This is the latest advice published by Gov.UK. Living in Spain, the Home office website for UK nationals living in Spain. Full information on the website plus much more. Readers can sign up for alerts on the website.
Residency
If you are legally resident in Spain before the transition period ends on 31 December 2020, you will be able to stay. You must register as a Spanish resident if you want to stay in Spain for more than 3 months.
If you are living in Spain before 1 January 2021 and register as a resident after 6 July 2020, you will be issued with a biometric residence card called a Tarjeta de Identidad de Extranjero (TIE). This card will prove your rights under the Withdrawal Agreement.
If you registered as a resident before 6 July 2020, you will have a green A4 certificate or credit card-sized piece of paper from Extranjeria or the police. This is still a valid document and will prove your rights under the Withdrawal Agreement, including after the transition period ends. You c
n exchange your paper residence document for the new TIE but you do not need to.
The green paper residence certificate and the new biometric TIE card are equally valid in proving your residence status and rights in Spain.
Healthcare
If you are living in Spain or move there permanently before 31 December 2020, you’ll have life-long healthcare rights in Spain as you do now, provided you remain resident.
State healthcare: S1
If you live in Spain and receive an exportable UK pension, contribution-based Employment Support Allowance (ESA) or another exportable benefit, you may currently be entitled to state healthcare paid for by the UK. You will need to apply for a certificate of entitlement known as an S1 certificate.
If you are not an S1 holder, but are registered for public healthcare in Spain in another way and are travelling outside of Spain, you must apply for a Tarjeta Sanitaria Europea (TSE – a Spanish-issued EHIC) online (in Spanish), or go to your nearest social security office (Insitituto Nacional de la Seguridad Social).
If you are resident in Spain, you must not use your EHIC from the UK to access healthcare in Spain, unless you are a student or posted worker.
When you travel from Spain for a temporary stay in another European Economic Area (EEA) country or Switzerland, you can use your UK or Spanish-issued EHIC to access state-provided healthcare in the country. During that short stay for treatment that is medically necessary until your planned return home.
Passports and travel
The rules on travel will stay the same until the transition period ends on 31 December 2020. During this time you can continue to travel to countries in the Schengen area or elsewhere in the EU with your UK passport.
You can apply for or renew your British passport from Spain.
Children travelling from Spain
On 1 September 2019, the Spanish authorities implemented a new regulation. Children (under 18 years old) resident in Spain, who travel out of Spain without a person who has parental responsibility, may need a certified authorisation by that person. This is required in addition to a valid travel document.
The Spanish authorities have confirmed that the regulation does not apply to foreign children resident in Spain who are subject to the law of their country of nationality, or to
If you have parental responsibility for Spanish children in Spain, you can obtain a certified authorisation at a notary, national police station (in Spanish), or at the Guardia Civil (in Spanish).
Driving in Spain
Driving licence rules will stay the same until 31 December 2020.
If you are resident in Spain, exchange your UK licence for a Spanish one. If you do this before 31 December 2020 you will not need to take a driving test.
You will need a valid residence document to exchange your licence.
To start the exchange process, book an appointment with the Spanish Traffic Authority (DGT) online or by calling 060 (Spanish language only). You can request an appointment to exchange your driving licence in a different province to the one you live in.
Make sure you request the correct appointment option:
- if your licence has expired or is due to expire in the next few months, you should choose ‘renovación’
- if you have lost your licence or it has been stolen you should choose ‘sustitución’
- for all other instances choose ‘canje’
You should get a photocopy of your UK licence certified by a notary prior to initiating this process in case there are any delays. You will have to hand over your UK licence to the Spanish Traffic Authority when applying to exchange it for a Spanish one.
You will be issued a temporary driving permit (“Autorización temporal para conducir”) to use until your Spanish licence is processed. This document is only recognised by traffic authorities in Spain and is not a valid document in any other country.
These rules may change from 1 January 2021. We will update this guidance once more information is available.
Driving in the UK with a Spanish licence
Until the end of the transition period, you can still use your Spanish licence in the UK for short visits or exchange it for a UK licence without taking a test.
These rules may change from 1 January 2021. We will update this page once more information is available.
Editors Note: We occasionally include advice from the Home Office because there are Nexonr readers who do not use Facebook and may miss alerts. However, this is no substitute for keeping updated by regular checking the UK. Gov. Living in Spain website and the CAB Spain website for information on Brexit, Covid-19 and other valuable information.
