Post-Brexit bureaucratic nightmare for teacher in Spain

Mark Saxby, 56, says he’s been left in limbo due to Spanish authorities’ ‘petty’ concerns about his medical insurance.

A British teacher has expressed deep anxiety about returning to his Spanish home amid a three-year struggle to secure post-Brexit residency. Despite the EU-UK withdrawal agreement guaranteeing residency rights for those in the country before Brexit, Mark Saxby, 56, feels trapped in a bureaucratic nightmare. 

Saxby moved to Valencia and purchased a property in early 2020, but a missing month of medical insurance during the first year after the UK left the EU has led to repeated denials of his residency application.

Saxby fears he could be deported or barred from re-entering Spain, despite having lived there for several years and having a strong connection to the country.

Pandemic Bureaucracy Problems

The closure of town halls and immigration offices due to the pandemic delayed the submission of my residency application until shortly before the deadline. When the Valencian authorities finally responded, they informed me that I was missing a month’s health insurance coverage. Unfortunately, it was too late to rectify the situation.

Saxby, an English language teacher, feels overwhelmed by the numerous avenues he has explored to resolve his residency issue. He believes that the British people, including himself, were abandoned by Boris Johnson’s government during the Brexit negotiations.

As he prepares to return to Spain after a teaching stint in Manchester, Saxby is consumed by anxiety about whether he will be allowed to re-enter the country.

Saxby, who relocated from Lancaster to Spain in 2020, registered with the local town hall upon arrival. When lockdown restrictions were lifted later that year, he applied for a non-lucrative economic visa, which he believed was suitable given his inability to work during the pandemic.

Initially, Saxby encountered common challenges faced by foreigners, such as translating bank statements into English. However, he was taken aback when his visa application was rejected due to a lack of “appropriate private healthcare” between April and May 2021, the first full year of the UK’s post-Brexit existence. While an EHIC tourist health card provided coverage for the first three months, his private insurance did not take effect until May.

Despite being self-sufficient, Saxby appealed to the Valencian authorities, citing a bilateral healthcare agreement between Spain and the UK that he believed would have covered him until June 2021. He also contacted the Spanish and European ombudsmen, but their responses led to further confusion and no resolution.

Feeling increasingly frustrated, Saxby decided to approach the European Commission directly.

Implementation of Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union May Have Been Unjust

Saxby, along with other British citizens residing in the EU, contend that they lack representation at both national and EU levels to advocate for their rights. They feel abandoned by the British government, which they believe overlooked their interests in the withdrawal agreement.

Unlike EU citizens in the UK, who have recourse to organisations like the Independent Monitoring Authority, Settled, or the3million, British citizens in the EU have no such support at the highest European level. The European Commission, however, has expressed its concern and is threatening to take the UK government to the European Court of Justice over its implementation of the withdrawal agreement.

“The commission considers that there were several shortcomings in the United Kingdom’s implementation of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which continue to affect EU citizens under the withdrawal agreement,” it wrote.

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