Jason MoorePalma19/06/2019 04:01
TW

Many Britons in Spain appear to have taken the advice of the Foreign Office and other organisations and official bodies and are getting their paperwork in order ahead of Brexit. I have been told that there has been a surge in the number of Britons who are seeking a residence permit (the infamous green certificate), which has led to long queues and delays at the foreigners department in Palma. Most people agree that, provided your paperwork is in order, you have little or nothing to fear from Brexit. It is those who do not have the right paperwork who have something to fear once Britain leaves the European Union.

At the moment there are about 300,000 Britons living legally in Spain (16,000 in the Balearics). It will be interesting to see by how much this figure increases now that more people are legalising their situation. This in some ways is good news because at least the Spanish authorities will have an accurate picture of how many Britons live in Spain. For too long there has been such an important gap between the official population and the unofficial estimation. I have heard on numerous occasions that the British population in Spain is close to the 800,000 mark or even higher. Spain has already said that it will sign a bilateral agreement with Britain once it has left the European Union, which should mean that there is little change to the rights of Britons living in Spain. The big question is what will happen to those who are not legal.