Residence permit as a family member of a Spanish citizen
If your spouse, partner or parent is Spanish, you may qualify for a residence permit of up to five years with the right to work. It is one of the clearest routes in Spanish immigration law — when the file is prepared properly.
Who qualifies
The Immigration Regulation in force since May 2025 (Royal Decree 1155/2024) created a specific permit for family members of Spanish citizens, separate from the EU-citizen regime. It covers the spouse; the registered partner; the stable, unregistered partner who can prove cohabitation; children under 26 (or older if dependent); dependent parents and, in certain cases, other relatives who depend on the Spanish citizen. The permit can last up to five years and allows you to work as an employee or self-employed.
What you need to prove
What changes from one file to another is the evidence. Married couples and registered partners prove the relationship with the certificate. Unregistered partners must prove a genuine, stable relationship and cohabitation, and this is where most applications fail: joint registration at the town hall (empadronamiento), tenancy agreements, joint accounts, travel, dated photographs. In all cases, the Spanish citizen must show sufficient means to support the family member, and the applicant a clean criminal record.
How we work
In the consultation we review your situation document by document, tell you whether you are ready to apply and, if not, what to gather and for how long. We then prepare and submit the complete file electronically and follow it until the resolution and the residence card (TIE).
Documents usually required
- Full passport (all pages, including blank ones)
- Spanish citizen's DNI
- Marriage or partnership certificate, or evidence of cohabitation
- Joint town-hall registration (empadronamiento)
- Criminal record certificate from your country of origin, apostilled and translated
- Proof of the Spanish citizen's income