The British Embassy in Spain’s capital Madrid has issued a statement reminding its nationals living in Spain that their “green certificates” issued by the Extranjeria Office or the National Police Office are still valid.
According to the statement, holders of A4 green certificates, or those holding the certificate on paper the size of a credit card, will retain the right to live and work in Spain pursuant to Spain’s implementation of the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement. SchengenVisaInfo.com reports. .
At the same time, the embassy points out that these certificates will exempt British nationals living in Spain from new travel requirements that EU member states are expected to introduce in 2024 and 2025.
As a result, this document exempts UK nationals from the future Entry/Exit System (EES) and European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS), visa requirements and the 90/180 day Schengen Area rule.
However, the embassy advised citizens to exchange their green certificates or cards for a Spanish Foreign Identity Document (TIE), noting that Spanish authorities have also made such recommendations.
However, there is no legal requirement to exchange these types of cards for TIE.
British nationals with Green Certificates or Green Cards should not be treated differently as their Withdrawal Agreement rights are not affected by the type of document they hold.
According to Statista, a German online platform specializing in data collection, the number of British people living in Spain peaked in 2022 at 313,975, while in 2013 there were 316,362 British nationals living in Spain. It was.
According to the data, the number of British nationals in Spain continued to decline from 2013 to 2018, but started to increase year-on-year from 2019 onwards.
The Andalusian coast is the most popular region for British nationals living in Spain with 92,180 people, followed by the Valencia region with 87,700 people from the UK. The Canary Islands followed with 29,631, Catalonia with 24,689 and the Balearic Islands with 19,569.
Spain is also the most popular tourist destination for British nationals, with 15.1 million Britons visiting Spain in 2022 alone.