Having mastered the red tape that surrounds obtaining the padron we have decided to bite the bullet and apply for our residencia. I have scoured the web to try to download the application forms to no avail, and having turned up at Torremolinos police station at 10.00 am only to find that we were far too late to be seen.
We were told that there is a system in force whereby you join a queue that begins forming at around 7.00 am (when the office does not open until 9.00am) Once the doors open numbered tickets are distributed and after getting your number you will eventually be seen. Fine except we arrived at 8.00 am, and by the time we reached the front of the queue the allocation of tickets for the day ran out with the woman two places in front of us. I explained my frustration and was told to "go round the corner" where I would be given the forms. I waited at the end of the line of desks and eventually trapped a member of staff and explained my needs and was given a barely readable photo copy of the form. I explained that I needed forms for 2 people and was told to take photo copies (six will be required)
So I suppose that it is an ill wind. If we had got a number we would have been there all day.
I love it here, but it is a bloody frustrating country!!
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OK We finally got together the appropriate paperwork
- Original form plus three photocopies
- Four passport size photographs
- Passport & photocopy of passport
This time we were at the Torremolinos police station just after 6:30 am and third in the queue and although we had to wait until after 9:00 am we were rewarded by being attended to efficiently and quickly and we were on our way back home by 09:45 am. Half the queue was sent away as the days allocation of tickets had run out and those behind us in line would be waiting for up to four hours to be seen, by which time the staff become slightly more tense.
So the next move is WAIT! We have been told to look in and see if our application is accepted in SEVEN MONTHS.
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Update June 9th 2006:- So! Seven months on and we return to Torremolinos police station at 6:30 am and once again third in the queue, but this time the system has changed and a particularly obstructive, obstreperous uniform on the door barked instructions in incomprehensible spanish issued numbered tickets to some but not to others and created a general feeling of bewilderment amongst the foreigners and spanish alike. We were directed behind a filing cabinet where a lady eventually took our applications and directed us into another very confined space behind another cabinet where we told to wait while the computer was consulted. All well and good until the "Komandant" manning the door and decided that we should not be there, and all attempts to explain were ignored and were were bundled into no mans land. Luckily I could still see the young lady at the computer when some 20 minutes later she stood and turned to look for us, and it was only with great reluctance that the "Guard" let us through. Remember that our applications were made together and we have waited seven months, got that? OK, now my wife gets her fingerprints taken and signs the appropriate paperwork and is given a form to take to the bank to pay the costs of the application (6.57 euros) and told to return with the cash receipt and the receipt she has just signed for in another 6 weeks.
That it seems is the proper procedure. For me however there was different news, as my application was not yet ready, apparently someone in Malaga has not been working sufficiently quickly enough to process my application inside the seven months and I have to return to try again in another 20 days. Bless all the civil servants!
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Update July 4th 2006:- Left it a little late today and never joined the queue until 07:30 - a mistake. There were 30 people in front (about 150 behind by 09:00), so once we received the numbered ticket it was just as matter of settling down to wait in the very crowded room. I was eventually called at 11:45 I produced my paperwork and waited while the lady searched the computer, yes I was there, no it has not come through, I must come back in another 2 or 3 weeks. Good here innit!
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Update July 21st 2006:- Back to Torremolinos where my wife went straight in ot 11:30 saw the policeman and received her "Tarjeta de Residencia" Hooray!!
Hopefully, I asked if he could look up and see if I had appeared on the computer yet, which surprisingly he did and came up with the expected mantra to come back in another 2 or 3 weeks. I went into my practised explanation that I had applied on the same day as my wife who is now in possession of her card and I am not even on the horizon yet. He agreed that something must be amiss and directed me to the Ministerio de Estranjeros in Malaga where I should make further enquiries. So off to Malaga where found the appropriate office quite easily (less easy to park) and found the same long queues that are a permanent component of these official buildings. At least we were in the shade and we arrived at the front of the queue in 90 minutes. No English spoken, but they were very understanding and I was taken into the building where a cumputer search was undertaken. It was now past 14:00 when they are supposed to close and after having photocopies of my documentation taken I was sent away, and I THINK that the gentleman who was dealing with me reckons that my paperwork has been "lost" somewhere in "there" and he waved his arm in the direction of a large office, AND I THINK ( it was done in spanish) that he will ring me in a week or two and let me know what is happening. We shall see!!
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Update July 25th 2006:- well our man in Malaga came up trumps, he rang yesterday morning at 09:05 and struggled to tell me that he had found my paperwork and I should go to the police in Torremolinos and they would be ready to process my application. I queued for around 40 minutes to see the policeman who went off to see one of the ladies and sent me off to wait. I only had to wait for the couple being attended to to leave and I was called by name, and processed in record breaking time. I now have my receipt and have to return in six weeks to collect my card, perhaps this saga is nearing its end!
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Update September 4th 2006:- Thats it!! Today I called in to the police at Torremolinos and I only queued for 45 minutes, and on production of my receipts and passport I was handed my "tarjeta de residencia"
Good luck to you if you are applying for yours, and I hope this tale of mine will at least help you realise that you are not alone - they really are not just picking on you.
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said...
I see that Liz Parry in the Sur in English has had similar problems this week