U.S. citizen married to a German citizen

Hello, I am having a panic attack. I am scheduled to visit my family in the U.S. in a little over a month and I just spoke with someone who said I may have travel problems. My husband is a de-registered German Citizen, and we are living in Spain where he has his Spanish residencia. I do not have mine yet. We got married in the U.S. almost a year ago and it has been that long since I have been back. I just thought I could present my U.S. passport, show our marriage certificate, and show a copy of his German passport….??? Am I wrong?

Any help?

Thanks,

Kelley

Neither of you should have a problem entering the US (least of all you as a US citizen) regardless of how long you have been gone or your immigration status elsewhere. You don't have to prove you are married for him to enter, either.

Correct..

German is part of the Visa Wavier program. As such Germany only need a valid Germany passport to enter the US.
As a US Citizen all you need is your passport, it can even be a a month or so expired. You will never be denied entry to the US
no matter how long you have been away and regardless of your martial status. Infact when you go thru US customs, you can
usually bring or non-US spouce with you thru the US line. Some airports allow this, some don't.

If anything the Spanish might give you a hard time if you have been in spain/Eu for over 90 days, but since you and your
spouce live there and your application for a visa/permit is already in progress, it shouldn't be that big an issue.

Thanks for the prompt feedback. I will be flying back into Germany. Any problems forseen there?

Kelley

Yes, they'll most likely take you into custody at the airport, give you a full going over including the rubber glove treatment and then lock you up in a detention cell at the airport until you proclaim undying love for sauerkraut and würst.

Bloody hell.

And Darkknight, it's "spouse".

Since you haven't been approved for your residencia, make sure you bring the paperwork you were given in Spain when you applied for it, so the Germans do not think you overstayed the 90 day limit the last time you flew into the EU (coming into Spain).

Pledging my allegiance to sauerkraut and würst is not a problem, especially if you add beer to that list. The problem is, my husband has his Spanish residencies and I do not. I have not even applied for it yet. Maybe I could just show a copy of our rental contract in Spain (which has my name on it), along with a copy of the Marriage License and his passport. Can’t believe I let this get by me. Scheiß_!

If you haven't applied yet and you've been in the Eu for over 90 days, then expect trouble. It might not happen, or it could be a total pain in the ass.

Thank you so much for your honest input. I will try and do some emergency back peddling.

Kelley

Apply for your residencia now! You still have a month to do it, it cannot be *that* hard. (I am not de-registered in Germany and only here temporarily so I didn't have to get registered here but I assume it isn't that complicated to at least apply.) Seeing as you are American (not one of the countries from which a lot of people immigrate illegally) maybe they'll be lenient about your having taken so long to get the paperwork started.

To enter the US all you need is your US passport and your husband needs his German passport (not just a copy!), you do not need to show your marriage certificate if you want to stay less than 90 days. (And if you wanted to stay longer, the marriage certificate by itself would not be helpful either.)

To get into Germany, take the marriage certificate, and try to get some sort of paper that says you have legal status here [in Spain] and take copies of the confirmation that you have applied for residencia.

The problem you will have is when your passport is scanned, the Grenzpolizist will know that you were in the EU for over 90 days. A rental contract and marriage certificate won't be enough for you, and would probably actually hurt you since it proves you are residing illegally in Spain. The reasonable expectation would be that you will overstay the 90 days once again if allowed in. No way would I expect the Grenzpolizist(in) to simply gloss over this and let you in.

If you apply for the residencia now, you would have the paperwork I mentioned above when you fly IF they overlook the fact that you are now there illegally. I have no idea if they will or not, but I would definitely not assume that they will. How long have you been in Spain? I would think that it is going to look pretty bad that you did not apply for your residencia when your husband applied for his- that's inexcusable, to be honest with you.

I am embarrassed to say that I am just naive. I simply did not know. The reason I did not apply for my residencia at the same time he did is because we were not married at the time, and I was in Spain only as a Tourist…..leaving the country every 3 months. I honestly thought that showing proof of being married to a EU citizen was all that was necessary. I spoke with someone at the U.S. Embassy in Valencia several months ago and was told that as the wife of a EU Citizen, my rights included traveling and residing anywhere within the EU. I was so relieved to think that everything was in order that I did not follow up on the subject. The last time I entered Germany from the U.S. was in June (I had forgotten about that trip in my initial post). Your right, this is inexcusable.
I will try to get this ball rolling as quick as possible and hope for the best.

Thank you all for your help.

Kelley

I wish you the best of luck with this, but given your situation, I suggest that you speak to a local attorney who specializes in immigration law before you apply for the residencia, since there is potentially a risk in you being deported if you admit to immigration officials that you are there illegally. Spain isn't Germany in terms of immigration enforcement, but you don't want to take that risk without someone who knows how these things work giving you some knowledgeable advice.

Thank you very much.

I would think that you are fully covered on the "married to EU citizen = full movement rights" front. However, this doesn't allow you to avoid the residence registration laws in any particular country, so you do need to register yourself asap.

See this wonderful webpage from the EU for further details "Right of Union citizens and their family members to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States".

Note the part that says "Family members who do not have the nationality of a Member State enjoy the same rights as the citizen who they have accompanied. "

Thank you for your reply.

Interesting update:

I spoke with a Spanish Immigration Attorney yesterday and she said that at this time, I cannot apply for my Residencia because I am in Spain illegally. Conquistador was right, that if I get the ball rolling for my Residencia now, it is documented that I have been in Spain for more than 30 days... She said I need to do that right after my new passport entry. She said that since my last passport entry into the EU was June 1st, from Germany, what I need to do is not go through Germany. She said I would not have a problem coming into Spain because the Spanish will not know how long I have been in Spain.
Unfortunately, that changes my plans a little. My husband is an airline pilot and all of our travel benefits revolve around airlines that ultimately go through and re-enter Germany... Every Spanish departing airline that I have found so far goes through Germany before going to the States and enters Germany before going through Spain. Looking at UK options. I think I will talk to a UK attorney as well.

I am 46 and feel like I am in Kindergarten...

You could try flying to Switzerland or Morocco, then on to the US on a separate flight. I assume the attorney told you that there would be no problem with you flying from Spain (don't know what kind of records they keep of departures)?

Quick trip to CH or Croatia, then Spain or Germany and start the paperwork.

She said departing from Spain and entering Spain would be no problem since the Spanish have no documentation of how long I have been in Spain at this point. So far, I have not found an airline that departs from Spain that does not route through Germany on the outbound and inbound flight. That is why I was thinking of the UK (no language barriers), and direct flights from UK to US both ways ...will also look into Switzerland or Morocco.

Can't tell my husband. He is in Dallas at the moment going through his yearly 'hell week' pilot re-current testing. If I add any more stress to him, he might crash the sim.

Lawyer's advice obviously trumps everything we tell you, but one of the regulations of the Schengen agreement is that you cannot spend more than 3 out of 6 months in the Schengen area, which is probably one reason why you were told to apply immediately for the residencia after re-entry.
At international airports there will always be people who speak English, so don't worry about that.