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How aspect gets expressed when there is no tense for it. Spanish has no perfect progressive, so a periphrasis carries it — and it is the one learners never produce.
The control text · argumentative
Prohibir el celular en clase parece una medida drástica, pero los datos sugieren que funciona. En las escuelas que adoptaron la restricción, los docentes reportan menos interrupciones y una caída en los casos de acoso digital. Es cierto que el aparato también sirve para estudiar, y sería ingenuo negarlo. Aun así, el costo de la distracción recae sobre quienes tienen menos apoyo en casa. Mientras no haya pruebas de que el uso libre mejora el aprendizaje, la carga de la prueba corresponde a quien defiende el permiso.
Where the two part
Latin American · the base
Andar plus gerund is commoner, and in Mexico ya plus indefinido does work the perfecto would do elsewhere.
Peninsular · the contrast
Llevar plus gerund and acabar de are equally standard. Ir a competes with the simple future more in Spain than in some Latin American varieties.
10 options
Llevo tres meses reclamando este cargo.
The tellDuration up to now, with no desde hace and no perfect tense.
The single highest-value item on the sheet: it says in three words what English needs a perfect progressive for, and learners almost never produce it.
No equivalent in Portuguese or Italian, so there is nothing to transfer.
LatAm Voy a presentar una reclamación.
Peninsular Presentaré una reclamación. — Anchor A
The tellTwo words instead of one for the future.
Dominant in speech in both standards, and Anchor A uses the one-word form because it is a formal letter.
Repeated across a paragraph it flattens the prose.
Acabo de recibir el estado de cuenta.
The tellThe immediate past, and it takes a present-tense acabar.
High frequency, and it fills a slot the tense system does not cover.
In the past it becomes acababa de, and mixing the tenses is a common slip.
Volvieron a cargarme el importe en agosto.
The tellRepetition, expressed with a verb rather than an adverb.
More idiomatic than otra vez, and it is the natural way to complain about something recurring.
It requires the reader to know the thing happened before, so it needs context.
Ando reclamando desde mayo.
The tellRepeated, scattered activity, often with a note of exasperation.
Carries attitude as well as aspect, which no neutral construction does.
Colloquial, and commoner in Latin America than in Spain.
El cargo sigue apareciendo todos los meses.
The tellContinuation despite something.
Precise, standard, and exactly what a persistent complaint needs.
It implies an expectation that the thing would stop, so it carries an accusation.
LatAm Debe abonar el importe. — obligation
Peninsular Debe de ser un error. — supposition
The tellOne preposition separating obligation from probability.
A real distinction the Academy maintains, and it is a visible C2 marker when used correctly.
Widely collapsed in speech, so the correct form can read as pedantic to a native ear.
Están cobrando un servicio ya cancelado.
The tellThe progressive proper.
Straightforward, and unlike Italian there is no competing construction.
Spanish uses it less than English does; overusing it is a quiet anglicism.
Portuguese vir + gerund and andar + gerund exist, and estar a + infinitive does not transfer at all
The tellA European Portuguese estar a construction attempted in Spanish.
Named because Brazilian's gerund progressive maps onto Spanish cleanly, so your base helps here.
If your Portuguese is European-influenced, estar a cobrar is an outright error in Spanish.
Italian's stare + gerund is much narrower, and volerci/metterci have no Spanish equivalent
The tellA gap rather than an error: the Italian pronominal verbs simply have nowhere to go.
Named because Spanish expresses those senses with tardar, hacer falta and llevar instead — a different route to the same place.
Nothing transfers, so the Spanish forms have to be learned independently of the Italian ones.