Can you bring a parent or grandparent to live in Spain

Key rules

• Parent's age: Your parent must be over 65, with a younger parent accepted only for exceptional humanitarian reasons.
• Sponsor status: You must already hold the required residence status before you file, and you file from inside Spain.
• Proof of need: You must prove your parent depends on you financially and has a real need to live in Spain.
• No reply: If the authorities do not answer within the time limit, the application is refused.

Can you do it at all?

Only if you pass three tests. You need the right residence status as the sponsor, your parent must be over 65, and you must prove your parent depends on you and needs to live in Spain. Check all three before you gather any papers.

This page covers sponsors who are non-EU residents. If your parent's child or spouse is Spanish or an EU citizen, a different regime applies. The decision below helps you pick the right route.

Test 1: your status as sponsor

You must already hold a residence authorisation that has been renewed at least once, or a long-term residence authorisation. For parents, long-term resident status is the safer assumption. You cannot file before you hold that status, and you file from inside Spain.

The rules changed in May 2025, so ask the Oficina de Extranjería in your province which status it requires for ascendants today.

Test 2: your parent's age

Your parent must be over 65. A younger parent may be accepted for exceptional humanitarian reasons, such as serious illness. The office decides this case by case, so do not count on it.

Test 3: dependency and need

You must show two things:

• Your parent depends on you financially. Records of money you have sent over time are the usual proof.
• There is a reason your parent must live in Spain. Examples are no other children in the home country, health or care needs, and no means to live on.

What offices accept varies, so build this evidence early and keep it thorough.

Your income and housing

You must show stable, regular income that covers your family. It is measured as a multiple of the IPREM, and the multiple rises with each family member in Spain, including your parent. Recent contracts, payslips, tax returns or bank records are the normal proof. Check the current IPREM and multiple with the Oficina de Extranjería before you apply.

You also need a housing report from your town hall or your region's competent body. It covers ownership, rooms, habitability and how many people will live there. Who issues it and how you ask varies by town and region.

The process

You file in Spain, normally electronically, with the Oficina de Extranjería. The government sub-delegation decides. The legal limit is about three months, and silence means refusal. If approved, your parent applies for the visa at the Spanish consulate at home, usually within two months. After arriving, your parent applies for the TIE within one month at the police. The timeline below shows the steps.

Foreign documents normally need an apostille or consular legalisation and a sworn translation into Spanish. Your parent also needs a medical certificate. The documents list below has the rest.

How long it lasts

Your parent's authorisation lasts as long as yours and can be renewed while the conditions continue. It does not allow work at first. After five years of continuous legal residence, your parent can apply for long-term residence. Early independent residence is generally not available.

Which route fits your parent

Which residence route fits your parent?

• EU family card for a dependent parent: Your child is a citizen of another EU country living in Spain, and your parent depends on them financially. Your parent gets a family card valid 5 years, then permanent residence after 5 years. No age minimum applies, only dependency.

• Ordinary foreigner route for a parent of a Spaniard: Your child is Spanish and has not used free movement in another EU country. Spain's EU-style family regime does not cover parents of Spaniards, so your parent needs one of the ordinary routes below.

• Family reunification by a non-EU resident: Your child is a non-EU resident who already holds the required status: a residence authorisation renewed at least once, or long-term residence. Your parent must be over 65 and dependent, or younger for exceptional humanitarian reasons. The sponsor applies in Spain, and only after holding that status.

• Non-lucrative visa: Your parent fails the reunification test but has enough funds and private health insurance, and will not work in Spain. Retirees often use this route.

• Work, remote-worker or similar visa: Your parent can work for non-Spanish clients, or qualifies for a highly qualified or work-permit route, and does not depend on a sponsor.

• Arraigo (rooting) residence: Your parent is already in Spain and has built ties there, such as after 2 years of irregular stay or through family links.

• Short family visit: None of the routes fits yet. Your parent can visit for a short stay while you sort out a longer-term plan.

Start with your child's nationality. EU citizen other than Spanish: check dependency. Spanish citizen: go to the ordinary routes. Non-EU resident: check the sponsor's status, then whether your parent is over 65 and dependent. If none fits, compare the non-lucrative, work or remote-worker visa and arraigo, and use a short visit as a stopgap.

Timeline and deadlines

• Hold the required residence status, then file the application in Spain, normally electronically, with the Oficina de Extranjería in your province: before you file; it cannot be filed earlier

• Wait for the decision from the government sub-delegation; no reply means refusal: the legal limit is about 3 months from filing (latest 90 days after application date)

• Your parent applies for the visa at the Spanish consulate in their home country: usually within 2 months of the grant (latest 60 days after visa granted)

• The consulate issues the visa: about 1 month after the visa application

• Your parent applies for the TIE (residence card) at the police: within 1 month of entering Spain (latest 30 days after entry date)

Documents you need

• Your passport and your residence card, as the sponsor in Spain.

• Your parent's full passport.

• Proof of kinship, such as your birth certificate showing your parent's name.

• Proof that your parent depends on you financially, such as records of the money you have sent over time.

• Documents showing why your parent needs to live in Spain, such as no other children in the home country, health or care needs, and lack of means.

• Proof of your own stable income, such as recent employment contracts, payslips, tax returns or bank records covering the latest period before the application.

• A housing report (informe de vivienda adecuada) from your town hall or your region's competent body, covering the title to the home, number of rooms, habitability and number of occupants.

• A clean criminal record certificate from your parent's home country.

• A medical certificate for your parent.

• A sworn translation into Spanish of every foreign document, unless it is exempt.

Checklist

• Check that you hold a residence authorisation renewed at least once, or a long-term residence authorisation, before you apply.

• Confirm that you are the sponsor filing from inside Spain, since the application cannot be filed before you hold that status.

• Check the current IPREM, the public income indicator set each year, and the multiple required for your family size including your parent.

• Collect proof that your parent depends on you and needs to live in Spain before you build the file.

• Ask the Oficina de Extranjería in your province how it takes electronic filings and which evidence it accepts.

• Plan for your parent's residence to last as long as your own authorisation, with renewals while conditions continue.

Quick answers on bringing parents to Spain

Can both of my parents be reunified at the same time?

Yes, both parents can be reunified in the same application or in separate ones, as long as each meets the requirements. The sponsor's income must cover the bigger family, which raises the required multiple of the IPREM, the public income benchmark.

Can a reunified parent work in Spain?

Usually not at first, because a reunified parent has traditionally received residence without permission to work. Work normally requires a separate authorisation or long-term residence. The 2025 rules may have eased this, so ask the foreigners' office.

Can I bring my spouse's parents to Spain?

Yes, in many cases your spouse's parents count as your ascendants. Under the EU regime they must be dependent on you or your spouse, usually shown by money transfers and low income at home. Under the non-EU reunification regime they must also be dependent and over 65, and approval is hard to get.

What can I do if my parent is under 65?

A parent under 65 can still be admitted for exceptional humanitarian reasons. Other options are a non-lucrative visa if your parent has enough funds, or arraigo after time in Spain. For parents of EU citizens, only dependency matters, not age.