The Spanish Non-Lucrative Visa offers residency to British nationals who have the financial means to support themselves without working. The Spanish Non-Lucrative Visa scheme is therefore ideal if you are retired, or have passive income, for example income from rental properties or other investments. The Spanish Non-Lucrative Visa is intended for full-time residency in Spain, i.e. 6 months or more per year.
The EU travel rules for non-EU family members of EU citizens are different to the general rules for other nationals of non-EU countries.
If you are a citizen of an EU country living in or or travelling to another EU country, your family can join you, including core family members who are not EU citizens.
Non-EU core family members include spouse, children, dependent descendants, dependent parents or dependent grandparents. It also applies to non-EU registered partners, however only if the country they are travelling to considers registered partnerships as equivalent to marriage.
Depending on which country the non-EU family member is from, aside from a valid passport from their home country, they may or may not need a visa.
A non-EU family member who is a citizen of a country who’s nationals are allowed visa free travel to the Schengen area will not need a visa, whereas a family member from a country where Schengen visa are required will. The exception to this is where the non-EU family member holds a residency card issued by and EU country that is in the Schengen area.
For example a South African married to a German would need Schengen visa to travel to Spain with their spouse, however if they held a German residency card, they would not.
If a visa is required for a non-EU family member, according to EU rules it should be free of charge and processed under a fast track application procedure for core family members of an EU citizen.
A visa for a non-EU family member can be declined fir they fail to prove:
Additionally, EU countries have the right to refuse visa application for reasons linked to public policy, security or health, and reasons linked to abuse or fraud.
Non-EU family members are entitled to accompany or join their EU family member without any conditions or formalities for consecutive periods of up to 3 months per EU country visited. They are not subject to the overall limitation of up to 90 days in a 180-day period that applies in the Schengen area, i.e stays different EU countries can be combined without an overall time-limit.
So for example they could stay for 3 months in Spain, then 3 months in France consecutively, whereas other non-EU nationals would have to leave the Schengen area after a 3 months stay in Spain and would have to wait another 3 months before they could visit another Schengen country again.
Conditions of the EU rules on residence apply to non-EU family members of EU citizens visiting EU countries
For stays less than 3 months, all that is needed is a valid passport and an entry visa for the non-EU family member if applicable.
The applicable EU directive (2004/38/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 29 April 2004) allows each member state to set its own administrative and registration formalities for EU citizens of other EU countries coming to stay in their country for more than 3 months. Articles 7, 8 and 9 cover residence for periods or more than 3 months and the administrative requirements that may be put in place.
While requiring the registration formalities is optional for each member state for EU citizens, it is are not optional for the their non-EU family member.
Article 9
Administrative formalities for family members who are not nationals of a Member State
1. Member States shall issue a residence card to family members of a Union citizen who are not nationals of a Member State, where the planned period of residence is for more than three months.2. The deadline for submitting the residence card application may not be less than three months from the date of arrival.3. Failure to comply with the requirement to apply for a residence card may make the person concerned liable to proportionate and non-discriminatory sanctions.
If a member state has a requirement for registration for EU citizens for periods of residence longer than three months according to the directive ‘failure to comply with the registration requirement may render the person concerned liable to proportionate and non-discriminatory sanctions’.
If the EU citizen and their non-EU family member family want to stay longer than 3 months in Spain, then the EU citizen is required to report their presence to the relevant authorities, and their non-EU family member must apply for a residence card.
In Spain the procedure for the EU citizen is an application for a ‘residency certificate‘ which is done at the National Police station. This has to be done before the non-EU family member can apply for their residency card, as the EU family members residency certificate is required in their application.
Read more about getting a residency card for a non-EU family member of an EU citizen in Spain.
Spanish residency for non-EU family members of an EU citizen in Spain, is an extended right. Family member includes spouse or civil partner, children or dependants of who are part of the household, and under 21 years of age.
A citizen of an EU country has an automatic right to live in Spain, however must obtain their Spanish EU citizen residency certificate before their non-EU family members can then apply for their Spanish residency.
The non-EU family member makes their residency application in Spain, and must be legally present when they do so. The non-EU family member does not need to apply for a long term residency visa before they come to Spain. If they are a national of a country who’s citizens enjoy visa free travel as tourists to the Schengen zone, they can travel to Spain under Schengen rules and make their family member residency application whilst they are within their 90 days allowed under Schengen rules.
All three Spanish Consulates in the UK have outsourced handling of Non-Lucrative Visa applications to BLS International.
The consulates in London and Edinburgh were the first to make the switch at the start of summer in 2023 at the onset of Student Visa application processing.
Manchester consulate continued handling Non-Lucrative Visa applications in house, though to the end of October 2023, before making the switch.
Everything is now handled by BLS so all former procedures through the Consulates have been done away with, and new processes with BLS are in place.
The Spanish Consulate in Manchester covers Central UK. So if you live in the Midlands, the North West, Isle of Man or Wales, you’ll take your application to the BLS International Visa Centre in Salford Manchester, which handles visa processing for the Consulate of Spain in Manchester.
