Procedure · Tarjeta de residencia de familiar de ciudadano de la Unión
EU family member residence card in Spain (tarjeta de familiar de ciudadano de la Unión)
The five-year card for non-EU family of an EU or EEA citizen. Apply within three months of entry; the receipt alone proves lawful stay, and the decision backdates to the day you arrived.
Checked at source ·
- Official fee
- Card issue fee. The card runs five years from issue
- Official name
- Tarjeta de residencia de familiar de ciudadano de la Unión
- Forms
- —
- Steps
- 14
- Documents required
- 7
Source: Boletín Oficial del Estado — Real Decreto 240/2007, sobre entrada, libre circulación y residencia en España de ciudadanos de los Estados miembros de la UE y del EEE (texto consolidado). Checked .
Who needs one
Non-EU spouses, registered partners, children and dependent parents of EU, EEA and Swiss citizens who are accompanying or joining them in Spain for more than three months.
Step by step
Check you are within the family the decree covers
Whatever your nationality: the spouse, provided there has been no annulment, divorce or legal separation; the registered partner, where the partnership is entered in a public register in an EU or EEA state that prevents two simultaneous registrations and the entry has not been cancelled; direct descendants of the EU citizen and of their spouse or registered partner, under twenty-one or, if older, dependent or incapacitated; and direct dependent ascendants of either. Marriage and registered partnership are treated as incompatible with each other in every case.
If you fall outside that list, article 2 bis may still cover you
Other family members, of any nationality, can ask for the decree to be applied to them where they prove that in the country they came from they were dependent on the EU citizen or lived with them, or that serious health or disability reasons make it strictly necessary for the EU citizen to take personal care of them. Unmarried partners in a duly proven stable relationship can also apply. Decisions here are individual and must be reasoned.
The two numbers that decide an article 2 bis case
Living together is taken as proved where you evidence twenty-four months of continuous cohabitation in the country you came from. A partnership is taken as durable where you evidence at least one continuous year of marital cohabitation — and where you have children together, stable cohabitation duly proved is enough without the year. Those thresholds are in the text and are what an otherwise discretionary assessment turns on.
You may work, on the same terms as a Spaniard
Everyone within the decree may take up any employed or self-employed activity, provide services or study, on the same conditions as Spanish nationals. The exception is dependent descendants over twenty-one and dependent ascendants, whose position as dependants is what their right rests on. Even for them, work does not automatically end that status where the income is shown not to be necessary for their support, or under a full-time contract of no more than three months a year with no continuity in the labour market.
Apply within three months of entering Spain
The application goes to the Immigration Office of the province where you intend to stay or settle or, failing that, to the corresponding police station. Three months from the date of entry is the deadline, and it is short enough that it catches families who assume they can settle in first and deal with paperwork later.
Where: Oficina de Extranjería of your province, or the corresponding Comisaría de Policía
The receipt you are given is not just a receipt
A receipt evidencing that the application has been filed must be handed over immediately, and it is sufficient on its own to prove that your stay is lawful until the card is delivered. More than that: holding it cannot be made a precondition for exercising other rights or carrying out other administrative procedures, as long as you can prove your situation by any other means of evidence. That sentence is worth quoting at a counter that refuses to proceed without the physical card.
What goes in the file
The official application form, plus: your valid passport — and if it has expired, a copy of it together with the renewal application; documentation evidencing the family link, marriage or registered partnership, duly translated and apostilled or legalised where required; the registration certificate of the EU or EEA citizen you are accompanying or joining; evidence that you live at their expense where the decree requires it; and three recent colour photographs on a white background, passport size.
Three months to issue it — and the decision backdates
The card must be issued within the three months following the application. A favourable decision has retroactive effect: your residence is treated as valid from the evidenced date you entered Spain as a family member of an EU citizen, not from the day the card was printed. That backdating matters later, because it is what the clock for permanent residence runs on.
Five years, or as long as the EU citizen is staying
The card is valid for five years from the date of issue — or for the EU citizen's expected period of residence, where that is shorter than five years. It is a longer first grant than almost anything in the general immigration regime, where initial permits run one year.
If the EU citizen dies
For family members who are themselves EU or EEA citizens, a death, a departure from Spain, an annulment, a divorce, a legal separation or the cancellation of a registered partnership does not affect their right of residence at all. For non-EU family members, a death does not affect it either, provided they had been residing in Spain as family members before it happened. There is a duty to notify the death to the authorities.
If the EU citizen leaves Spain, and there are children in school
Departure or death does not cost the children their right of residence, nor the parent who has effective custody of them, whatever that parent's nationality — provided the children reside in Spain and are enrolled at an educational establishment, and it lasts until those studies are finished. This is the provision that keeps a family from being uprooted mid-school-year.
