What to arrange before you move so you are not uncovered

Key rules

• EHIC/GHIC: An EHIC or GHIC only covers temporary stays, so once Spain is your home you need Spanish public cover or private insurance instead.
• S1: If your home country keeps paying for your care, get it from your home body before you move.
• Visa insurance: Workers affiliated to Social Security do not need private insurance for a visa; most other non-EU visa routes do.
• Records: Get them before you leave.

What your home cover still does

Your home card is only a bridge for short stays.

There is one exception. If your home country still pays for your care, you can keep using its card for temporary needs. This applies to posted workers, students still insured at home, and pensioners with an S1. If you are a UK citizen with Withdrawal Agreement rights, you follow your own residence rules rather than the private-insurance visa routes.

Decide how you will be covered

Pick one route before you leave:

• Through work. Employed and self-employed people are covered by Spanish Social Security, so they do not need private insurance for a visa.
• Through an S1. Your home country keeps paying for your care in Spain.
• Through private insurance. This is the usual route if you have no work cover or S1, including non-lucrative and student residents; after one year of residence you can switch to the convenio especial (details).
• Through the INSS. If you are not working and have no S1, you apply for recognition once you are registered in Spain (details).

Do you need an S1?

An S1 is issued by your home health insurer when your home country stays responsible for paying for your care. Typical holders are:

• pensioners receiving a state pension or other qualifying benefit from an EU/EEA country, Switzerland or the UK
• posted workers
• cross-border workers
• the dependants of these people

Ask your home body before you move. In the UK, this is Overseas Healthcare Services. Elsewhere it is your health fund or pension institution.

After you arrive, you register the S1 with the INSS, Spain's social security institute. The INSS then issues a certificate of entitlement, and your regional health service issues your health card. Non-EU nationals without an agreement cannot use this route. The S1 is free; apply several weeks before you leave.

Family members are treated separately:

• Spouse: covered as a dependant on the S1 if your home country treats your spouse as a dependant. Proof is the marriage certificate, apostilled or legalised if non-EU, with sworn translation where needed. The home body decides.
• Registered partner: covered as a dependant if your home body recognises the registered partnership. Proof is the certificate of partnership registration.
• Unregistered durable partner: not automatically covered. The home body decides case by case, and you must prove the durable relationship, such as 12 months living together or a child together.
• Children: covered as dependants on your S1. Proof is the birth certificate.
• Dependent parent: a parent reunified with you is excluded as a beneficiary of Spanish Social Security and needs their own private health insurance. On an S1, the home body decides case by case, with documents showing financial dependence.

Do you need private insurance for your visa?

If you are not an EU citizen and your route is not work-based, you do. Non-lucrative, golden visa, digital nomad and student routes require a private policy; employees and the self-employed, and a reunified spouse, partner and children, are covered through Spanish Social Security and need none, while reunified parents need their own private policy. The routes and the policy conditions are in Which Spanish residence routes require private health insurance? and What a visa-compliant Spanish health policy must include. Ask the insurer for a certificate stating this; consulates ask for it with the visa application.

Records to get before you leave

Get these at home, where they are quicker to obtain: your insurance history and vaccination records, and the S1 if you qualify. Ask your doctor for a letter in English describing your diagnoses and treatment.

If you are setting up a company

You need private health insurance until you are affiliated to Social Security as a worker. The visa route is in How Spain's entrepreneur visa works.

Healthcare checklist before you leave for Spain

• Write a list of your current medicines using the generic active ingredient names.

• Check the rules for any controlled drug before you travel, and carry a doctor's letter for it.

• Book a final check-up and any vaccinations at home while you can still get your records easily.