use a gestor because it saves me time - to do the things I might need doing would often mean taking a day off work - he charges me roughly what I earn in an hour, per month - so it's worth it to me


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## 213979 (Apr 11, 2013)

bandit1250 said:


> o yes they will my friend o yes they will, have you not seen the video on youtube about Spanish bureaucracy well worth a watch.


I speak fluent Spanish and treat the bureaucracy as a sport. As long as you "go into battle" well-informed and with plenty of patience, I think a gestor is a waste of time for this relatively simple _ tramite. _


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## 213979 (Apr 11, 2013)

director1 said:


> Hey Bandit –*
> 
> Wow, €100 sounds like a bargain! I was quoted €400 by a lawyer in Bilbao to guide me through the tarjeta de residencia process. For me the NIE was fairly simple done through the London consulate but the same consulate made getting the libro de familia take more than 6 months*–*only because they didn't tell me I needed to have my US birth certificate apostilled (which on its own takes 2-3 months because of city, county and state jurisdictions needing to all sign off on the same document –*try orchestrating that bureaucratic train wreck while you're living abroad!). a gestor really could have helped us out in that case*–*which is why I'm really considering getting one for the tarjeta de residencia. TBH, id rather pay a little bit of money than be 4 months in the hole on some documentation –*penny wise, pound foolish as they say.
> 
> that's a really super suggestion to take both black and white AND colour copies of the passports. i completely hadn't thought of that being an issue!


Are you considering getting your tarjeta in Bilbao? I hated that office. I always felt like livestock there, lining up in the street.


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## director1 (Dec 28, 2013)

elenetxu said:


> I speak fluent Spanish and treat the bureaucracy as a sport. As long as you "go into battle" well-informed and with plenty of patience, I think a gestor is a waste of time for this relatively simple _ tramite. _


I'm with you there Elenetxu - I am quite resilient and patient and normally actually enjoy that kind of 'play' too. It's more the time issue - just don't want to lose months all because I forgot some minor detail or because I wasn't ballsy, intrepid or knowledgable enough to jump a queue (or wait in a different one) when the possibility was there. My experiences at the UK embassy have been mostly good, but there's been no rhyme or reason to when I got the right information or when I was misinformed or uninformed about something. So I figure that if someone out there knows a bit more than I do, it would be wise to take advantage of that option.

That said, I'm sure many gestors and lawyers - those two industries themselves in fact - bank on people's fear of the system for being able to drum up lotsa business.


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## director1 (Dec 28, 2013)

elenetxu said:


> Are you considering getting your tarjeta in Bilbao? I hated that office. I always felt like livestock there, lining up in the street.


Ah crap, really? Yes, I had been considering Bilbao initially. Id actually hoped that Bilbao was one of the better ones - figured there must be way fewer foreigners' trámites going on in the Basque Country than elsewhere, so lines shorter and maybe people more efficient/straightforward (it's a sense I had about the Basques, tho perhaps a misguided one?). 

I rang the office in San Sebastián a while back and they seemed extremely well organised and informal (well, at least on the phone). But who knows in person. Might just really be all down to luck anyway, so perhaps all this fretting is for naught.


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## director1 (Dec 28, 2013)

bandit1250 said:


> o yes they will my friend o yes they will, have you not seen the video on youtube about Spanish bureaucracy well worth a watch.


Do you mean this one? youtube . com / watch?v=2wtbQUaC9mE


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## kalohi (May 6, 2012)

It's been 3 years since I last renewed my residency permit, but if nothing has changed you should avoid the Seville office! It took them 4 months to process my straight-forward renewal. And in the 28 years that I have been dealing with them they have never been anything but unhelpful and downright rude.

I don't think a gestor would help you get this done faster. Their job is simply to know what papers you need and to do the standing in line for you. They don't have any special 'in' with the extranjeria people to make the process move faster. 

When I need to renew my permit I always go and ask at the information booth at extranjeria to find out what paperwork they need. The website has that information but it's confusing trying to figure out what case applies to me. Besides, extranjeria always seems to ask for something 'extra' not mentioned at all on the website.

Good luck, and patience!


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## director1 (Dec 28, 2013)

kalohi said:


> It's been 3 years since I last renewed my residency permit, but if nothing has changed you should avoid the Seville office! It took them 4 months to process my straight-forward renewal. And in the 28 years that I have been dealing with them they have never been anything but unhelpful and downright rude.
> 
> I don't think a gestor would help you get this done faster. Their job is simply to know what papers you need and to do the standing in line for you. They don't have any special 'in' with the extranjeria people to make the process move faster.
> 
> ...


