HUGE WARNING! British expats in tears as Spain to deport 500 under new rules Dream over

[Brakers]

Hi There
although this does not affect me; I was wondering if any of our club would be affected by having a second ressidence in Spain. Also I assume this will happen in France; Portugal and the rest of the EU.
What do you people think?

Best Wishes Tony

 

[Minxy]

Already been mentioned here although the title isn't obvious so hopefully yours will direct people there!

Broken Link Removed

 

[Phill D]

Broken Link Removed

there are a few opinions here

 

[chaser]

I have a friend who has lived in Portugal for ten years, never got anything official, villa , car, even a small business, no tax no nothing, but he has sold up now and come back, no regrets, just moved back into a house here as if he had never been away.
And believe it or not, because he never signed up for tax or anything, he hasn't even had to pay tax on selling his villa.

 

[PJGWiltshire]

Its very easy to sit and judge from the sidelines.

I shall give an example that has happened to us around settled status in the UK and residence in Portugal

As we all know EU nationals who have been resident in the UK prior to December 31st 2020 can apply for settled status. This is not just a case of present in the UK on a date before the 31st December.
My wife is from Malta and holds a Maltese passport. I will not go into her rights to be in the UK by other means but it was necessary to apply under the settlement scheme to make everything legal.

When filling out the forms it is necessary to prove that you have spent a number of days per year in the UK, if I recall it was something like 6 - 9 months I cannot recall the exact dates.To assist in the application you are asked to provide a NI number.
My wife has lived in the UK for 60 years we have had two children she worked until 2015 and paid full NI.
In 2015 we packed up our jobs and travelled extensively through mainland EU countries. We have not worked since 2015.
When the settlement scheme was announced we investigated it and established the necessary crighterier especially around period of residence in the UK. During our travels we ensured compliance in the last two years and in fact was simple for 2020 in that we could not travel due to covid.

When we applied in December 2020 for the settlement scheme, we encountered problems straight away when according to the Home Office my wife had been off the radar as far as NI contributions since 2015, so could not establish that she had been resident in the UK via this method. So they needed other proof as to her residence in the UK. Yes we owned properties in both our names but that is not proof that you are resident for the number of stipulated days in the proceeding two years to 31st December 2020. By proving medical appointments, hospital procedures and copies of bank statements, we managed to show that my wife had met the requirements of being resident in the Uk for the required period of times.

My good friend retired to Portugal built a house and other than paying his local housing bills he had no other ties to the authorities. It was then that in 2019 he made enquires with the local Portugal authorities and they passed him onto the relevant department. Again he proved his residence time in the country and was granted residential status.

Is it a case of many who have lived in the EU countries for years with UK passports did not investigate fully when the settled status scheme was anounced by the EU/UK authorities. Not investigating in time has lead to many who simply either lived completely off the radar and could not prove their residence time in the country or simply only used their holiday home for a few weeks of the year and did not fit into the settled status requirements.

I do not think its a case of the UK has a more generous scheme than other EU states its simply a case of can you prove residence.

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