My wife does an amazing job of keeping all of our documents together, as well as navigating the intricacies of being residents (but not citizens) of Spain. So when it came time to renew our residency cards, it should have been a snap... but it wasn't. Weeks of going to the appropriate website without fruition; personal visits to the local Policía Nacional offices, etc. I don't know if it is because of the backlog of applications caused by Brexit, or some other reason - but she'd been trying to get us each a "cita previa" starting six weeks prior to our cards expiration dates... to no avail. Now, a week after they'd expired, we found Raphael Zimmer.
What a delight! He knows the ins and outs of the system here and specializes in immigration and residency issues. He speaks impeccable English. He made us feel welcome and heard. He gave us all the time we needed to express our concerns, voice our frustrations, and... well, you get it! It turns out Spain had changed the system (since the last time we'd applied) and getting that "cita previa" was no longer the way to proceed - although that wasn't on the Spanish website.
After giving Raphael our paperwork (and a few extra documents he requested that we had not considered), he was able to make the submissions electronically, and broke through the red tape. Consequently, we were able to keep our appointment with the Policïa Nacional today (to get fingerprinted and submit all required forms), and we'll have our new cards in a month. Yay!!
Considering the nightmare that Spanish bureaucracy can be, we've decided to go back to Raphael in two years when our new cards will be due to expire - and save ourselves all of the hassles of doing it by ourselves. His prices are very reasonable, and the peace of mind you get is priceless! read more
