Your first months in Spain: which paperwork to do first, and the deadlines that run from day one

Before you travel

Most of the delay in a first year in Spain comes from documents that can only be obtained in your home country: birth and marriage certificates, criminal record certificates, driving licence records. Once you are here, each one means a request by post or through a consulate, an apostille from the issuing country and a sworn translation. If you can see that you will need a document for a later procedure — family reunification, a change of permit, eventually nationality — get it apostilled before you leave, even if it will have to be reissued nearer the time. Knowing exactly how to get it is most of the work.

Keep copies of everything you file with the consulate for your visa. Several of the same documents come back into play in Spain.

The first week: an address, and the padrón

Register on the padrón at your town hall as soon as you have somewhere to live. Everyone living in Spain is legally obliged to, whatever their nationality or status, and it does not require a residence permit. It is usually free. It comes first because almost everything later asks for it: schools and health centres ask for the certificate, the convenio especial requires it, and immigration procedures ask for it in turn.

The usual proof is a title of ownership or a valid rental contract with a recent rent receipt. If you are living in someone else's home, you register with that resident's authorisation. And having neither does not shut you out: the town hall can verify by other means, including a local police report or an inspection, that you really live there.

The first month: the card, or the certificate

If you are not an EU, EEA or Swiss national and you entered on a visa for more than six months, you must apply for your TIE, the foreigner's identity card, in person within one month. The month runs from your entry into Spain, or from when the authorisation is granted or takes effect, depending on the case. It does not run from the date of your appointment, and appointments can be weeks away — which makes booking the appointment the most urgent thing you do in your first days, even before you have a flat.

If you are an EU, EEA or Swiss citizen staying longer than three months, you register at the police station or Immigration Office for an EU registration certificate within three months of entering Spain. It costs €12 and is issued on the spot.

Both procedures produce, or confirm, your NIE. You need that number for almost everything that follows.

Before your first day of work

With a NIE, you — or your employer — can get your Social Security number, which is yours for life. Your employer must register you with Social Security before your first day of work, and not earlier than 60 days before. If you will be self-employed, the registration is yours to file, also before you start.

The date on that registration matters twice. It starts your Social Security cover, and it starts the six-month window for opting into the special tax regime for people who move to Spain. That regime is not automatic, it cannot be applied for late, and it is not always the better option. Decide during the first months, not at the end of the tax year.

Healthcare

If you work for an employer or for yourself and are registered with Social Security, you are covered by the public health system; with your padrón certificate, register at your health centre and ask your region's health service for the health card.

If you are on a permit that required you to show health insurance — the non-lucrative residence permit is the obvious case — residence alone does not give you public cover. Keep your private policy. After a year of continuous residence, registered on the padrón, you can apply to buy into the public system through the convenio especial.

By month six: the car

A licence from outside the EU and EEA is valid for driving in Spain for six months after you become resident, and then it is not. If your country has an exchange agreement with Spain, apply for the exchange as soon as you are resident — you do not have to wait for the six months, and the limit does not pause while your application is processed. If your country has no agreement, as with the United States, Canada, Australia and India, start driving lessons in good time, because you will have to pass the Spanish tests.

By the end of the first year

Count your days. More than 183 days in Spain in a calendar year makes you a Spanish tax resident, but so can having your main economic interests here, or your spouse and minor children living here. Tax residence is decided year by year and has nothing to do with the date on your residence card.

Check your padrón. For non-EU nationals without long-term residence, the registration expires after two years unless it is renewed, and nobody sends a reminder.

And note the date your legal residence started. Everything that comes later — renewals, long-term residence after five years, nationality after ten, or two, or one — is counted from it, and legal residence is the only kind that counts.