Can you sponsor your family: residence time and permit validity

Key rules

• Qualifying permit: You need a temporary residence permit or a long-term residence permit.
• Residence time: You need one year of legal residence in Spain unless you belong to an exempt group.
• Validity: Your authorisation must be valid for one further year when you file.
• Pending renewal: You can file during a pending renewal; the renewal outcome decides the file.

You can sponsor your family if you hold a qualifying permit and have lived legally in Spain for one year.

Which permits qualify

Your permit must be one of these:

• A temporary residence permit, including work permits.
• A long-term residence permit, including long-term EU residence.

Investor, non-lucrative and remote-worker permits are temporary residence permits and count.

Bringing a parent needs a long-term residence permit: a temporary permit is not enough for a parent.

How long you must have lived here

Legal residence is time held on a residence permit or visa that allowed you to live in Spain, counted from the day that permit started; time spent here without a valid permit does not count.

Long-term residents, EU Blue Card holders, highly qualified professionals and researchers skip the year of residence. The income and housing tests apply to everyone.

How much validity your permit needs

Look at the expiry date on your card and count from the day you plan to submit.

If your card has less than a further year left, you have two options. You can renew first, or you can file during the renewal, as the next section explains.

If your renewal is pending

You can file while your own renewal is pending, because your permit stays valid while it is processed. Keep proof that you filed the renewal.

The risk is a lapse. If your permit runs out during processing, the family file can be refused unless your renewal is granted. In that case, the outcome of your renewal decides the file.