Visa Challenges

Sept 8 – 10, 2014 –

Today was an adventure in trying to find the right Policia office to get an extension to our Visas.  After a bit of time on the internet we thought we had the correct office and address and it was even fairly close to the marina. Yeah! We are now back at the boat having walked more than five miles, visited four policia offices, and seen a lot of the city that we had not planned to.  In most cases they attempted to be helpful, but do not seem to understand which office has what responsibilities.  We were at the local policia, metro policia, national policia and some “other” policia.  The original address we found and sought out is an old building that is now vacant.  The internet had not caught up with that.  Along the way we stopped at Starbucks – a first for us since we like to go local, but they usually have internet and we though we could get on it using our phone.  Their system is not like the U.S.  Here, you first buy the coffee.  Then they give you a special ticket with your user name and password to get on their internet.  No internet without a purchase.  Two coffees later we had the ticket but were unable to access the internet.

Back at the marina, the office staff is very helpful and all speak English.  They have provided us with an email address to get to the right government office to pursue our extension.  Email sent. We now wait…

Lauren and Mark joined us for some sangria on board, and then we all headed out to a late dinner.  They have seen as much of Barcelona in three days as we have seen in almost two weeks.   They are off to Valencia tomorrow.

It is now Tuesday and the policia sent us an email that we thought we were translating correctly, but it was telling us that we needed to go to the US Embassy to get an extension to our Visa.  I don’t think so… That did not make sense to us as it needs to be the Spanish government that grants us an extension in Spain.  We had our new friend in the marine store review the emails and confirm what we said/they said.  He also helped us draft a response restating our request.

Now Wednesday; since we had heard nothing from the policia as of late morning we decided to go to the marina office and seek their help.  They are amazing.  The staff is all multi-lingual.  One of the girls speaks five languages.  OK, so I am humbled.  Victor called the US Embassy then the port policia for us.  After a few calls back and forth, the policia came to the boat and reviewed our passports and ports of call to date.  They were very nice and, in spite of speaking very little English and our limping through what we know (so far!) in Spanish, they agreed to extend our Visa for the EU by 90 days and stamped our passports.  CHEERS!!

Many of the cruisers we talk to say they ignore the Schengen 90 day rule and have not been challenged by Customs.  That is not a game we want to play.  While back in Boston in November we plan to apply for a one year temporary residency in Spain so we want to be as legal as we can be.

With that hurdle now behind us, we plan to leave tomorrow to head up the coast of Spain for a day or so.  Then, with a clear weather window, we will do a 24-hour crossing of the Gulf of Lyon to St. Tropez, France.

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One Response to Visa Challenges

  1. Bill&Kathy says:

    Ah…St. Tropez, a great place…be sure to enjoy the great southern France rosé wine! You may stay longer than planned!

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