Certificado de Antecedentes Penales!

Yesterday was busy; I was up early sorting out yet more paperwork, only this time for not for Spain. We had asked a friend from Gran Alacant to accompany us to Murcia, where we had to have a police check carried out, confirming that both of us have no convictions.

Darrell and I had to travel to Murcia, a large city, about 80KM from Alicante. The Ministry of Justice Office is situated in the centre, above a shop; you wouldn't even know it's there, except for the small sign outside. After handing over our passports and residencia cards, we were good to go. Due to my residency status in Spain, the Ministry will also apply to Britain for my records, killing two birds with one stone, saving me the difficulties of applying for my police check in the UK. Darrell however wasn't so lucky. Due to his non EU status, he will have to ask for his British records himself. The documents were also apostilled or legalised on site, once again saving both of us the time and effort, contacting the relevant Government department. 

This was the quickest pain free task, I have ever gone through in Spain, everything was completed in twenty minutes. We both have to wait for two weeks, to get the final documents back and then finally have all the paperwork translated into English, part of the course when you are living in a non English speaking country; apart from this formality we are nearly at the end of the process here in Spain.

Over the next few weeks, we have just a few final engagements to undertake before we leave. We need to renounce our residency status and apply for our tax refunds, so we can finally move forwards away from our continental adventure. I am of course sad to be leaving this place, but at least we can both say, we have survived the Spanish system and lived a fairly full life.