A group of scammers are making life difficult for officials at the Foreigner's Office in Palma and elsewhere and this is leading to delays in appointments for documents such as the TIE residence card needed by British citizens to live in Spain after Brexit.
Informed sources told the Bulletin online that a group of scammers have been taking up all the available appointments and selling them to the highest bidder. This practice is totally illegal and police are investigating. Arrests have been made over the last few months.
To get your paperwork processed to apply for a TIE residence card for British citizens or a work permit for other nationalities you need an appointment to see an official at their offices in Palma. These appointments are made online but it appears that scammers have been at work, taking up all the available appointments. It appears that they use a high technology method to block off all the available dates.
For sometime there have been no available appointments for people wishing to get their TIE cards in Palma. For some expat Britons the problem is becoming even more urgent because soon Spain will be introducing the new Entry/Exit system at ports and airport which is biometric and therefore the new cards are needed.
The British Embassy has called on British residents to abandon their old Green Certificate residence permits and get one of the new cards as soon as possible.