Lately there has been much talk about changes in residencia applications in Spain, but what changes have taken place and who is eligible to apply from now on?

The law in question is “Orden PRE/1490/2012, 9th July”, that covers the rights of European Union members to circulate freely within member states and the conditions that must be met by those who wish to reside in another state for a period of more than 3 months. The law is more extensive but basically, supervision of residencia applications has been somewhat lax which in turn has proved to be a drain on the system, particularly on the resources of the National Health System as well as people benefiting from resident travel discounts without contributing to the Spanish economy.