My wife has a 5 year residence permit card, in which is written "Regimen Comunitario", this is "Communitary Regime", meaning EU regime. This card is particulary different to other residence permits issued by Spain, has a very similar format to a spanish national identity card (issued for spanish citizens), and every where is written EU, EU...
I asked in other non-Schengen countries like Hungary, and they accept it there with no problem, this is, she should'nt apply for a visa.
As you well pointed, UK and Ireland are only accepting Residence Permits, issued by them, and not by other countries of the EEA.
This are the family permit visa requirements, quoted from the webpage of the british consulate in MAdrid:
Family Permit visa
Please ensure you include both the applicant´s AND spouse´s documents with your application. If not, it may be refused. Please provide the following:
* Your valid passport
* Completed online application form
* 2 recent passport-size colour photos on a white background
* Your valid Spanish residence permit
* A copy of your spouse’s passport or national identity document. (If the EEA national is not Spanish, please ring the visa section for more information on 807 42 90 27 )
* Your full marriage certificate. If it is not British or Spanish it must be legalised for use in Spain. We cannot accept the Spanish Libro de Familia.
* You and your spouse’s up-to-date Vida Laboral
* You and your spouse’s pay slips from the last 3 months
* You and your spouse’s bank statements from the last 3 months
* Proof of your accommodation in the UK, including cost (for example, hotel reservation)
From this, to point few things. The telephone 807... is a payble phone, 1,4€ per minute. The marriage certificate that they ask for is such document that you may obtain only in 1 month after requiring it, everybody prooves marriage with "Libro de Familia", that in this case is not accepted by them... Vida laboral-official document that includes everywhere where you worked.
I consider this a total abuse, specially bank statements...
The most interesting thing is that, when you try to ask for a reason, they just tell that they implemented this Directive, that all is ok, and please shut up and go away...
Regarding spanish citizenship, it is a long process, for about 3 years, and she's not convinced, because she would loose her original passport, and return to Russia with a visa (we go there oftenly), seems to her ridiculous.