What EU citizens must do to live in Spain legally

Key rules

• First stay: A valid passport or national ID card is all you need for your first three months.
• Registration: Register in person if you will stay longer than three months.
• Categories: You must fit a category such as worker, self-employed, student or self-sufficient.
• Late registration: Not registering can bring a fine, but it does not remove your right to live in Spain.

You can enter Spain freely and stay up to three months with only a valid passport or national ID card. If you stay longer than 3 months, apply for the registration certificate within 3 months of arriving. You need no visa and no permit. You fit one category and, if you do not work, show that you can support yourself.

Staying longer: pick the category that fits you

After three months, you stay lawfully if you fit one of these:

• Worker: you are employed in Spain.
• Self-employed: you work on your own account.
• Student: you are enrolled at an accredited centre in Spain and have enough money to live on and health cover.
• Job-seeker: you are registered with the public employment service and have a real chance of finding work; after 6 months from your arrival you also show money and health cover, unless you can show a real chance of a job.
• Self-sufficient person: this includes retirees.
• Family member: you are the family member of an EU citizen who meets one of these conditions.

After five years of continuous legal residence in Spain you have the right to permanent residence. It needs no job, funds or health cover, and you can ask for an optional permanent residence certificate; the certificate is proof only. Ordinary absences do not break the five years; the limits, and the two-year absence that ends permanent residence, are in When can Spain refuse or end an EU citizen's right to stay?. Some people qualify sooner: a worker who retires at pension age after three years in Spain and has worked here for the last 12 months, and a worker who stops working because of permanent incapacity after two years in Spain (or at once if a work accident caused it).

How to register

Book the appointment, pay the fee and file the form in Registering as an EU, EEA or Swiss citizen. If you are late you can be fined, and you still register (what happens if you never registered).

What the certificate does and does not do

The certificate proves a right you already have under EU law. Your right to live in Spain does not depend on it.

If you bring family

EU, EEA and Swiss relatives register themselves, as above. A relative from outside the EU applies for the family card within 3 months of entering Spain (The EU family residence card for non-EU relatives); who counts as family, and the rule for each relationship, is in Who counts as family of an EU, EEA or Swiss citizen.

Timeline and deadlines

• Enter Spain with a valid passport or national ID card and stay freely, with no conditions and no registration: from the day you arrive, for up to three months

• Decide whether you will stay longer and which category fits you: worker, self-employed, student, self-sufficient (including retirees) or family member: before the first three months end

• Get your registration certificate: within 3 months of arriving, if you stay longer than 3 months

• Receive your registration certificate, which shows your NIE number: after your registration is processed

• Ask for the permanent residence certificate if you want it: after five years of continuous legal residence

Proof an EU citizen may be asked for in Spain

• All applicants: your valid passport or national ID card.
• Proof of your category: for an employee, a self-employed person or a student see Working, self-employed or studying in Spain as an EU citizen; for a retired or non-working citizen see Retired or not working, funds and health cover for EU citizens.
• Proof of address, such as a rental contract or a padrón certificate (your town hall residents' registration), which many offices also ask for.
• Bring originals and copies of everything, and print the checklist shown when you book.

If you own your home or are buying it

For proof of address, bring your property deed (escritura) or a nota simple instead of a rental contract. A padrón certificate also works.

If you are a UK citizen

UK citizens were EU citizens until the end of 2020 and registered like any other EU citizen. If you were living in Spain legally before 1 January 2021 and are covered by the Withdrawal Agreement (are you covered?), you keep your rights and hold a Withdrawal Agreement residence document, not the EU registration certificate. If you moved to Spain after 31 December 2020 you are not covered yourself: you are a non-EU national and need a visa or residence permit, not EU registration (why a later arrival falls outside the agreement). The exception is family: close family members of someone covered by the Withdrawal Agreement can still join them after that date under its rules (family members of UK nationals). A UK citizen who is the relative of an EU citizen applies for the family card like any other non-EU relative.

If you hold an EU passport and a non-EU passport

Spain treats you as an EU citizen: enter, register and live here on your EU passport, and the three-month and registration rules above apply to you. The second, non-EU nationality gives you no extra route and does not change your category. If one of your nationalities is Spanish, you are a Spanish citizen: you do not register, you hold a DNI and a Spanish passport, and your non-EU relatives apply for the family card (Who counts as family of an EU, EEA or Swiss citizen).