Spanish Bureaucracy: Pick a card, any card …. or maybe chance your luck and roll the dice … just hope that Lady Luck is on your side (or even better, sat at the desk that attends you).
Today’s Winning Prize!
“The rules of any given game or sport are “theoretically” the same and are written in rule books. A good player keeps up with changes in tactics and ensures they have the required skills to ensure they are at the top of their game.
However, it can be, and often is, argued the outcome of any game is greatly influenced by the referees interpretation of the given rules.
The same may be said about the never ending debacle of Spanish bureaucracy. In this instance, the referee who will influence the outcome of any given situation is replaced by the person you encounter at the desk, at a particular time of a particular day.”
I do not want to dwell on this subject matter too much longer as, if you haven’t already read the story so far, you can read it in the previous posts ¿Qué pasa España? , Rants and a Confession, and My Husband is an Illegal Immigrant.
All I want to say is that today, having made a quick phone call yesterday morning, we walked into the immigration office, again, were attended promptly and efficiently and duly walked out holding my husband’s new residencia card (as in the image above). Had we been attended by this person a couple of months previously you would never have read this story.
What did we do differently? I’m afraid I cannot put that in writing but if you are having troubles yourself, don’t hesitate to get in touch and I will be happy to give you some guidelines.
As we said, the rules are the same for everybody, it is the player and the referee that influence the outcome!
By Lisa Sadleir
Lisa Sadleir
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The challenge in Spain is that there is no degree of consistency whatsoever and the decisions made by the refs(funcionarios) are based on THEIR interpretations of the Laws of the Game. Players/residents need to know F.A.C.T.S and know that when they do a, b will happen, when they do c, d will happen. They need to know that they MUST do a,b and c and they MUST NOT do x,y and z.
Sadly, in Spain when you do A -to- Z nobody really knows what will happen. If you don’t like a decision? Go back the next day, to the next town or the next funcionario. Eventually somebody will “give in”, you will decide, “not to bother” or …..the rules will have changed!