If the marriage or partnership ends
You must notify it. To keep your residence you then have to evidence one of four things. That the marriage or registered partnership lasted at least three years up to the start of the proceedings, at least one of those years in Spain. That custody of the EU citizen's children was awarded to you, by agreement or by a court. That especially difficult circumstances apply. Or that a court decision or agreement gives you access rights to a minor child who resides in Spain, and it is still in force.
Gender violence and trafficking are named in the text
Two situations count expressly as especially difficult circumstances: having been a victim of gender violence during the marriage or partnership, and having been subjected to human trafficking by your spouse or partner during it. Gender violence is taken as provisionally proved where there is a protection order in your favour or a report from the Public Prosecutor indicating evidence of it, and definitively once a judicial decision establishes it. Trafficking is provisionally proved where there are criminal proceedings in which the spouse is accused and the family member is a possible victim. Neither requires the three years of marriage that the ordinary route does.
Checks are allowed, but not systematic
Where the authorities have reasonable doubts about whether the conditions are met, they may carry out verifications — but those verifications may never be systematic. A policy of checking every file as a matter of course is not what the decree allows.
Documents you need
Official application form
The EX-19 model for the EU family member residence card.
Valid passport
If it has expired, a copy of it together with the application to renew it.
Proof of the family link
Marriage certificate, registered partnership entry, birth certificates — duly translated and apostilled or legalised where required.
The EU citizen's registration certificate
Of the EU or EEA citizen you are accompanying or joining. Without their registration, there is nothing for your card to attach to.
Proof of dependency, where required
That you live at the EU citizen's expense, in the cases where the decree requires it — descendants over twenty-one and ascendants.
Three recent colour photographs
Passport size, on a white background.
For an article 2 bis application
Evidence of dependency, degree of relationship, serious illness or disability, or cohabitation — and for partners, proof of a stable relationship and how long you have lived together.
Common questions
How long do I have to apply for the EU family member card?
Three months from the date you entered Spain, at the Immigration Office of your province or the corresponding police station. It is a short window and it catches families who plan to settle in first.
Can I work while I wait for the card?
Yes. Everyone within the decree may work, employed or self-employed, on the same conditions as Spanish nationals — the exceptions being dependent descendants over twenty-one and dependent ascendants, whose right rests on that dependency. And the receipt for your application proves your stay is lawful until the card arrives.
An office refuses to help me because I only have the receipt. Is that right?
No. The decree says the receipt is sufficient to prove lawful stay until the card is delivered, and that holding it cannot be a precondition for exercising other rights or carrying out administrative procedures, provided you can prove your situation by any other means of evidence.
How long is the card valid?
Five years from the date of issue, or the EU citizen's expected period of residence where that is shorter. The favourable decision also backdates your residence to the evidenced date you entered Spain as their family member.
My partner and I are not married. Do we qualify?
If your partnership is registered in a public register in an EU or EEA state that prevents simultaneous registrations, you are within the main list. If not, you can apply under article 2 bis as a stable unmarried partner — where at least one continuous year of marital cohabitation is taken as proving a durable relationship, or stable cohabitation alone if you have children together.
What happens to my residence if we divorce?
You must notify it, and you keep the residence by evidencing one of four things: three years of marriage or partnership before the proceedings began with at least one year in Spain; custody of the EU citizen's children; especially difficult circumstances; or access rights to a minor child residing in Spain under a decision still in force.
I am a victim of gender violence. Do I lose my residence if I leave?
No. Having been a victim of gender violence during the marriage or partnership counts expressly as an especially difficult circumstance that preserves the right of residence, without the three years the ordinary route requires. It is taken as provisionally proved with a protection order in your favour or a Public Prosecutor's report indicating evidence of it.
My EU spouse died. Do I have to leave Spain?
No, provided you had been residing in Spain as a family member before the death. You are obliged to notify the death to the authorities, but it does not affect your right of residence.
My EU partner left Spain and our children are in school here. What now?
Their departure does not cost the children their right of residence, nor you as the parent with effective custody, whatever your nationality — as long as the children reside in Spain and are enrolled at an educational establishment, and it lasts until they finish those studies.
Which office, in your province
Not every counter handles every procedure, and the assignment differs from province to province — in Alicante the residence card is issued at one address and the NIE at another. These are the provinces whose offices list this procedure themselves; each page gives their addresses, phone numbers and opening hours.
Sources
Every fact on this page comes from one of these. We do not cite other guides, because a copy gives us no way to notice when the original changes.
This is information, not advice
Your own case depends on your nationality, your current status and your history with the administration — none of which a web page can see. Confirm anything that matters with the responsible authority or a qualified professional before you act on it.