TomasAmodio

To start off, I know it is my mistake and there is no work around.

That said here is the situation (what I am looking for is best option- let me know if I forgot some):

My fiancee and I are traveling to Spain (bought tickets) in 7 weeks (Dec 2). She has a valid US passport and I have valid US and Italian passports. Or goal is to study at some language schools and travel a little. The issue is I got excited about staying for Fallas and booked a trip that is 20 days over the 90 limit. We have heard mixed answers from language schools about how easy it would be fore her to get a student visa if we are only in classes 8-10 of our 15 weeks. We are also concerned about the turn around time for getting a visa in less than 7 weeks, would she get her passport back in time...

As I see it there are these options (am I missing and and which would be simplest):

A- She goes to Morocco and the UK for 20 days of our trip so she is legal... More expensive and not as helpful with the goal of increasing Spanish Language proficiency.

B- She applies for a student visa, and gets it back in 6 weeks or less... The consulate would have her passport up until right before and would it even work with not being in classes the who time. Also not as interested in committing to schools now (they want to be paid for the full time upfront) as we would like the flexibility to live in a few areas and move as we desire.

C- We get hitched several months early. What I can find is that we need to provide recent proof that the marriage is register (not sure what this means) in the EU country of the spouse (translated if is not in Spanish or English), plus a photocopy of their passport.
She will be exempt of the following requirements: 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10 of the Schengen visa instructions (why are these instructions so difficult for me to find, a link would be appreciated). We would be getting married in the US, we could get married in Spain if that made it easier. Would this be a simpler fix or am I again making another mess?

Thanks for any help you can offer.
Tomas

PalenQ

Spanish embassy and consulates in USA
Embassy and consulates of Spain in USA. Spain embassy in Washington DC. Portugal consulate in Boston, Chicago, Houston, Miami, Los Angeles, New Orleans, ...
http://www.immihelp.com/visas/.../sp...lates-usa.html -

the only authoritative answer lies here.

hetismij

Since you have an Italian passport the marriage must be registered in Italy so getting married in Spain wouldn't help.
You could get married in the US and register the marriage at the Italian Embassy.
It would be a shame to rush the wedding for this though.

You could risk overstaying your time and hope you don't get any problems.

Safest would be to go out of Schengen at the 90 day limit (or better still at 88days) and spend the remaining time enjoying Morocco or somewhere similar. Then just transit through Spain to get home.

flanneruk

Let's go through this bit by bit. As an Italian (any other passports you might hold are irrelevant for most of this) you obviously can do whatever you like

A. Doesn't work. It's 90 days in any 180. After day 90 she needs to stay outside Schengen for a full 90 days before she's allowed back
B. Unpredictable. Spain needs to regard your course as legit, and only the Spanish Ministry of the Interior knows for certain what courses it recognises, and how long that's going to take. But you MUST start with asking the Spanish consulate where she lives about legitikmacy and timeframes
C. This is getting trickier. A Spanish (or Italian) consulate will probably help answer the question you've raised. But it's not the only relevant question. The ECJ has ruled that citizens of most EU countries (in most countries: citizens of all EU countries except Romania and Bulgaria) have an absolute right to be accompanied by their non-EU partner for as long as they like inside the EU, and the partner doesn't need a visa.

Marriage isn't necessarily necessary: indeed under some circumstances marriage can complicate things.

Now I'm no expert (to put it mildly). Nor, I suspect, are Spanish and Italian consulate officials on this one. I honestly don't know whether the fact that you normally live abroad, and pay taxes to a foreign country, means your right as an EU citizen to take your girlfriend with you might be compromised, or what Spain's MO is in handling this. I DO know that most UK holders of "other" EU passports (like all us Irish) find it easier to bring in non-EU partners on the back of the ECJ "partner" ruling than by marrying them.

Two posters - AlanRow and Sheila - have real knowledge of this, so it might be worth seeing if they reply before talking to either consulate. The issue also arises often on the UK and Europe fora on the Lonely Planet Thorntree site.

In your shoes, I'd be tempted to research this a bit further before inviting Spanish consulates to give you inappropriate information. Their job isn't to help Italians' domestic lives: it's to keep illegal foreigners out.

PalenQ

Their job isn't to help Italians' domestic lives: it's to keep illegal foreigners out>

Exactly and if i were a Spaniard I would hope they would (not necessarily in this case)

A reason i suggest contacting the Consulate is if they say it is OK then it should be OK - get it in writing however and you would feel safer going.