# Temporary Residence/ Arraigo after 3 Years in Spain



## thewaterbearer (Jun 15, 2011)

Hey guys!

So my situation is a little complicated. I've been in Spain since September, 2011, as a student, on a student visa. Which means that come September, 2014 i will have completed 3 years of continuous residence in Spain. This allows me to apply for the Arraigo Social, an arrangement that permits a foreigner to request for temporary Spanish residence of 1 year (extendable later on). While you need to complete many other requirements to apply for this, the most imporant one is that you've stayed in spain for 3 continuous years.

Now I had to return to my home country from July, 2013 until December 2013. I had initially planned to return to Spain within only 2 months, but because of unforeseen delays in my visa process, I ended up staying for 5 months or 150 days.

Here's the catch: One of the prerequisites for being able to apply for the Arraigo Social is that during the course of your 3 year stay in Spain, you may not exceed a total of 120 days spent _outside_ of Spain. Now some websites say that this is a necessary clause, others say that an absence of more than 120 days may only affect the request negatively, not prohibit you from applying altogether.

My question is this- seeing as I exceeded the given period of 120 days by only about 30 days, and seeing as the circumstances were unforeseen and due to visa issues, will i still be able to apply for the Arraigo Social, or is the 120 day limit absolutely unbreakable? If not so, then is there a procedure for requesting special consideration in spite of having exceeded the limit, such as by explaining the reasons why? 

Absolutely any help, however seemingly random or far-fetched would be greatly appreciated. I'd hate to think that the close to 2 years i spent in Spain before my trip back to my country would be considered wasted.  Thank you so much!


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