Hey guys!
Does anybody have any experience with the Spanish "Invitation Letter"? It's supposedly a document needed to enter Spain when you're not booking a hotel (staying with friends).
I'm basically entering Europe, staying one day in Spain, then another in France and then going for a week to Africa, on my return I would be arriving again in Spain. The first entry shouldn't be a problem because I have all the bookings for hotels, trains etc. (Also my arriving flight is from the US, meaning I have a US visa that should tell them if I hadn't emigrated illegally to the US, why would I want to do it in Spain) But for the second I'm staying with friends for some days before moving to elsewhere in Europe.
I know maybe Americans don't get this requisite asked by Spanish authorities, but I have a Mexican passport and they are known nowadays for deporting tons of Mexicans even though they have means to prove they are
bona fide tourists. I heard the letters cost something between 75 and 200 euros and I won't make my friends get me one, I don't want to be an annoyance. What do you recommend?
- Make a reservation in a hostel, not going and getting charged the first night (Although I'm afraid when I'm exiting the EU (not from Spain) they get the news I didn't stayed in the hostel and tell me something)
- Fly from africa to another country, France or Italy, where I speak their languages and they can see I'm a backpacker and not avoid being asses like the Spanish; And then go to Spain.
- Risk it without the immigration letter and going directly to Spain.
Just for the record, I've
never had any questioning in
any border longer than 2 minutes and I've visited the US (a lot of times), CAN, JPN, KOR, UK, GER and even Spain before while backpacking, geez, I remember even going to Canada as a minor, unaccompanied (meaning I require a notarized letter to enter Canada) to backpack and they just asked me 2 questions and let me in. But I have a bad feeling about entering in Spain, I'm more worried than if I had to enter the US :P.
So what do you think? I'm worrying too much or I have reasons to be worried? What would you do?