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You as a Tourist
First of all, what is a tourist? When you visit Spain for a short holiday, you are a tourist. If you have a holiday home or a second home in Spain where you spend months at a time, you are still a tourist of sorts, as your principal residence is in another country.
If your principal residence is in Spain and you spend most of your time here, you can still technically be on tourist status if you do not take out a residence permit. But the Spanish authorities are growing stricter about allowing people to remain on “tourist status” when they really live full-time in Spain.
The concrete definition is this. A tourist is a person who spends less than six months in Spain in one calendar year.
Tourist stay is 90 days:
The “tourist” stay in Spain for EU and non-EU citizens alike is limited to 90 days. To stay another 90 days, you are required to obtain aperrnanencia, which is an extension that is stamped in your passport. (See below)
Anyone who stays more than six months must apply for a residence permit.
Some foreigners who are really resident in Spain continue to remain on tourist status by crossing the frontier from Spain into France or Portugal or Morocco, where they have their passports stamped. They then return to Spain to begin a new 90-day period of “tourism”.
There are people who have gone on for years in this way. For those who live near borders and who want to keep their official presence in Spain as undocumented as possible, this has been an acceptable practice, even if not quite cricket.
However, Spanish authorities have become stricter and people who have crossed a particular border every three months for years with no complications, now find their passports being carefully examined. Some have been stopped and ordered to obtain a residence permit. Others have been refused entry
Permanencia:
It is also possible to get further 90-day extensions, called permanencias. However, you are entitled to only one permanencia in a calendar year, so even with this extension, you have a total of six months.
When you hear old Spain hands say things like: “Don’t worry about it. They have given me nine permanencias in a row and never made any problems about it,” be aware that this was only out of the authorities’ laxity or the goodness of their hearts. It is no longer true.
The word permanencia means a temporary stay not a permanent one, as you might think when comparing it to the English word. In fact, the verb perinanecer in Spanish means “to stay” or “to remain”, not “to be permanent”.
You apply for this perinanencia, which is stamped in your passport, by going to the Foreign department of your local police station, or comisaria. You need your passport, a couple of photos, and some evidence of your ability to finance your continued stay in Spain. There is no specific cash requirement, though authorities suggest an income of €600 a month as an acceptable minimum. A copy of your Spanish bank statement or evidence that you receive a pension from abroad would be acceptable.
One comisaria requires that you have €1,800 in a Spanish bank to grant the 90-day extension. Ask locally, as practice varies. With these papers in hand, the permanencia is routinely granted, and you can stay another 90 days as a tourist.
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