- British Embassy statement: Spanish authorities confirm TIEs remain valid – amid errors on new issued cards
By Andrew Atkinson
The British Embassy has made a statement stating the Spanish authorities have confirmed that TIEs remain valid – amid errors on the new issued cards – in the wake of Britain exiting the European Union as of January 1, 2021.
Some British citizens who have received their new TIE residency cards in Spain noticed they contain information which is inaccurate.
“Some of the new TIEs obtained via the EX23 route, those who already had a green residency and just wanted – it is optional – to exchange them for the TIE, have picked their cards up from several different areas of Spain but they are wrongly worded,” said Anne Hernandez, head of the Brexpats in Spain.
Cards, which should have the wording “Residence Permit/Titre de Sejour”, state “family member of a Union citizen”.
“Although they say issued in accordance with the Withdrawal Agreement they also say a family member of an EU citizen,” said Hernández.
In theory, this would suggest that the residency card was obtained by being a spouse or a family member of a Spanish or other EU citizen, rather than it being a British person who has obtained the card in their own right by residing in Spain before December 31, 2020.
“Some of the TIEs are also wrongly dated. A permanent TIE card should be 10 years but it seems they are being dated to expire in 5 years,” said Hernandez.
The British Embassy has made a statement informing Brits in Spain about the wrong wording on the TIEs: “We have raised this with the Spanish authorities who confirm that this was an administrative error.
“Although this has now been corrected, cards with the incorrect wording may still arrive at police stations in the next few days,” said the British Embassy.
It is understood incorrect and dated TIEs are still being issued. Permanent TIEs are being wrongly dated to expire in 5 years, instead of 10 years.
“We have been given to understand that these erroneous TIEs will be replaced by ones with the correct wording in due course,” said John Carrivick, Vice President of Eurocitizens group.
“This appears to be an error in production of the cards and not fundamentally one in the actual process of issuing TIEs themselves”,” he added.
