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Update 09.04.24: An announcement has been made by the leader of the Socialist Government in Spain, that his government plans to amend or repeal the “Golden Visa” legislation. Currently no timetable for these changes has been suggested and there is opposition to any revision. That said, this discourse, that started in May 2023, may result in some material changes. We will endeavour to keep you up to date with these as we are made aware of them and their precise impact.
Are you a British, Canadian or US passport holder, who is planning to, but has not yet bought a Marbella property? Do you have a slight green streak of envy for those holders of a passport from an European Union (EU) member state?
Frankly, I’d be surprised if you didn’t. A British passport holder’s rights to choose where they want to live, and for how long, within the large political union that is the EU have been materially curtailed by the legacy of the Brexit divorce. Brexit really is the gift that keeps on giving!!!
Applying as a Brit under the qualifying conditions for a Golden Visa – see our previous post here Could your Spanish residency concerns be solved by obtaining a “Golden Visa”? – will alleviate many of your concerns but it’s an additional piece of administration – and consequential cost – that holders of passports from EU member states simply don’t need to bother with.
You may also be aware of a threat to amend it repeal the Golden Visa legislation – Spanish Golden Visa – Is Change Coming?
Have you ever considered applying for a Passport from an EU member state? Sounds a little ridiculous right, but you’d be surprised what’s out there.
We have clients, card-carrying Brits, who were born and brought up in the UK, who are now the proud holders of Passports from EU member states including Ireland, Germany and Spain. The rules usually extend to nationals from many other countries worldwide, whose parents were born or lived legitimately in “Old Europe”. Canadian and US nationals, often with the help of ancestry sites, are particularly keen to trace their forbears and seem to acquire detailed knowledge of their family history.
Many of the EU member states offer passports that can be held at the same time as your British passports.
These are often based on decendency and whilst the rules vary from country to country, and some appear more complicated than others, your right to a passport may be based on you having a Dutch, Greek or Spanish parent, an Italian grandparent, an Irish grandparent or great grandparent or a parent or grandparent of German origin who had their citizenship stripped from them under the Nazi regime of the 1930’s and 40’s.
In Portugal, you may apply for a Portuguese passport if you can prove you have held their version of the Golden Visa for five years. For Malta, a substantial investment in the country and in property should allow you to commence a passport application process.
In 2021 The Migration Observatory noted that 14.4% of the UK Population – around 9.5m people – were born outside the UK. This number had risen from 5m in 2004. Of this new total the top 10 countries from which the newly arrived hailed were Poland, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain.
My argument is if you extrapolated these figures out over the last thirty to forty years years, and this, I sense, is particularly relevant to the first and second generation community of Irish emigrants in the UK, that many who are now living in the UK will have a sufficiently close relative within their family grouping to allow for such a Passport application to be considered. Indeed the Irish authorities has been very actively seeking to identify the now whereabouts of the Irish diaspora. They have developed a reasonably simple website that was dormant during the Pandemic but I believe is now reopened.
This is, obviously, not limited to the decedents of an Irish family. It seems that many of the member states of the EU are embracing the offspring of their compatriots. Not only a valuable assistance in these post Brexit days but also an opportunity to revive part of your family’s cultural heritage.
In most cases once you achieve a new EU passport it should permit your descendants usually children – but may include your spouse – to equally apply for theirs. There are now 27 EU member states from Austria to Sweden, wouldn’t it be worth you digging in the family history to see whether you too could benefit from the holding of a passport from an EU member state?
Do, however, remember in Spain that once you have achieved your new found, or recovered, freedom of movement, that staying here for more than 183 days in any financial year does leave you liable to make full disclosure and correct returns as a Spanish Tax Resident. Not something that should be particularly arduous to deal with if you chose that route but worth being aware of.
Should you be interested in discussing the legal process involved in buying a property in the Marbella region, we would be delighted to assist you. Our multi-disciplinary team of bi-lingual, highly experienced and wholly independent Abogados and Asesores Fiscales are ready to help you.
Please call me, Mark FR Wilkins, during usual business hours on +34 600 343 917 or, if you prefer, or e-mail me at mark@roslegal.es
Please note that our posts are for general interest. There is no substitute for proper legal advice tailored to your specific circumstances as provided by a qualified Abogado who is experienced in the application of the Spanish Law.
Nothing contained in this article should be seen or taken as the writer or the publisher providing legal or financial advice.
© Mark FR Wilkins 2022. All rights reserved.