Fortunately these days, if you don’t know the Spanish language, translating basic documents is relatively easy. There are abundant translation apps such as the popular Google Translate which a quite accurate. Of course, if you need to have a Spanish translation of a more detailed or official document, you’ll need to get someone to do the translation for you.
There are various types of official document translations and certifications that you might need when living in Spain or during the process of applying to do so. E.g. for visa and residency applications.
These are translations done by an official translator who is legally authorised as a translator. Sworn translations, are accompanied by a signed declaration from the translator attesting to the accuracy and authenticity of the translation. The translator appears on an official list of certified translators and interpreters approved by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The translator will sign and certify any translations they complete.
Sworn translations have a formal status with authorities, so these are what you have to get when you need to translate documents for things like visas, residency applications, social security etc.
The padrón de habitantes, is a municipal register of inhabitants maintained by the town hall.
All full-time resident in Spain are required by law to register on the ‘padrón’, and certificate is the most widely accepted official proof of address.
If you’ve arrived in Spain with a residency visa, it’s one of, if not the first things you’ll need to do, as you need the registration certificate to apply for your TIE.
Registering on the ‘padrón’ helps the local town hall to apply for funds from central government to bolster their municipal budgets. More registrants equals more funds. For this reason, many town halls are keen to get more inhabitants to register on their ‘padrón’, and often campaign to persuade more people to do so. In touristic and popular holiday home areas such as the Costa del Sol, these campaigns are often targeted at the high numbers of foreigners who have holiday homes in the locality.
Aside from the potential benefits to the area where you live being registered on the ‘padrón’ is useful for a number of other purposes. These include proof of address, entitlement to local and reduced price services, and eligibility for subsidised rates of locally collected taxes – IBI. For these reasons, many non-resident property owners also register on the ‘padrón’.
This can cause issues for part time residents, if or when they take up full time residency. Town Hall’s will maintain that there are are no tax implications, for being registered, however tax authorities can and do associate being on the with being resident in Spain. For example a holiday home owner who has just become a permanent resident in Spain, may find themselves being denied a exemption from customs or registration taxes when importing their own personal vehicle in Spain, simply because the ‘padrón’ entry shows that the date they first registered pre-dates their actual date of becoming a Spanish resident.
The ‘padrón’ certificate is valid for 3 months and when you need a new certificate, you just go back and get one of if your town hall is on the electronic register system, you can get a up to date one online using your digital certificate. You only have to re-register every 2 or 5 years depending on your situation and nationality.
The process for registering on the ‘padrón’ varies from one place to the next and you may need some or all of the following:
Most town halls now have an online booking system where you book you appointment first and then go and register.
In a lot towns they issue the certificate straight away, however in some places you have to go back a week or two later to collect it. A few small towns also carry out a check by sending a local police office to visit the address to verify that you are living at there!
Importing a high value car from the UK in Spain post Brexit, now comes with added costs. As the UK is no longer in the EU and the standard process to import and register a UK car in Spain now involves customs.
This means on top of the registration tax which in most cases will be 17% of the vehicle value, 10% customs duty and 21% VAT will apply, unless you can find away around it.
Paying nearly £50k to register a £100k motor is simply not a consideration. There are however various ways these huge costs can be avoided, bringing the cost of importing and registering high value cars in Spain down to a few thousand Euros, rather than tens of thousands.
In Spain, the periodic road worthiness inspection, is the ITV. (Inspeccion Tecnica de Vehiculos – Vehicle Technical Inspection). Like the UK MoT test, it’s mandatory for all road going vehicles, and driving without a valid ITV can result in fines.
The frequency of the ITV test depends on the age and type of vehicle. New cars are first tested after 4 years and must be inspected every 2 years thereafter, until they reach 10 years of age. Any car over 10 years of age has to be tested annually.
Motorcycles, mopeds and quad bikes are first tested after 5 years, after which the test is due every 2 years. Caravans are first tested at 6 years, after which the test is due every 2 years.
If a vehicle has been involved in a serious accident, it also has to undergo an ITV assessment after being repaired, to confirm its road worthiness.
The NIE (Número de Identificación de Extranjero), meaning – Foreigners Identification Number, is the identification number issued to people who are not a Spanish nationals.
The National Police, (Cuerpo Nacional de Policia), handle the issue of NIE’s, and any one planning to carry out a transaction in Spain, e.g. buying a car, holiday home, or various other interests, needs to have one.
The NIE identifies you whenever you do something official, or which involves the authorities. For example paying taxes, buying a property; signing a document at Notary; starting a business; or becoming a director of a Spanish company.
The NIE is not a fiscal (tax) residency identification – you can have a NIE and be fiscal resident in another country, however it is used to link payments to you that may be due, including tax amongst others. Both EU citizens and non-EU citizens are issued with NIE’s, and if you become resident, you keep the same NIE when you apply for your residence certificate or card.