Your residence is under way.
Here is what you need to do.
Only the essentials to keep your residence, extend it or convert it — wherever you are in the process. Every topic with more detail has its own guide, linked where it belongs.
Where are you? This is your to-do list, today
I have my file number
- Wait calmly: admission for processing has no fixed deadline and decisions keep arriving every day.
- You cannot work yet. And don’t leave Spain.
- Expired passport? Start renewing it now and keep every receipt: the TIE will only accept it if you can prove you tried.
- Did a professional file for you? Follow their instructions. With Overys: we track your file and alert you to everything — breathe easy.
- Silence takes nothing from you: your file stays alive until an express decision arrives.
My application was admitted for processing
- You can now work, employed or self-employed: register with Social Security from day one.
- Your year is already running: the authorisation will count from the day you applied.
- Asked to pay the fee? Normal if you had no NIE. Pay it within the deadline — that one does matter.
- If you applied with a job contract, keep it: it is your best key to renew.
- Even after three months without a decision, your provisional right to work remains in force.
I have my favourable decision
- Check your details letter by letter against your passport and request an immediate correction if anything is wrong.
- Note your effective date and your expiry date — the calculator below gives you your calendar.
- Apply for the TIE. How, what to bring and what to do if there are no appointments →
- Work and pay contributions: your employment record is your renewal.
- Two months before expiry your window opens: choose your route in the diagram.
Your decision, in four boxes
Everything that matters sits in the data box on the first page. Check that name, surnames, passport and nationality match your passport letter by letter — an error today is a blocked file tomorrow; if anything is wrong, a correction is requested immediately.
The Six Dates You Can’t Forget
Enter the details of your decision, and we’ll provide you with your own timeline—from the date of your TIE to the day you can apply for citizenship.
This is an estimate based on the dates you enter. The requirements for citizenship and long-term residency require continuous and uninterrupted legal residence: any gap between permits resets the count.
Extend or convert: the diagram of your options
Your authorisation lasts one year and does not renew itself. Within the window — from two months before to three months after expiry — you choose one of these routes; applying within the window keeps your current authorisation alive until a decision arrives.
Convert to residence and work
Art. 191 — the standard route
- You are still in the employment relationship you applied with
- 3 months worked + a new job with registration (or a contract conditional on approval, or a termination beyond your control + registered as a jobseeker)
- 9 months worked and registered within a 12-month period
- You receive contributory unemployment benefit
- You receive a public social-insertion allowance
- A family member (usually your spouse or partner) has sufficient means to sponsor you
- Your employment ended because you were a victim of gender-based or sexual violence
- Your activity is still running and you are up to date with the Tax Agency and Social Security
- If it stopped: there are equivalent routes (cessation-of-activity protection, benefits, a family member, TRADE)
1 year or 4 — the day you apply decides: before completing your year of residence → 1 year; with the year completed → 4. And if you contributed under both regimes, a specific criterion applies. This calculation is our job, not your gamble.
Extend the one you have
If you cannot convert
- Actively seeking work, registered as a jobseeker
- or an integration report from your region
- Serious illness or disability (yours, or of a spouse/dependent child)
- or legal retirement age
Change route
If your situation fits
- Family member of a Spanish citizen (spouse, partner or dependent Spanish child) → 5 years. How it works
- Law 14/2013 (international remote work, highly qualified professionals) → up to 3 years. The routes, here
What does not exist: applying for another arraigo while holding a permit, or letting it lapse “to see what happens” — falling back into irregularity is the worst scenario, and there will be no second regularisation.
Send us your expiry date and your work situation on WhatsApp, and we’ll tell you which route to prepare and which day to apply.
Message us on WhatsAppSix habits that keep your residence safe
- Pay contributions and keep proof: employment record, payslips, invoices. They will speak for you at renewal.
- Report within one month any change of address or marital status to your Immigration Office, and register where you actually live.
- Keep your children in school at compulsory ages: it is checked at renewal.
- Get your digital certificate (FNMT, with your NIE): almost everything can be done from home.
- Keep a clean record: no debts with the Tax Agency or Social Security, no penalties — it weighs at renewal and beyond.
- Travel with a valid TIE and passport, and avoid long absences: they break continuity.
