New regulations for family or friends staying with you for holidays - Page 4

I can't see there being many buyers, I'm holding on in the hope we rebuild our relationship with the EU, can't see us rejoining but we need to work with our neighbours.

In short NO, as long as no money is involved. I think this is just a misinterpretation of a rule applying to other subjects, nothing more nothing less, UK citizens do not require a visa to visit Spain for tourism at lest for another 12 months after which there will be an ESTA type visa.

Sure, EU citizens travel on EU rules, anyway the original post is somewhat misleading as the rule doesn't refer to UK citizens, not at this stage anyway.

When I checked the UK Gov website for info on the need for an "invitation letter"

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/spain/entry-requirements 

It does mention the invitation letter, so it would appear to include UK citizens?

"At Spanish border control, you may need to use separate lanes from EU, EEA and Swiss citizens when queueing. Your passport may be stamped on entry and exit. You may also need to:

• show a return or onward ticket
• show you have enough money for your stay
• show proof of accommodation for your stay, for example, a hotel booking confirmation, proof of address if visiting your own property (e.g. second home), or an invitation from your host or proof of their address if staying with a third party, friends or family. The Spanish Government has clarified that the “carta de invitation” is one of the options available to prove that you have accommodation if staying with friends or family. More information is available from the Spanish Ministry of Interior."

When I checked the UK Gov website for info on the need for an "invitation letter"

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/spain/entry-requirements 

It does mention the invitation letter, so it would appear to include UK citizens?

"At Spanish border control, you may need to use separate lanes from EU, EEA and Swiss citizens when queueing. Your passport may be stamped on entry and exit. You may also need to:

• show a return or onward ticket
• show you have enough money for your stay
• show proof of accommodation for your stay, for example, a hotel booking confirmation, proof of address if visiting your own property (e.g. second home), or an invitation from your host or proof of their address if staying with a third party, friends or family. The Spanish Government has clarified that the “carta de invitation” is one of the options available to prove that you have accommodation if staying with friends or family. More information is available from the Spanish Ministry of Interior."

I have 2 different friends that travelled to their Spanish homes this week and they were not asked for any proof of where they were staying. Only thing asked for was the QR code for Covid tracking.

Just spoke to a mate on the coast and one of his friend's mother in law is coming over tomorrow to stay with them, no letter required.

The implementation of this will like many things in Spain be down to the border officer on that day. UK and Spanish websites both say "you may be asked". I would suspect proof of return flight would be sufficient. In my experience of travel to non EU countries I normally have to complete an embarkation card which requires a return flight number, departure date and address of where I will be staying (hotel or private residence). This really shouldn't be a problem.

There was already a thread running on this same subject, so this is now getting repetitive.  As I said in the other thread, I had been trying to get an answer from the British Embassy, but all they sent me was wording from the Gov.UK website (which I´d already seen and referenced in my email to them!).  You´ll see that it says the letter of invitation "may" be needed and it´s only "one option".  These are the requirements for other Third Country Nationals; however, the UK was granted visa-free travel in the EU as part of the Brexit deal so, in theory, we shouldn´t need to do this.  I think Gov.UK is covering itself because the Spanish government´s website is ambiguous too, but until someone is denied entry at the Spanish border, we won´t know for sure.

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/spain/entry-requirements

What happens when ETIAS is introduced next year is anybody´s guess!

Kind regards,

Kim

Although we have visa free travel Spain, like any other country wants to screen out those arriving with the intention of living or working there illegally. 

If you arrive with return tickets, enough money to live on during your holiday and either a hotel booking or details of your temporary holiday accommodation then I'd imagine that there will be no problem.  If you don't have some or all of these indicators that you are a genuine holidaymaker then I would expect that they would take a closer interest to determine your real intentions, and are more likely to err on the side of "the computer says no".