Its pretty easy. She will register as an EU national, you will register as her spouse. All paperwork must be within the last 3 months and this includes your marriage certificate! So you must get a new copy of it dated within the 3 months prior to your application or something else that proves you are still married. Forms are below:

PORTAL DE INMIGRACIÓN. Modelos generales

PORTAL DE INMIGRACIÓN - Ministerio de Inclusión, Seguridad Social y Migraciones: Página sobre modelos generales de solicitud del Portal de Inmigración

extranjeros.inclusion.gob.es

 

If you are the spouse of a citizen of the Republic of Ireland, which falls under the European Union, you will have no issues requesting permanent residency in Spain, however it does not matter much that your spouse originates from a country within the European Union and there are some rules and requirements to adhere. The process you should follow is to first apply for a NIE number at the Policia Nacional, this is the tax identification number for foreigners in Spain. The NIE does not expire, and will allow you to rent or buy a property - it does not grant you a residence permit per se.

Applying for your NIE can be tedious and frustrating, you'll need to be able to speak basic Spanish and be prepared for long queues. I recommend you make an appointment via the website of the Spanish government, to be precise the "Administraciones Públicas" department, and pick a Policia Nacional station in a lesser touristic town or city, such as Alcoy. This can save you an entire day of waiting in line. The link to make the appointment is: Proceso automático para la solicitud de cita previa

Following your NIE application and once you have an address, you need to register in the "Padrón Municipal", you do this by going to the town hall ("ayuntamiento") of your municipality where you will present your rental contract, deed of a purchased property in your name or in case of a property in the name of your spouse a statement granting you permission to use said address as your place of residence, after which the town hall will register you at said address. This process is called "empadronar" and generally only takes a couple of minutes.

When you are in possession of both the NIE and a "volante de empadronamiento" (proof of registration in the municipality) you can now request a TIE card. The TIE card is the official identity document for foreigners in Spain and features your photo, personal details and address of residence, and is essentially your residence permit - it's simply an ID card that also mentions your address. The TIE card needs to be renewed when it expires, I believe the period of validity is 5 years.

To be granted a TIE card (and as such, a residence permit), you will need to be able to provide one of the following:

• proof of employment in the form of a work contract (or pre-contract if you have not started working), OR;
• proof of private health insurance, fully comprehensive and paid 1 year upfront, AND proof of funds in a Spanish bank account in your name - minimum of €7000 for individuals, or €10.000 for married couples. Proof of funds need to be stamped and certified as authentic by your Spanish bank - screenshots of internet banking will NOT suffice, neither will accounts at online banks such as N26 or Revolut. In case you own the property of your residence in Spain and have paid off a fair amount of the mortgage (there are no set rules for this), this can also suffice as proof of funds.

If you're self-employed in Spain, don't get me started - lots of forms and basically means setting the difficulty level to "Extreme".

The backlog for TIE applications in most municipalities is huge, so it's important you take care of all paperwork directly following up on your NIE and empadronamiento.

Your spouse will have a breeze in comparison - she just needs to have a NIE number and empadronamiento. Officially it is required to apply for the TIE if your stay in Spain is longer than 3 months, but generally most people don't even bother and never go past simply registering at the town hall.

Hope this helps.

 

SO much of that information just isn't correct!

I'm working atm, but I'll come back on my break & go through the points one by one.

 

The main piece of information is roughly right although we are a fairly pedantic bunch here so you will get lots of people pointing out small errors . For example you dont get permanent residence until you have lived for 5 consecutive years in Spain with less than 10 months absence etc.

I fear this is going to be a long thread....

 

I am aware, but i'm sure you'll agree that your residency status 5 years from now is one of those bridges you cross when you get there.

Fact is that ever since Brexit the process of applying for residency for British citizens has gotten a lot more difficult and if you do not yet live in Spain and are in possession of the green permiso de residencia, you're in for a treat.

 

I am really interested in this "less than 10 months in five years" issue since I do quite a bit of travel. On the Ministry of Interior website, under Permanent Residency, no where does the "less than 10 months in five years" appear. They talk about "continuous over five years" but never define continuous. Furthermore, it is not in the section Permanent Residency Card for Family Members of EU Citizens. Where does this 10 months come from?

Residencia de carácter permanente - Ministerio del Interior

 

Anyone with residency as a dependant of an EU citizen is subject to the same cionditions as an EU citizen, which is why the 10 months doesn't apply.

Continuous residence for 5 years for an EU citizen - or holder of a temporary TIE issued under the WA, means that at least 6 months per year must be spent in Spain.

 

It makes sense or else Spanish residency would mean you could over 5 years have spent practically half of that in UK ( going away 6 months every year). And that would then allow people to start saying they are residents for tax in one country, domiciled in another, centre of interest in different one from tax resident etc. Lots of folk here still seem to think that they have worked out clever solutions to suit there own personal requirements or having the best of both worlds.( The: I live in Spain but I dont register any where,I dont make a tax declaration, I dont do the padron, use bank account ,phone etc - so I dont owe Spain anything!) We have been through this debate so many times. As I said I was investigated and when they do it they are very good at tracking everything ( access to bank details, electricity bill, ISAs, property transfers) . If you are confident you are doing nothing wrong you can just phone la Hacienda and they will confirm everything but you need to be totally honest about everything not selective!!

 

Absolutely right. Somewhere along the piper has to be paid and people need to make sure they are on the right side of the rules. The rules are actually quite generous and it is perfectly possible to be domiciled in one place and live in another and also be dual domiciled. Its not as cut and dried as some of the advice on this forum would indicate as people tend to measure everything by their own circumstances so good professional advice is needed. For those who are more global with work outside Spain and living in Spain the double taxation agreements are actually very favourable but anyone thinking they can hide from the authorities could be in for a shock!

 

I should just add. I am organising my divorce in Spain and have discovered that by having my spouse transfer her half of the uk property to me whilst I do the same for her with Spanish property we face a huge tax claim as all gifts between spouses are taxable! My lawyer said, normally Spanish just equalise the prices to avoid this but as I have done a modelo 720 this wont be possible as they can check quite easily. Even if I become a uk resident I will face tax in spain as my wife still lives here and therefore my centre of financial interest still is here!!. Its a real minefield which in the past was easily avoided as the Spanish system was not very good. But now!! Things are very different. So good luck those of you who think you can out smart them