This week, we caught up once again with Torrevieja´s Councillor for International Residents, Gitte Lund Thomsen, who was holding one of the drop-in sessions in the La Siesta urbanisation.
Gitte and her team hold regular sessions in the outlying urbanisations like La Siesta, and La Mata, and also in the town hall itself. That said, they much prefer it if you book an appointment or make contact, as they are also more than happy to visit you, which often helps them understand the situation better, as was the case where Gitte herself was set to visit a resident that afternoon so they could explain, in detail, the problems they are experiencing.
The La Siesta, El Chapparal office is inside the building that looks like a Local Police station, which it is, and is also shared, through a generous donation from the town hall, with Age Concern.
One of the functions that can be carried out at the office, incidentally, is the application for a Vado, a licence which prohibits vehicles from parking in front of your driveway, or building (including your own vehicle incidentally), to allow egress and access to your property by a vehicle. This prohibition can only be done with the official vado and is assessed on an individual basis. Again though, the police officers who work from the La Siesta office are happy to advise you.
In terms of the International Residents Department, run by Gitte, they are on hand to assist you in many different languages, and can guide you through a whole range of administrative processes, often believed daunting, especially to foreigners, such as registration and deregistration on the padrón, residencia, obtaining medical cover and a SIP card, digital signatures, and your right to vote, amongst others. They also have a handy leaflet, entitled Welcome to Torrevieja, which you can take away to read that gives brief details of each of those functions, and, importantly, what you need for each.
Anyone living or hoping to live in Torrevieja is welcome to contact the department, which you can do by email to eu@torrevieja.es, you can also telephone them on 600 34 14 31, or 965 71 02 50, and you can book an appointment via the torrevieja.es website, looking for Cita Previa, and Residentes Internacionales, where you can choose the location as well as time.
Finally, if you are on Facebook, you can follow both the International Residents Department, and Gitte direct, on these pages:
https://www.facebook.com/TorreviejaResidentesInternacionales
https://www.facebook.com/gittelt
