What people moving to Spain usually ask

The empadronamiento comes first. It is the registration of your address with the town hall, and it works as the key to everything else: without it you cannot apply for the TIE, get a health card or enrol your children in school. The usual sequence is empadronamiento → NIE/TIE → social security number → bank account → tax registration, though it varies with your visa and your nationality. Immigration appointments are requested through the Public Administration electronic portal.

Related service:Empadronamiento

Official sources:Public Administration portal

Not always for the NIE, but yes for the TIE. The municipal register is a requirement for most later procedures, so leaving it until afterwards usually means repeating steps. It is done at the town hall of your municipality, and each one sets its own requirements and processing times. If you rent, you will need the contract; if you are staying with someone, written authorisation from the person on the lease or deed.

Related service:Empadronamiento

Yes, and you should. The NIE can be requested at the Spanish consulate in your country before you travel. Arriving with the number already assigned lets you register your address and book your TIE appointment straight away, instead of waiting to obtain the number once you are here. It is also worth having your documents apostilled before you leave.

Related service:NIE / TIE

No. Citizens of the EU, the EEA and Switzerland do not apply for a TIE but for the Certificado de Registro de Ciudadano de la Unión (CUE), a small paper certificate. You still need a NIE and the empadronamiento, but your process is considerably shorter.

Related service:CUE (EU citizens)

You normally do not lose the right, but you do lose time. The usual outcome is having to book another appointment at the Immigration office and wait for a slot to open. The other common cause of delay is submitting an incomplete file: an expired document, one that is missing the apostille, or one without a sworn translation sends you back to the start.

There is no single answer, because it depends on factors that neither you nor your adviser control. The three that weigh most are your nationality — the EU procedure is considerably shorter than the non-EU one — the availability of appointments at the Immigration office in your province, which varies a great deal from one to another, and how many procedures you need to chain together: a NIE is not the same as a family move involving school places and degree recognition. What we can tell you from the outset is which procedures apply to you, in what order they go, and which ones you can start from your own country.

Any document that will have legal effect in Spain: university degrees, birth and marriage certificates, criminal record checks and, in some cases, medical certificates. The Hague Apostille is issued by the country that produced the document, not by Spain. It is worth resolving before you travel: handling it remotely, once you are settled here, means dealing with your own country’s administration without being there.

Related service:Apostille and legalisation

Official sources:Ministry of Justice — apostille (Spanish)

Yes, whenever the document is not in Spanish. It must be done by a sworn translator on the official register of the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs; an ordinary translation, however good, will not be accepted. The apostille and the translation are two separate steps, and there is a correct order between them.

Related service:Apostille and legalisation

Official sources:Ministry of Foreign Affairs — sworn translators (Spanish)

It is your digital identity before the Spanish administration, and it saves you most of the queuing. With it you can do online what would otherwise require an in-person appointment: checking the status of a file, filing taxes, requesting certificates. You apply for it through the FNMT electronic portal. For someone who has just arrived it is probably the procedure with the best effort-to-benefit ratio.

Related service:Digital certificate

Official sources:FNMT — private individual certificate

It depends on your country. If it is an EU licence, it is valid as it is. If it is from outside the EU, you may drive for a limited period after establishing residence and then need to exchange it, but exchange is only possible if your country has an agreement with Spain. The DGT keeps the current list of countries with an agreement. Without one, you have to sit the Spanish theory and practical tests.

Related service:Driving licence exchange

Official sources:DGT — exchange of foreign licences (Spanish)

The international teleworking visa, commonly known as the digital nomad visa. It is set out in article 74 bis of Law 14/2013 on support for entrepreneurs, an article introduced by Law 28/2022 on startups. The law defines it as the situation of someone residing in Spain while carrying out employment or professional activity remotely for companies based outside Spanish territory. You must show a level of income, a university or postgraduate qualification — or at least three years of professional experience — and health insurance with full cover.

Related service:Digital nomad visa

Official sources:Law 14/2013, art. 74 bis (BOE, Spanish)Law 28/2022 on startups (BOE, Spanish)

If you are self-employed, yes, but with a cap: work for companies based in Spain cannot exceed 20 % of your total professional activity. If you come as an employee, the activity must be entirely for companies outside Spain. It is an easy condition to overlook and worth keeping track of from the start, because you have to keep meeting it at renewal.

Related service:Digital nomad visa

The initial visa allows you to reside in Spain for up to a year. After that you apply for the international teleworking residence authorisation, valid for up to three years and renewable in two-year periods. If you are already in Spain legally, you can apply for the authorisation directly without going through the visa.

Related service:Digital nomad visa

Around €2,850 gross per month in 2026. The law sets no figure: the criterion the administration applies is 200 % of the Spanish minimum wage, which for 2026 was set at €1,221 per month across fourteen payments — €17,094 a year — by Royal Decree 126/2026. An additional percentage is added for each family member joining you. Because this is an administrative criterion rather than a figure written into the law, it is worth confirming at the point of applying.

Related service:Digital nomad visa

Official sources:Minimum wage 2026 — RD 126/2026 (BOE, Spanish)

A great deal, and it has changed again this year. Royal Decree 1155/2024 came into force on 20 May 2025, replacing the previous regulation that had been in place since 2011: it reorganised visa and stay categories, modified the arraigo routes and changed the official application forms. Then Royal Decree 316/2026, in force since 16 April 2026, amended it again, mainly on residence in exceptional circumstances and arraigo. A good share of the guides circulating online are still written against the old rules.

