Do I qualify for Spanish Residency?

Spanish residency is a complicated thing to qualify for, but as long as you’ve got all your cards in a row, you can get it done.

The first thing to consider when you’re looking to take Spanish residency is obviously make sure that you need it. The Spanish government require that anybody who spends more than 90 days in Spain registers for residency at a National Police Foreigner’s Office – Extranjeria – in the province they intend to reside.

The first thing to do is make sure all the application forms and the relevant taxes are paid and in place, plus the relevant personal documentation. So obviously you have to have a valid passport, and you need to have a Spanish address as well, certified by a padron certificate dated within 90 days.

Once you’ve got those first things sorted, you’re going to need to prove income or wealth, and there are various ways to do so. It could be you’re working in Spain, you’re self-employed, or you have money in a bank account, maybe you have a property in Spain. All of these are valid ways to prove that you can sustain yourself in Spain and that you’re earning an income or that you have enough money to keep you here.

From there, we move on to proving that you have healthcare in Spain. Now, you could have access to state health care if you’re working or self-employed in Spain, or a state pensioner with an S1 form. If none of these apply then you’ll need private health insurance, which has some very specific conditions assigned to it. You can’t have any excess on the policy, there can be no exclusions, and you must have it paid for the year in most circumstances.

If you have dependents – spouse, children etc – then they too will need documentation to prove the relationship as well as health cover and proof of sufficient means.