Spanish bureaucracy, explained in English — province by province.

Guides

The paperwork around a permit, run by Justice, Tax, Traffic and the health services rather than by immigration.

• Your first months in Spain: which paperwork to do first, and the deadlines that run from day oneSeveral deadlines start the day you arrive and run in parallel: one month to apply for a TIE, three months for an EU registration certificate, six months to opt into the tax regime for new residents once you start work, six months before a non-EU driving licence stops being valid. This is the order that keeps each one from blocking the next.
• Documents from abroad: apostilles, sworn translations and criminal record certificatesA foreign public document used in Spain usually needs an apostille from the country that issued it, and a translation into Spanish by a sworn translator. A Spanish criminal record certificate is issued online, normally at once, and must be requested with an apostille if it is going abroad.
• The Spanish digital certificate and Cl@ve: getting online access with a NIEThe FNMT digital certificate is free for anyone with a DNI or NIE and lets you file taxes, appeals and immigration applications online. With a NIE you must prove your identity in person — video identification needs a Spanish DNI. The certificate then also unlocks the highest level of Cl@ve.
• Renting a home in Spain: how long the contract really lasts, the deposit, and who pays the agencyA tenant renting their main home can stay at least five years — seven if the landlord is a company — whatever the contract says. The deposit is one month's rent, extra guarantees are capped at two months, and the landlord pays the agency.
• Opening a bank account in Spain: your right to a basic account, and what a bank may refuseAny bank that offers accounts must offer a basic payment account to anyone legally resident in the EU, including people with no fixed address, asylum seekers and some people without a permit. It costs at most €3 a month, and a refusal must be given in writing within ten working days.
• Buying a home in Spain: VAT or transfer tax, stamp duty, and the NIEA new home bought from the developer pays 10% VAT; a resale is exempt from VAT and pays transfer tax instead, at a rate set by each region — 6% where the region has set none. The deed also pays stamp duty. And you need a NIE before you sign.
• The Spanish Social Security number: getting one, and who registers youYou are given a Social Security number once, for life, the first time you do something that brings you into the system. Your employer must register you before your first day of work — never more than 60 days before — and if they do not, you can ask for it yourself.
• Working in Spain: the minimum wage for 2026, and the basic rights in every jobThe minimum wage for 2026 is €1,221 a month or €17,094 a year for full-time work. Every employee is entitled to two extra payments a year, at least 30 calendar days of paid holiday, a maximum of 40 hours a week on average, and set compensation if dismissed.
• Self-employed in Spain: what you pay Social Security in 2026, and the reduced quota for starting outSince 2023 the self-employed contribute according to their net income, in fifteen bands. For 2026 the lowest band's minimum base is €653.59 a month and the highest reaches €5,101.20. New starters can apply for a reduced quota for twelve months, extendable if income stays below the minimum wage.
• Unemployment benefit in Spain: who qualifies, for how long, and how muchYou need at least 360 days of contributions in the last six years and to have lost your job involuntarily. The benefit lasts from 120 to 720 days, pays 70% of your contribution base for 180 days and 60% after, and must be claimed within 15 days.
• The Spanish state pension: retirement age in 2026 and 2027, and the 15-year minimumIn 2026 you can retire at 65 with 38 years and 3 months of contributions, or otherwise at 66 years and 10 months. From 2027 it is 65 with 38 years and 6 months, or 67. Everyone needs at least 15 years of contributions, two of them within the last fifteen.
• Public healthcare in Spain for foreign residents: who is covered, and the pay-in schemeForeign nationals legally and habitually resident in Spain are covered by the public health system — unless their permit already obliges them to have health cover some other way. Those left out can buy in through the convenio especial after a year of residence: €60 a month under 65, €157 from 65.
• School in Spain for foreign children: compulsory ages, the right to a place, and why it matters for your permitSchool is compulsory and free from 6 to 16 for every child in Spain, whatever their nationality or status. Foreign parents renewing a residence permit, or applying for long-term residence, must prove their school-age children are enrolled.
• Driving in Spain on a foreign licence, and exchanging it for a Spanish oneAn EU licence stays valid in Spain. A non-EU licence stops being valid six months after you become resident, and can be exchanged only if your country has an agreement with Spain — the UK, Switzerland, Japan and most of Latin America do; the United States, Canada, Australia and India do not.
• Spanish tax residency: the 183-day rule, the other two tests, and the regime for new arrivalsYou are resident for Spanish income tax if you spend more than 183 days here in a calendar year, or if your main economic interests are here, or — as a presumption — if your spouse and minor children live here. Newcomers may opt for a special regime at a flat 24% on up to €600,000, but only within six months of starting work.
• The Spanish income tax return: who has to file, and the thresholds that decide itA Spanish tax resident whose only income is a salary of up to €22,000 from one employer does not have to file. With more than one employer the limit can fall to €15,876. Anyone registered as self-employed at any point in the year must file, whatever they earned.
• Getting a foreign university degree recognised in Spain: homologation, equivalence and credit transferTo practise a regulated profession — medicine, nursing, law, architecture, teaching — you need homologación to the specific Spanish degree. For any other degree you ask for a declaration of equivalence to Bachelor's or Master's level. Both are online, decided by the Ministry within six months, after which silence means refusal.
• Spanish citizenship by residence: the years, the two exams and the oathTen years of legal residence is the rule, two for Ibero-American nationals, one for a spouse of a Spaniard. You pass the CCSE and, unless Spanish is your native language, the DELE A2, apply online, and the Ministry has a year to answer — after which silence means no.

Why province by province

Spain has 52 provinces and autonomous cities, and appointments are split across two separate systems: the National Police handle identity documents, while Immigration Offices under the Government Delegations handle authorisations. Which one you need, and which building it sits in, depends on where you live and on what you are applying for.

In Alicante the residence card is issued on one street and the NIE on another. In Málaga eight different offices handle NIEs, from the city to Marbella and Estepona. On the coast, Torrevieja and Dénia issue EU certificates but not NIEs. None of that appears in a national guide, and getting it wrong costs an appointment that took weeks to book.

So we publish the 214 offices in the National Police directory, province by province, with what each one actually does.

Find the office for your provinceSee every official feeHow we verify every page

What this is not

Spain Paperwork is not a law firm and does not give legal, tax or immigration advice. It is reference material. Your own case depends on facts a web page cannot see, so confirm anything that matters with the responsible authority or a qualified professional.