Question
In providing proof of stay in Spain due to passport not getting stamped at entry/exit, can I provide my flight confirmations/itineraries (don’t have the boarding passes)?
Has anyone successfully submitted these? Or bank activity? My spanish banks don’t provide statements and I can only download .csv / .xls lines of activity… wondering if that would suffice. Or screenshots of activity from my phone’s bank app?
This is to renew my 5 year visa (tarjeta de familia de ciudadano de ue) to permanent residency. I have to prove I haven’t been out of the country for more than x months a year. But according to my passport stamps or lack thereof, the passport doesn’t reflect that I’ve been residing in Spain (11mo/year).
Answers
These are the answers of some Facebook group members:
“What about your rent receipts?”
“How about payslips or vida laboral? Strange, I was never asked to submit proof of my entrance stamp in my passport for the same renewals (4 of them).”
“We had that difficulty of missing an entrance stamp for the initial application of our residence permits. There were several ways to rectify it:
1) boarding passes. Unfortunately we threw ours out since we didn’t know we’d need them.
2) Passport stamp upon arrival. Unfortunately we transited through Germany and got stamps there. Didn’t know we should get stamps in Spain too.
3) Declaración de Entrada. Unfortunately we didn’t get this done within the required 72 hours.
But I had the brilliant plan to drive over the border to France into Hendaye for coffee and petrol fillup, then back into Irún in Spain, directly to the police to have them sign our Entrada.
The police in Irún told us to try San Sebastián. So we did and after about 90 minutes of waiting we had our signed Entradas.
I suggest you log your comings and goings in a spreadsheet and back it up with whatever data is applicable like flight records. So maybe one of these methods will help you. Just keep a log to show to the authorities.”
“You can use any and all means admissible in law. Financial documents, appointment records, work attendance records, witnesses, etc.”
“I used boarding passes and travel receipts (car rental, hotel, etc) when stamps were missing and had no problem getting approved for permanent residency.
To clarify, in some cases I didn’t have boarding passes either, and this is when I used other travel documents no problem (including flight confirmations/etickets).”
Conclusion
In summary, the answers provided by Spainguru’s Facebook group members suggest a variety of potential solutions to this problem. Some members suggest using rent receipts, payslips, or vida laboral as proof of stays in Spain.
Other members mention that they also experienced difficulty in providing proof of entry into Spain, but were able to rectify this issue by using one or more of the following methods: boarding passes, passport stamps upon arrival, Declaración de Entrada, and a log of their comings and goings in a spreadsheet backed up with other data such as flight records.
Other answers state that the individual can use any and all means admissible in law, like financial documents, appointment records, work attendance records, and witnesses. Additionally, one of the answers states that using boarding passes, travel receipts, and flight confirmations/etickets works as proof of stays.