Official sources:RD 1155/2024 — consolidated text (BOE, Spanish)RD 316/2026 (BOE, Spanish)

The card’s validity always matches that of your residence authorisation. There is no single duration: it depends on the type of authorisation you hold, and each one has its own under the Immigration Regulation. What matters is the renewal: it is requested within the window before expiry, and letting it lapse complicates the file. Your adviser will confirm the validity and the deadline that apply to your case.

Related service:NIE / TIE

Generally yes, if your visa or authorisation already entitles you to work: the card evidences a right you already hold, it does not create it. But it depends on the type of authorisation, and your employer will need your NIE and your social security number to register you.

Related service:Social security number

If you spend more than 183 days in Spanish territory within a calendar year. The test is in article 9 of the Personal Income Tax Law 35/2006, which adds further grounds: having the main centre of your economic interests here, or having a spouse and minor children resident in Spain. Being a tax resident means being taxed in Spain on your worldwide income, not only on what you earn here.

Related service:Tax residency planning

Official sources:Law 35/2006, art. 9 (BOE, Spanish)

It is a special tax regime that lets you be taxed as a non-resident even though you live in Spain. It is set out in article 93 of Law 35/2006 and the Tax Agency explains it in its manual on the special regime for inpatriates. The rate is 24 % on Spanish-source income up to €600,000, and 47 % on the excess above that. It lasts six years in total. The key requirement: you must not have been a Spanish tax resident in the five preceding years. It mainly suits higher earners: below a certain level, the general regime can work out better.

Related service:Tax residency planning

Official sources:Law 35/2006, art. 93 (BOE, Spanish)Tax Agency — special regime for inpatriates

Yes, and it is short. You apply using form 149 within six months of registering with Social Security. Miss it and the right is lost permanently, with no way back. It is a deadline worth marking before you even arrive, because the clock starts the moment you are registered.

Related service:Tax residency planning

Yes. Since 2023, a spouse and children under twenty-five — or of any age where there is a disability — can join the same regime as the main taxpayer. They must move with you or arrive before the end of your first tax period under the regime, become Spanish tax residents, and their combined taxable bases must be lower than yours.

Related service:Tax residency planning

If you are a tax resident, yes. Form 720 requires you to report accounts, securities and property held abroad once they exceed certain thresholds per category. It is an informative return: nothing is paid on filing it. Its penalty regime was amended following the Court of Justice of the European Union ruling of 27 January 2022, but the reporting obligation remains in force.

Related service:Form 720

Official sources:Tax Agency — Form 720

It depends on where you are tax resident and on what the double taxation treaty between Spain and that country says. Spain has treaties with most countries, precisely so that you do not end up paying twice on the same income. This is one of the situations where it is most worth reviewing the specific case before making decisions.

Related service:Tax residency planning

Official sources:Tax Agency — double taxation agreements

It depends mainly on your expected turnover and on whether you will have partners or employees. Registering as autónomo is quick and cheap to maintain; an S.L. involves a notary, the commercial register and more accounting obligations, but above a certain volume it can be more efficient tax-wise and it limits your personal liability.

Related service:Registering as self-employedSetting up an S.L.

You can, though it tends to be one of the harder points on arrival. Many landlords ask for a Spanish employment contract, and without one it is common for them to require alternatives: several months of deposit up front, a bank guarantee, a guarantor or non-payment insurance. Arriving with your NIE already sorted at least removes that additional obstacle.

Related service:Rental search

Yes, as a non-resident account, using your passport and a certificate of non-residence. But it is an account with limitations and at some point you will need to convert it. Without a NIE you also cannot have a salary paid in or, in practice, sign a lease with guarantees.

Related service:NIE / TIE

It depends on your situation. If you are employed or registered as self-employed, you contribute and you have access to the public system. Otherwise the usual routes are the special agreement with Social Security or private insurance, which is in any case a requirement for several visa types.

Related service:Private health insurance

Official sources:Social Security (Spanish)

You need the empadronamiento, which is where the order of the paperwork becomes critical. Admission windows are annual and fixed: if you arrive outside them, places at state and state-assisted schools depend on availability in each area. If your children’s year requires recognition of studies completed abroad, that is a process worth starting well in advance.

Related service:School search

Yes, and some people do. What we add is not access to anything exclusive — all of these procedures are public — but knowing which ones apply to you and in what order, reviewing your file before it is submitted so it does not come back, tracking the appointments and going with you on the day. If after reading your plan you would rather carry on alone, it is yours to keep.

EasyNest coordinates your whole process. We deliver some services directly and others through a network of specialists — gestores, tax advisers and immigration lawyers — we work with regularly. You have a single point of contact: your adviser. We make sure each piece is handled by whoever should be handling it.

We are based in Madrid and that is where most of our work is, but we operate throughout Spain. Timescales and some requirements vary by province, because appointment availability and the criteria applied at each Immigration office are not the same everywhere. We take that into account when we build your plan.

Quite the opposite, it is usually a good moment. Some steps can only be taken from your country of origin — having documents apostilled, or applying for the NIE at the consulate — and they get harder once you have travelled. Knowing which ones they are before you move is the part of the plan that can save you most, and you do not need a fixed date for that.

Tell your adviser. The thirty services on the site cover the usual ground, but every move has its own quirk: recognising a qualification, bringing a pet, dealing with an inheritance, moving a vehicle. We work with a broad network of partners across Spain and in most cases we can coordinate it.