Spain Permanent Residence

Permanent residence in Spain means that you obtain a permanent residency card which is locally called a Tarjeta Comunitaria Permanente. It is generally available for Canadians and other non-EU or EEA nationals living in Spain after they have reached the minimum residential requirement of five years on one of the available national long-stay visas.

Permanent residence offers additional benefits and rights to foreign residents while facilitating continued residence in Spain to work towards the ten-year residential minimum that is required before you may apply for Spanish naturalization.

While visas will require renewal in shorter intervals, the Spanish permanent residence card is usually valid for at least five years.

Page Contents

• What Is Permanent Residence in Spain?
• Requirements for Permanent Residence in Spain
• Retirement in Spain
• How To Apply For Permanent Residence in Spain
• Documents Needed for Permanent Residence in Spain
• Processing Times for Permanent Residency Applications
• Renewing your Permanent Residence in Spain
• Costs of Permanent Residence in Spain
• Permanent Residence in Spain for Family Members
• Permanent Residence to Citizenship in Spain
• How Can Total Law Help
• FAQ

Canadian nationals will usually become eligible for permanent residence after they have stayed in Spain for five years without significant breaks, as long as they hold an eligible national visa and adhere to the visa regulations for the entirety of their stay.

To work towards permanent residence, you will first obtain a long-stay visa, which might be available to you through one of the numerous visa pathways, which include work-based visas, including employment, independent, and digital nomad arrangements. Alternatively, you may get a student visa if you are planning to study at one of Spain’s accredited educational institutes. You may also get a visa on grounds of Family reunification, if you have close relatives who are already living in Spain, as an investor, which is called the Golden visa, or on a non-income-based pathway through the Non-Lucrative visa, which will not allow you to work but requires savings or passive income so that you are able to support yourself.

Each visa pathway has different rules and requirements, which you must follow for the entirety of your time in Spain to remain eligible as a legal resident. While a national visa is initially valid for one year, you will be able to renew it afterwards in two-year intervals until you have met your minimum residential requirement of five years, at which point you may apply for permanent residence.

You will need to prove that you have lived in Spain continuously for the required time. Additionally, you will also need to show that you meet general immigration requirements, meaning that you must not have engaged in any illegal activities and that you do not have a significant health condition that may pose a risk to the general public.

As with your visa, you will continue to need valid health insurance that covers you for at least €30,000.

If you came to Spain on a work-based national visa and plan to retire before reaching your five-year residential minimum, you may benefit from a special allowance that can be made on the minimum residential requirements. As such, retirees in Spain may qualify for permanent residency before living in Spain for five years, provided that they have been working in the country for at least one year before retiring.

If you want to retire in Spain it makes sense to seek legal advice as Spain doesn’t offer a dedicated retirement visa. You can call our specialists at Total Law today at +1 844 290 6312 to figure out what options might be available to you.

Once you are eligible, you will need to gather all of the required documents. When you are ready to start your Spanish permanent residence application, you will need to submit the appropriate application form (this is the EX-11), as well as any documents and your application fee, which can usually be done at your local police station in Spain.

You should start this application process in the two months before your current residential permission expires, giving the Spanish immigration authorities enough time to process your application.

You will be able to track the process of your application online. To do so, you will need to enter the code that you should have been given at the point of submission. Once a decision has been made on your permanent residency application, you will need to return to the police station where you applied and provide your biometric details such as your fingerprints. After this, it may take a month before your permanent residence card will be ready to be collected.

Spain permanent residency applications will need to be supported by the required documents to show that applicants meet the relevant conditions. While the needed evidence may vary, you will generally be asked to submit the following:

• Details of your residential status in Spain up to the point of your application
• Your application form
• Your registration information
• Financial details such as bank statements
• Evidence of your five years of residence (or required residential period, depending on circumstances)
• Your health insurance details
• A medical certificate
• A criminal record certificate
• Details about any Spanish family members or your spouse, if applicable

Keep in mind that you might need to provide certified translations of documents that are not originally issued in Spanish. Obtaining those can take some time, so plan ahead before starting your application.

When you have applied for your permanent residence card in Spain, you will have to wait for your application to get checked and processed. This may take up to three months, but there is always a possibility for delays.

Remember that the actual time it takes to acquire permanent residency is considerably longer, however, as you will need to live in Spain for at least five years before you will be eligible to apply.

Spanish permanent residence cards are usually issued with a validity period of five years, intended to offer enough time for residents to meet the ten-year residential requirements before applying for citizenship.

If you do not qualify for citizenship by the time your permanent residence card expires or if you do not want to apply for citizenship (possibly due to not wanting to give up your status as a Canadian citizen), you will need to apply for renewal of your permanent residence card if you want to stay in Spain.

Renewal applications for your permanent residence card may be made up to 60 days before your current permission expires and you should try to apply on time. If you aren’t able to, however, you will have an additional 90 days past expiry to submit your application.

When applying for permanent residence in Spain, you will need to pay the associated application fee. The exact amount of this fee may vary, but you should usually expect to pay around €90.

When you have family members who are living with you in Spain, you may wonder what you will need to do to obtain permanent residency for them. Generally, the family members of Spanish or EU citizens can be granted permanent residence status, but the EU citizen must apply on their behalf.

If you do not yet have citizenship, your family members may still apply for permanent residence alongside you if they have also been in Spain for five years, or whenever they have met the five-year requirement themselves. Do keep in mind that permanent residence is usually only offered to direct family members such as a married partner, children, or parents.

When applying for permanent residence for family members, evidence of your relationship will be required. This might include a marriage certificate or a birth certificate. Any children will need to be under the age of 18 to qualify, but an exception on the age requirement can be made should your child have a disability that makes them dependent on your care at a later age. Similarly, parents will usually have to be at least 65 years old and have a clear pre-existing dependency on you either financially or for care. There may be exceptions to this minimum age requirement due to humanitarian circumstances.

You will need to show that you earn enough money or have the savings necessary to support any family members who are in Spain as your dependents.

Permanent residence is often considered the halfway point towards obtaining Spanish citizenship through the residential pathway. After obtaining permanent residence, you will be permitted to live in Spain for another five years to complete the total ten years that are needed to become eligible for naturalization.

To break this down: if you are planning to become a citizen in Spain by residence, you will usually enter Spain with temporary residency permission under one of the available national visa pathways which, by extension, will allow for five years of residence in Spain after which you may apply for permanent residence. Once you have permanent residence, you will need to continue living in Spain until you have reached a total continuous (and legal) residential duration of ten years, at which point you may qualify for citizenship.

You will need to show evidence of your time spent in Spain. You will also need to pass two Spanish citizenship tests called the DELE A2, which is a Spanish language test, and the CCSE test which is also called the ‘Constitutional and Sociocultural Aspects of Spain’ test, where you will need to show your knowledge of Spanish culture and the constitution.