A step in the right direction

Why is this an important step  brexit means brexit  you get what you voted for welcome to reality

Teddy, calm down and don’t be so confrontational.  Enjoy the rest of your evening, unless that consists of searching for posts where you can be argumentative.

Several other threads on this since it first started.

But non EU citizens can already apply for a long stay tourist visa so they can stay up to 6 months in France in one go. It costs 99 euro and this is just stating it should be made easier for second home owners to get. Currently has to be applied for each time you want to visit.

That system is not available in Spain at the moment but they could introduce it if they wished. Trouble is. the time it takes now to get an appointment for an NIE or TIE or even the padron in some places would put a huge strain on already stretched resources.

The OP never mention Brexit, which was decided in 2016, some 7 years ago. 

Whichever side you voted for, I think most people are fed up of hearing about "Brexit". We are where we are and should try to make the best of it. For members who are still UK residents, for one reason or another, news that a 6 month continuous stay is being discussed is positive news.

Thank you Peter Pan, well put. For some unknown reason a minatory of members tend to have a chip on their shoulder and can’t accept the fact that things can improve, maybe not for them personally, but for others who through no fault of their own find themselves in a situation that could be improved upon. I’m all right Jack, springs to mind.

A general point - I do find it strange the extent to which things need to be done either in person or via a form getting submitted and subject to review by an actual person in a government department. I struggle to understand why a raft of processes could not be more automated. (Note - this is a general comment about govts everywhere and of every colur- they always seem to lag behind the private sector in using technology to make things easier for people!)

As an example, money laundering regulations everywhere have continually been beefed up over the last 15-20 years or so - and yet I think it was possible for me to open an N26 account in Spain within a couple of hours without speaking to anyone directly. I can't recall how I set up a Wise account but think that was equally painless and so was the set-up of a Starling Bank account however many moons ago.

Indeed, the only recent involvement I've had with a bank that has taken more than a couple of hours to get resolved is in respect of a non-standard account in a country that some would describe as a "tax haven" - which would seem much more understandable given the likely rigour needed by the bank to ensure all the requirements etc are met.

So I just find it odd that France hasn't created a more streamlined system to deal with such applications as they are receiving currently (the ones costing 99 Euros) - if anything, you'd think they'd be incentivised to do it so as to make a little bit more money from the applicants they are getting. Am sure some FinTech could build something from scratch fairly quickly with sufficient AI/parameters set to complete applications in the same time it takes (well, maybe a little bit longer) as an ESTA for North America.

You'd think all governments in this day and age would be pursing digitalisation of some degree - although I think the issue mainly is that governments always do IT projects badly and have done for years!

I rarely mention Brexit in my posts but to suggest "we are fed up hearing it" (never to be mentioned?) is odd. The mainly negative implications of deciding to leave the EU will be with us for years to come, and to suggest that somehow this should be ignored is not possible. 

Steve

Fully agree.

But dealing with the decision and being pragmatic enough to get over the obstacles it presents is a much better option than whining & complaining about it…. and that goes for everything and not just br****.

In a "nut-shell" I concur. V