Jason Moore22/03/2017 00:00
TW
2

There has been a surge in the number of British citizens who are getting their paperwork in order. For many years a sizable number of British residents in Spain have been living and working in this country illegally. The Spanish government was obviously aware of this problem but did not have the necessary resources to tackle it. In most of these cases we are talking about a British citizen not having a residence permit or not making a tax return. For this reason it is so hard for the Spanish government to judge how many British citizens live in Spain: the official figure is about 300,000 but the non-official figure is close to 800,000.

But Brexit has changed all this. A sizable number of British citizens are seeking to legalise their situation in Spain because post-Brexit they could be deemed to be "illegal aliens" and could face deportation. One of the advantages of Britain being a member of the European Union was that it was easy for citizens from member states to live and travel across the Union. But post-Brexit all this could change. New British residents coming to the island seeking employment could be asked to obtain work permits.

There are plenty of rumours about the status of British citizens in Spain following Brexit but many are already taking action. They are getting their house in order, which is a very good thing. Brexit may be controversial but at least some expats are finally getting their paperwork together.