If you are living in the UK and planning to visit Mallorca on holiday, you may have read in the press this week’s news of entering Spain from the UK with proof of £92 per day spending money.
The “new” amount for 2023 is 108€ equating to £92 per day spending money. In 2022, this was set at £85. You can see the official update on the Spanish Minstry of Interior website here.
In recent days the media has blown up this story, which has led to panic and ill feelings towards holidaying in Spain.
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What are the “new” entry requirements to Spain?
So what are these additional new entry requirements to Spain for UK tourists? And are visitors really being asked when entering Spain from the UK for proof of funds, or £92 per day spending money?
Also reported is the requirement for UK travellers to meet other entry requirements when visiting Spain.
They include providing proof of an address while on holiday whether this is a hotel booking, proof of property ownership, or a letter of invitation.
The requirements also include having a return ticket back to the UK, and staying less than 90 days in a 180-day period.
Now this news has been scaring just about every holidaymaker, which isn’t exactly surprising.
In fact, you’d almost be tempted to cancel or not even book your holiday to Mallorca and stay in the UK instead.
Are entry requirements for UK tourists NEW?
NO! Since Brexit, these rules aren’t actually anything new and have always been in place for third-country members.
When Brexit finally took place, and as of the 1st January 2021, the United Kingdom became what is considered a Third Country and rights were reverted right back prior to the UK joining the EU.
This means that proof of address in Spain and a return ticket to the UK are now required because UK holidaymakers no longer have the right to stay in Spain for as long as they wish.
Proof of funds is also a requirement because UK holidaymakers no longer have the right to work in Spain either without now applying for a working visa.
So it is no longer possible for holidaymakers to get a job if they are running low on money nor is it possible to come here for a working holiday either which you can also read about here.
This partially explains the problems the travel industry has run into getting reps to fulfil jobs in holiday resorts.
These requirements now imposed on British travellers are a direct result of Brexit since the UK is no longer a member of the European Union.
A withdrawal from the European Union includes a withdrawal of all the rights for travel, including restrictions on the length of stay in Spain.
So in terms of travelling to Spain, it is correct that third countries such as the UK now have third-country entry restrictions.
So what does this mean if you are coming on holiday to Mallorca or Spain this summer?
Firstly, I just want to state up front that if these checks were going to take place at airports, then then the Spanish Government would actively make an announcement and allow travellers to prepare their paperwork.
As you can imagine, the chaos would be immense if they did not do this.
So far, any announcement has only been made by the Mallorca press.
Firstly, I would say that there is nothing to worry about. I have heard no reports that Border Police are making checks on flights coming into Palma de Mallorca airport.
The airport is already welcoming passenger numbers that are showing signs of returning to pre-pandemic levels.
There are flights taking off and landing at Palma airport every couple of minutes.
And it would be absolutely catastrophic for the Border Police to check the proof of funds of every single passenger or flight coming in from the UK.
It would also be massively time-consuming to ask visitors to open their banking app on their smartphones.
That would be if they had a smartphone and a banking app (and I am thinking about elderly travellers here), to then go on and calculate their bank balance versus how long they are staying in Spain, or cross-check credit card limits.
Imagine how long one check would take for each person arriving from the UK into Spain!
And then go on to check a hotel booking, letter of invitation or property deeds.
It’s impossible. Plane loads of passengers would still be at the airport if these kinds of checks were being made and queues would extend out of the airport and literally around the island.
The airport is just not resourced to carry out these kinds of checks.
In fact, you will have seen in my previous news videos how busy the airport has been.
It is my guess that it is widely assumed that flights coming in for the Summer, whether on a package holiday or with a low-cost airline tourists coming on a holiday will have a hotel booking which includes a return ticket and some form of bank card. This would suffice.
So it would be pointless to make this check. And who would travel without enough money to support their stay anyway?
Are UK tourists being asked to provide proof of funds entering Spain?
The press has fuelled this theory that tourists entering Spain from the UK with proof of £92 per day spending money is now the norm.
However, you can see from a poll that I have run on the Mallorca Under the Sun Facebook Group and also on my Youtube Community page that actually no-one has been checked.
As you can see by this screenshot from the Facebook group, 100% of people who have travelled through Palma International airport have NOT been checked.
What does the UK Government say about tourists entering Spain from the UK with proof of £92 per day spending money?
Taken directly from the UK Government website on 28 July 2022, the UK government states without any certainty that travellers could be subject to checks.
You can see this in the screenshot I have taken from the UK Government website below, they state, “At the Spanish border, you may need to… “
The UK Government also does not provide a link through to the official Spanish Government website showing the actual information visitors need to know, outlining the exact details of the requirement for proof of funds, address and return ticket.
If you would like to know this information, then I have included it in my article, so keep reading.
The fact they do not go into any detail about this says everything.
The only link provided on the UK Government website goes instead to a page in Spanish that talks about the letter of invitation, or “carta de invitación.”
If these entry requirements were of any real importance for UK travellers then surely the information given on the official UK Government website would be more detailed and crystal clear?
Here is what they say on the official Government website:
The link in the text on the UK Government website goes to this page in Spanish which isn’t helpful for non-Spanish speakers in the UK!
If the UK Government are not taking the information they provide seriously, then nor should we!
So please I ask you to ignore the news – at least the sensationalist headlines – for now.
Pack your suitcases with excitement and not fear, enjoy your holiday, and give yourself the break you need.
Many of these stories in the mainstream media can be attributed to clickbait, and created to encourage clicks which means revenue for the papers as well as fuelling what reads like an anti-EU sentiment and a right-wing news agenda you see so much in the UK popular newspapers.
But these Third Country restrictions should come as no surprise. But after years of enjoying the freedom to travel, work or live in Europe, it could be said that no one expected that this would actually happen.
Where to find official information on the Spanish Government website in English
If you want to read more about the official Spanish Government restrictions to these third countries, you can read them here and an update for 2023 in Spanish here.
If anything should change with regards to airport border checks being made, or an official announcement from the Government (not the Daily Mail), then you know I will be first to tell you.
Don’t Forget…
Your trip is your responsibility, and this information is intended as a guide and to direct you to official sources of information. It is your responsibility to check before you travel.
Watch more about entering Spain from the UK with proof of spending money on Youtube