Notifications: if you have a representative, don’t open them yourself
With a digital certificate you may receive notices of an official notification waiting in your inbox. Opening it starts legal deadlines: if a professional handles your file, tell them and let them decide when it is accessed. With Overys, a notification opened on your own falls outside our responsibility.
The eight most expensive mistakes
- Let the month go by without even trying to schedule the TIE appointment, and without keeping records of those attempts.
- Working without being registered with Social Security because “anyway, I already have my papers.” Without a work history, there’s no solid foundation for renewal.
- Moving without telling anyone. In addition to the fine, the notices end up being published in the official gazette, and you don’t find out about them until it’s too late.
- Leaving Spain without your TIE and remaining outside the country.
- Wait until the last day of the two-month window, or file late and risk a penalty.
- Accepting a contract of convenience that does not correspond to actual work. If this is detected, the consequences are far worse than a rejection.
- Buying appointments on the black market.
- Improvising in the Year 2027. The decision regarding employment, self-employment, or the family tax regime must be made in the fall of 2026, not the week before the deadline.
What we get asked the most
Can I work before I have the physical card?
Yes. With a favourable decision, the authorisation takes full effect from the moment it is granted: you can sign a contract and be registered with Social Security using your decision, which shows your NIE. And even before the decision, once your application is admitted for processing you can already work under the provisional authorisation.
How many months do I need to contribute in order to renew?
Nothing is required of you during the year itself: your residence is valid whether you work or not. What counts is your situation when you renew: if you keep the employment relationship you applied with, no minimum applies; if it changed, the usual route is three months worked plus a new job with registration — and there are keys that need no job of your own. They are all in the options diagram.
When should I apply to get four years instead of one?
The key is having completed one year of residence on the day you apply: before → 1 year; after → 4. Since your year is completed exactly on your expiry date and the window runs up to three months after it, the exact day is a calculation — applying too early can cost you three years of card.
I applied with a vulnerability report. Am I required to work?
No — and that goes for everyone, whichever route you entered through: vulnerability does not create a separate regime. The difference comes at renewal: the law asks the same of everyone. If you cannot work, your routes are the keys that need no job of your own (unemployment benefit, a social-insertion allowance, a family member’s means) or the extension — all in the diagram. Reach month 10 with one of them ready.
My spouse provides the means. Can I renew without working?
That key exists: renewal is possible when a family member proves sufficient means to sponsor you — in practice, almost always the spouse or partner. Whether it fits depends on the exact timing of your application: this is a case for planning with a lawyer, not improvising.
The whole family applied together. Do we renew together?
Each of you has your own decision, your own dates and your own route — and they don’t always match; minors, besides, hold five-year cards. The right strategy is designed jointly: who contributes, who provides means, which date suits each file. More in the family guide.
A notification notice arrived in my electronic inbox. Should I open it?
If a professional handles your file, no: tell them and let them decide when it is accessed — opening it starts deadlines and can cost you rights, and with Overys it would fall outside our responsibility. If you applied on your own, with no representative, then it is yours: open it promptly and count the deadlines it starts.
And afterwards?
After five years of continuous residence, long-term residence; depending on your country, Spanish citizenship may come sooner (two years for Ibero-Americans). And your family has its own roadmap: children, spouses and family reunification. Each topic, in its own guide.
Who signs this guide
José Antonio Rodes López
Lawyer · Admitted to the Alicante Bar Association (ICALI), no. 5,502
More than twenty years supporting people and families who move to Spain and build their lives here. Founder of Overys Migrant Mobility, a firm specialising in immigration and international mobility.
Don’t leave your dates to chance
Wherever you stand — waiting for the admission, working on your provisional authorization, or with the decision in hand — what comes next is played out on specific dates that are very easy to let slip. Message us on WhatsApp and we’ll review your case or your decision for free: we check that your details are correct, tell you which key of Article 80 you should prepare, give you your personal calendar and alert you when your window opens. And if your case needs expert hands now — you came through D.A. 20, you filed with a vulnerability report, the means come from your spouse, or you want to secure the four years — book a consultation and we’ll look at it in depth. And if your horizon is not just keeping your residence but changing route, take a look at the Law 14/2013 authorisations: they are applied for from inside Spain and run on a timeline of their own.