# Civil Partnership or Union de Hecho



## Aliki (Jul 29, 2013)

Hi, my boyfriend and I are planning to move to Spain this year and we are looking at ways how to settle here faster. I have a Greek passport so it wouldn't be so hard for me, whereas he is a citizen of South Africa. We were thinking to register a Union de Hecho to be able to stay in Spain, and get him an EU family member residency card, but I can not find anywhere any requirements or papers that we would need for that, which would be in English. Calling doesn't help either because nobody in the municipalities speaks English either, and we both are still learning the language. 

Maybe anyone can help me and tell me how is it done?

The consulate said they would give us an up to 90 days visa to come to Spain and there we'd have to register the Union de Hecho. Based on that they said we can get a 5 year long residence permit for him, which is to be renewed afterwards, but they did not say how and where do we do it or what papers do we need. If there's any papers we would have to get from South Africa like a paper saying that there is no criminal record or no other registered marriage or what? (We wouldn't want to have to fly back to SA to get them)

Thank you guys in advance!


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## elisa31bcn (Jan 23, 2013)

You should check with the ayuntamiento of the particular area you are planning to live in .
I know that some don't recognize a "pareja de hecho" unless they have lived together in Spain for a certain period, at least a year. And since it's impossible to do that on a 90 day tourist visa, it's a little bit of a catch-22. I had some friends, one French, the other American, who tried to get residency based on pareja de hecho from living in France, and they finally gave up, and got married.


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## Lolito (Aug 25, 2012)

I am Spanish myself and tried to do Pareja de Hecho, with my partner (from UK), but I gave up in the end as they needed lots of paperwork and it was all very messy, we decided to get properly married, as the paperwork was much easier and quick. 

All I can tell you is that here in Spain, the law for Parejas de Hecho changes greatly from one place to another, it depends where you are or want to get married, what applies in Valencia, won't apply in Navarra, or Extermadura, or Madrid, etc... each region has their own funny rules, paperwork, etc. 

My sister did the Pareja de Hecho in Navarra and the only paperwork they required was proof of identity. Nothing else. Here in Valencia, they need at least 10 different papers... arrghhh! 

If you know where are you going to live in Spain, then you can use their Town Hall website and look for Pareja de Hecho and see what they need. 

Good Luck!


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