Travel confusion

The new post Brexit situation

Humphrey CarterPalma03/04/2021 09:40

The news room phones are buzzing with scores of people calling to ask what travel documents they need to return to Spain. It appears there is growing confusion and Britons who are legally resident in Spain are being turned away on arrival, such as the case in Alicante earlier this week when 40 Britons were sent back to Manchester.

This was despite most of them being resident in Spain and had the documents to prove it. However, it appears that not all customs officials and border guards are aware of the ins and outs. Some are only recognising the new T.I.E card and not accepting the old green card/A4 piece of paper of a document establishing that you are in the process of obtaining a resident permit but have yet to have been issued with one due to the back log in the system.

All we at the newspaper can do is direct worried callers to the British and Spanish government’s websites where all the information is available.

But, it appears that immigration staff in Spain have not been fully informed of the new post Brexit situation, perhaps they too should be directed to the relevant websites and perhaps British expatriates legally residing in Spain will be allowed back into the country without any problems. The Spanish government last year posted a string of videos in which senior politicians spoke of how welcome the British are how everything is being done to make life easy for them. Doesn’t look like it.