A BRITISH estate agent based in Costa Blanca has launched a petition to scrap the loathed 90-day-rule – and replace it with a new digital solution.
Adam Hatton, who has lived in Spain for over a decade and runs real estate agency Comaskey’s in Alicante, says the campaign was inspired by clients whose plans to split their time between the UK and Spain have been stonewalled by the post-Brexit travel rules.
“We’ve had some really sad stories,” Hatton told the Olive Press.
“People spent their whole lives working towards retiring in Spain, and now they’re having to sell their dream homes because 90 days just isn’t enough.”
The petition is currently up and running on the official UK Parliament Petitions website, with nearly 6,000 signatures at the time of publication.
The rule, coming into effect at the end of the Brexit transition period in early 2021, means that British passport holders who don’t have permanent residency or a long-stay visa can only stay in Spain for a maximum of 90 days – and can’t then come back for another 90.
This has left many overseas Brits either making multiple trips each year, or navigating complex visa applications.
Hatton argues that previous campaigns to relax the rule have failed because authorities lacked an effective way to know how long visitors stayed in the country.
Now however, with the UK rolling out its Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) system and the EU introducing its own EES digital border control, he believes the technology exists to support a reciprocal agreement.
In the UK, EU visitors can stay in Britain for up to six months without a visa.
But Brussels has declined to reciprocate, forcing Brits to remain restricted to just 90 days in any 180-day period in the Schengen area.
Hatton believes the rollout of new digital border systems has created a ‘window of opportunity’ for Britain and Spain to revisit the issue and negotiate a reciprocal travel agreement.
“One of the reasons governments have been reluctant to extend the limit has been concerns over enforcing it,” said Hatton.
“With these new digital systems coming into place, there’s an opportunity for the politicians to get together and say: ‘Look, we’re going to do 180 days, you do 180 days, draw up a reciprocal agreement, put it to the EU, get it approved.’”
Hatton has taken to his Instagram page with over 38,000 followers to spread the message.
His first campaign post showing a photo of him holding a ‘Scrap the 90-day-rule’ has amassed plenty of attention online, racking up thousands of signatures within days.
The petition will need 10,000 signatures to get a response from the government, and 100,000 to be brought up in parliament.
“A first step to get us to get our foot in the door, you know, but I really do believe that if we continue with this and we don’t give it up, that a deal could be made.”
The petition can be signed here.
Click here to read more Travel News from The Olive Press.
I, as a Brit with Permanent Residency in Spain support this proposal, but unlike many “swallows”, I didn’t get a vote in the Referendum, and they did. And many swallows voted for Brexit because they believed the lies peddled and they were xenophobic, wanting to keep “foreigners” out of UK while wanting to live half the year as a “foreigner” in Spain, nor realising how it would affect them. So for those Brexit voters who how have a house in Spain, I have no sympathy.
Couldn’t agree more
For every one who voted Brexit I think they should be campaigning to rejoin instead of cherry-picking the parts they would like to change.
I’m truly sorry for the others.