Moving to Spain: Registration Procedures

Moving to Spain: Registration Procedures  As a citizen of the European Community or Switzerland, you only need to produce an appropriate identity document or a current passport to enter Spain. You can stay for three months to find a job or find work for yourself. If you have still not found a job after three months, you are entitled to stay for longer if you continue seeking work.

If your family members are not citizens of the Community, the EEA or Switzerland, they must apply for a residence card for Community relatives if they are going to stay in the country with you for more than three months.

Necessary documents

After you arrive in Spain, you have a period of three months in which to apply at the Oficina de Extranjeros (Foreign Nationals’ Office) or at a police station for registration in the Registro Central de Extranjeros (Central Register of Foreign Nationals). You will need to present your valid passport or identity card and pay a fee. The Office will give you a registration certificate with an NIE (Número de identificación de Extranjeros) [Non-nationals’ identification number]. This procedure has substituted the former Community resident’s card.

For the purposes of identification, any non-national wishing to have an economic, social or professional relation with Spain must have the personal, unique and exclusive NIE. This may be obtained automatically when applying to be included in the central register of foreign nationals, but it may also be applied for separately.

Those from countries which are not members of the EEA or from Switzerland require a residence permit to live in Spain. Ask for information in Spanish embassy in your country of origin or from the Spanish Ministry of the Interior.

Registration

A registration certificate can be obtained from the local Ayuntamiento [Local Council] whenever you need to prove that you live in Spain. For this you will need to show the rental contract for your accommodation, or your electricity or water bill, etc. as proof that you do live there.

If this is the first time you have worked in Spain, you must obtain your own Social Security membership number. You can arrange this yourself or your company can do it on your behalf. You must produce the following at the Social Security office in order to be issued with the card:

• Application form (TA-1)
• Identity document

You will then be given a Tarjeta de la Seguridad Social [Social Security Card], which must be presented at the corresponding health centre in order to be assigned to a doctor and obtain a tarjeta sanitaria [health certificate].