As we noted in a post back in July, we have been living in San Sebastian for five years (http://vinoconvino.blogspot.com/2022/07/time-flies.html). After our initial one year visa, we renewed our non-lucrative visa twice (in 2018 and 2020). Back in May, we were entitled to apply for residencia de larga duracion -- permanent residency.
Surprisingly, the application process for permanent residency was relatively easy. We had to get a police background check -- complete a form online to get results in 24 hours, compared to the US where we had to get fingerprints, mail them to the FBI and wait over three months for our results. Other than that, it was just forms and various documents that we had to collect. We submitted everything online after figuring out how to get the security key we needed to do so, and then we waited.
Although the government had up to three months to act on our application, after about a month we received confirmation that we had properly submitted our documents and just a few days later we were approved! Yes, we did a little dance when we got the news!
Now, we are just waiting to receive our new IDs, which will be good for five years. But, the best part is that we no longer have to renew our right to stay here, we just have to obtain a new valid ID every five years, which is easy.
The next potential step would be to seek Spanish citizenship, but we will not be eligible to do so for another five years. Will we do it? We will see.
Hasta pronto,
Jeff and Shana
No comments:
Post a Comment