Thanks Kalohi! Good advice about the websites not always giving the whole story on what's needed. And thank you too for your note about the gestors not having 'ins'. That was actually how I had thought it worked with them - the gestor's sister's ex's brother's aunt knows someone from school who is married to a guy who has a cushy job at the extranjeria. But I suppose it's not necessarily like that.


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## 213979 (Apr 11, 2013)

director1 said:


> Ah crap, really? Yes, I had been considering Bilbao initially. Id actually hoped that Bilbao was one of the better ones - figured there must be way fewer foreigners' trámites going on in the Basque Country than elsewhere, so lines shorter and maybe people more efficient/straightforward (it's a sense I had about the Basques, tho perhaps a misguided one?).
> 
> I rang the office in San Sebastián a while back and they seemed extremely well organised and informal (well, at least on the phone). But who knows in person. Might just really be all down to luck anyway, so perhaps all this fretting is for naught.


Yup. In fact, last time I got my card in Bilbao (2011) it took them four months to call me back to pick up my card. I just changed my address at the Santander office and: 1. they "bent rules" for me. I was supposed to have gone to Bilbao to hand in my old card, but since they didn't tell me at my first appointment and since I live far from the office and begged a little, they found a way around the requirement. 
2. It took four weeks for my new card to be ready. 

It *will* take you at least three, if not four, appointments to get your residency as a spouse of a Spaniard. Why? Here's my experience: 
*Visit 1:* Information. They tell you EXACTLY what to bring on the day of your second appointment and they give you the _impreso_ to take to the bank and deposit the fee for the process. 
*Visit 2:* Hand in your documents. They will give you a _resguardo_ with your NIE number. This will serve as your temporary Spanish ID until you get the letter with the decision about your case. 
*POSSIBLE Visit 3:* Interview with you and your wife. Sometimes they will interview you guys to make sure you're not married to get citizenship. My husband and I didn't have to do this, and I'm pretty sure it's because he wouldn't shut up about his visits to the US and our history as a couple as we were doing visit 2. 
*Visit 4:* Pick up your card, be a resident, and be able to work!

I very, very strongly suggest you bring your spouse with you to all appointments. I feel that when I go alone, I'm treated as a dumb foreigner. However, when I bring my husband with me, things get done quicker. Why? He plays their game better than I do. Sometimes you just need to use your _morro/jeta_ (cheekiness?) and the good ol' _picaresca_ to get things done. You don't need a gestor to do that. 

That being said, *if* you are willing to spend the cash and avoid lines, go for it. However, I truly don't think it's necessary. It's not going to speed things up. The only way to speed things up is to ask your spouse if she knows someone in politics who can make some calls for you guys. 



Regarding Bilbao's extranjería office, forget about it. Bilbao serves all of Vizcaya and there are a lot of foreigners in the region. You might be better in San Sebastian, Vitoria, or Santander. I have worked with Santander and Bilbao and things tend to go quicker in Santander. Then again, there are less people in all of Cantabria than in the whole Bilbao metro-area. 

Finally, about the Basques being more efficent/straightforward. Stereotypes, man. Then again, I am biased because I married one.


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## kalohi (May 6, 2012)

It will take you at least three, if not four, appointments to get your residency as a spouse of a Spaniard. Why? Here's my experience:
Visit 1: Information. They tell you EXACTLY what to bring on the day of your second appointment and they give you the impreso to take to the bank and deposit the fee for the process.
Visit 2: Hand in your documents. They will give you a resguardo with your NIE number. This will serve as your temporary Spanish ID until you get the letter with the decision about your case.
POSSIBLE Visit 3: Interview with you and your wife. Sometimes they will interview you guys to make sure you're not married to get citizenship. My husband and I didn't have to do this, and I'm pretty sure it's because he wouldn't shut up about his visits to the US and our history as a couple as we were doing visit 2.
Visit 4: Pick up your card, be a resident, and be able to work!

Yep, this is how it has always gone for me except with one more visit: for fingerprinting. That's the second to last step. As for the interview, I had one the first few times I applied for/renewed my residency, but then they didn't ask me to come in for that any more.


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