The Spanish authorities have announced that foreign residents holding temporary TIE residence permits will no longer be subject to rules as strict as before. They have confirmed that they will no longer have their permit revoked if they spend more than six months outside the territory of Spain, including the Canary Islands.
This means that in line with the newly made changes, anyone who has a Spanish temporary residence permit can travel abroad for more than six months within a year without having to worry about the status of their residency in Spain.
This decision has now come into force after being passed by the Spanish Supreme Court on June 20th, however, the authorities have stressed that they also still have the ability to reverse the decision and reinstate their previous rules if needed.
Temporary TIEs are issued to new residents and those who had been in the country less than five years when the cut-off was made after Brexit in the case of UK citizens, and up until now the authorities had the power to cancel the permits of those who did not meet the six-month rule. Once a foreigner has lived in Spain for five years, they can apply for a replacement long-term residency permit.
They have stressed that now that temporary residency status can only be terminated through a legal process when the authorities evaluate that a certain person should no longer be eligible for the document, rather than due to the duration of absence in Spain.
However, foreigners have to be careful as there can be confusion after they have changed their status from temporary to permanent residency, because the current rule doesn’t allow foreign residents to stay out of the country for more than ten months within a five-year period prior to the permanent residence permit application continues to remain in place.
This means that all foreigners who stay out of Spain for more than six months will be able to renew their residence permit, but they will not be able to upgrade the permit to a permanent one as their stay outside the country would exceed ten months in a five-year period.
