Non-EU spouse moving to Spain with EU National together

Question

I am Ukrainian citizen, with a permanent green card in USA. My husband is Polish Citizen/American Citizen. We want to move to Spain. Everyone is saying I should be entering on Tourist Visa and then applying for residency. But we are having our marriage certificate duly recognized in his home country. Does that give me a right to apply for a different visa now?

We can't apply for reunification for EU family members, because we are both going there for the first time together, and he did not previously lived there and doesn't have (NIE #, address etc.) No Consulate in US would give me direct answers. Do I really need to apply for a tourist visa, or residence visa on my own, providing millions of documents, income etc, when I am already recognized as his spouse in EU? Is there a different visa/or route I should be taking?

Anyone can give some feedback/suggestions/advice on that ?

Answer 1

If by “tourist visa”, you mean a Schengen visa, then it's (in principle) not that complicated for the spouse of an EU citizen and I believe it is indeed the right procedure.

If you look at the form you will see that family members of EU citizens do not need to fill the boxes marked with an “*”, including all the info about income and the like (there is a small note about this at the bottom of each page). The visa fee should be waived as well so that's actually the simplest kind of visa application I know of.

You will need to submit your marriage certificate to avail yourself of this possibility (see also the fields number 34 and 35).

On the other hand, if you would apply for a Schengen visa to travel on your own (without accompanying or joining your husband), you would have to submit all the usual documentation (proof of financial means, itinerary, etc.) It's the same form/visa but a different set of requirements.