Moving to Spain: a step-by-step checklist for 2026

Most relocation problems in Spain come from doing the right things in the wrong order — arriving without apostilled documents, or missing the one-month window for the TIE card. This checklist puts the steps in the order Spanish procedures require. It assumes you have already chosen a residence route; if not, start with our guide to choosing one.

Before you leave

1. Apply for your visa at the Spanish consulate for the place where you live — required for every non-EU residence route that starts abroad.
2. Get an apostille on birth, marriage and criminal record certificates from the country that issued them. Documents from countries outside the Hague Convention are legalised through the Spanish embassy or consulate instead (Ministerio de Inclusión, Hoja 61).
3. Have documents translated into Spanish by a sworn translator authorised by Spain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs; their translations need no further legalisation.
4. Arrange health insurance if your route requires it — non-lucrative residence, the Ley 14/2013 routes and family reunification all do.
5. Keep originals and copies of everything together; Spanish offices usually ask for both.

Your first month in Spain

1. Register on the padrón at your town hall. Spanish law obliges everyone who lives in Spain to register in the municipality where they usually live (Ley 7/1985, art. 15), and most other steps ask for the padrón certificate.
2. Apply for your TIE card. Anyone with a visa or permit for more than six months must apply in person within one month of entering Spain or of the permit being granted (RD 1155/2024, art. 209). For work permits the month runs from your Social Security registration. Holders of Ley 14/2013 visas (such as digital nomads) are exempt from the TIE while on the visa itself.
3. Know the difference: the NIE is your identification number for life; the TIE is the physical card proving your status. Our NIE, TIE and padrón guide explains each in detail.

Your first months

1. Get a Social Security number. You can request it online through the Social Security’s Import@ss portal with your NIE, a mobile phone and an email address.
2. Get your health card. Once your right to public healthcare is recognised — for example as a registered worker or a family beneficiary — you request the individual health card (tarjeta sanitaria) at your local health centre; it is issued by your region.
3. Open a Spanish bank account. Banks will ask for your identity document and usually your NIE.
4. Sort out your driving licence. EU and EEA licences remain valid. A non-EU licence can be used for at most six months after you become resident; after that you must exchange it — only possible where Spain has an agreement with the issuing country — or pass the Spanish driving test (DGT).

Your first tax year

You become a Spanish tax resident if you spend more than 183 days in Spain in a calendar year, or if your main centre of economic interests is here; residence is also presumed if your spouse and dependent minor children live in Spain (Ley 35/2006, art. 9). Tax residents report foreign bank accounts, securities and insurance, and real estate on Modelo 720 when a category is worth more than €50,000, filing between 1 January and 31 March. People moving for work should check, before the move, whether the special regime for inbound workers applies to them — it has strict conditions and a short window to opt in.