EU citizens moving to the Canaries: the registration certificate, your family's card and permanent residence

A couple from Milan rent a flat in Costa Adeje in June, sign up at the town hall, open a bank account and, somewhere in September, learn from a neighbour that there is a certificate they were supposed to ask for. There is, and it is the simplest residence paper Spain issues: a sheet that says the police have registered an EU citizen as living here. This note explains who has to ask for it and when, what the office wants to see, how a husband or wife from outside the Union gets the card that goes with it, what changes after five years, and what the certificate is not. The rules are the Royal Decree that brought the EU directive on free movement into Spanish law, the Order that fills in its article 7, and the Supreme Court's readings of both, two of them from 2026.

Three months, then a registration, not a permit

For the first three months an EU citizen needs nothing but a valid passport or identity card. The directive says so in terms: residence of up to three months is a right sin estar sometidos a otra condición o formalidad que la de estar en posesión de un documento de identidad o pasaporte válidos, without any condition or formality other than holding a valid identity document or passport (Directive 2004/38/EC, article 6). The same goes for the citizens of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, and the Order extends the Spanish rules to the Swiss.

Whoever means to stay longer has a duty, not a choice. Those who intend to remain in Spain for more than three months estarán obligados a solicitar un certificado de registro o una tarjeta de residencia de familiar de ciudadano de la Unión, are obliged to apply for a registration certificate or for a residence card as the family member of a Union citizen (Real Decreto 240/2007, article 3). The application is made in person, at the immigration office of the province or, failing that, at the police station, within three months of the date of entry, and the certificate is issued on the spot: siéndole expedido de forma inmediata un certificado de registro en el que constará el nombre, nacionalidad y domicilio de la persona registrada, su número de identidad de extranjero, y la fecha de registro, a registration certificate being issued immediately, stating the name, nationality and address of the person registered, their foreigner identity number and the date of registration (article 7). That number is the NIE, assigned with the registration to anyone who did not have one; our note on the NIE and the routes to residency explains the number itself.

The form is the EX-18 and the fee is paid beforehand on form 790, code 012. The police's own fee table, as read on 6 October 2026, prices the registration certificate of an EU resident at 12 euros, and the Royal Decree explains why so little: the amount is the one a Spaniard pays for a national identity card (article 14). Not asking for the certificate is punished the way a Spaniard without an identity card is punished (article 15): the Citizen Security Act lists El incumplimiento de la obligación de obtener la documentación personal legalmente exigida, the failure to obtain the personal documentation the law requires, among the minor offences, fined from 100 to 600 euros (Ley Orgánica 4/2015, articles 37 and 39). What the certificate is not is a condition of your rights. The Royal Decree says that EU citizens and their families, with or without the paper, podrán acreditar ser beneficiarios del régimen comunitario previsto en el presente Real Decreto por cualquier medio de prueba admitido en Derecho, may prove that they benefit from the Community regime by any means of proof admitted in law (article 14), and the directive forbids making the certificate a precondition for exercising a right or completing a formality (article 25).

Where to go in Tenerife South and in Fuerteventura

The police directory of immigration units, read on 6 October 2026, lists for the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife the provincial brigade in the capital, at Calle Ramón Pérez de Ayala 6, and three local stations that handle the EU regime, among them the Comisaría Sur de Tenerife in Adeje, at Sector Cero, Las Terrazas, which lists the Community regime among its procedures with a telephone number of its own, 922 789 114. In Fuerteventura the Comisaría de Puerto del Rosario, at Calle Herbania 28, lists it too, with the telephone number 928 855 931. Take the passport, the form, the paid fee and the papers of the next section; the office keeps copies and looks at the originals.

What you must show: a job, a business, means and cover, or a course

The right to stay beyond three months rests on one of three situations (Real Decreto 240/2007, article 7; the Order of 2012, article 3). A worker shows an employer's declaration of hiring or a certificate of employment, with the company's name, address, tax number and Social Security contribution code; the contract registered with the public employment service or the Social Security registration also serve, and none of it is needed if you let the office check the Social Security files. A self-employed person shows the registration in the tax census of economic activities, the entry in the Registro Mercantil or the Social Security registration, or again gives consent for the check. A student shows the enrolment at a recognised centre, health cover, for which the European health card is enough if it runs for the whole stay, and a signed declaration of sufficient means.

The third situation is the one most retired people and many remote workers are in: no job in Spain, and therefore two things to prove. The first is health cover, which the Order describes as Seguro de enfermedad, público o privado, contratado en España o en otro país, siempre que proporcione una cobertura en España durante su período de residencia equivalente a la proporcionada por el Sistema Nacional de Salud, sickness insurance, public or private, taken out in Spain or in another country, provided it gives cover in Spain for the period of residence equivalent to that of the National Health System. Pensioners meet it with the certificate that shows they tienen derecho a la asistencia sanitaria con cargo al Estado por el que perciben su pensión, are entitled to health care charged to the State that pays their pension, the form that in practice is the S1. The second is means. The Order lets them be shown por cualquier medio de prueba admitido en derecho, tales como títulos de propiedad, cheques certificados, documentación justificativa de obtención de rentas de capital o tarjetas de crédito, by any means of proof admitted in law, such as title deeds, certified cheques, documents showing income from capital or credit cards, the last with a bank certificate of the available credit.

How much is enough has no fixed answer, by design. The Royal Decree says that for sufficient means no podrá establecerse un importe fijo, sino que habrá de tenerse en cuenta la situación personal, no fixed amount may be set and the personal situation must be taken into account, and caps whatever the office asks for at the level below which a Spaniard gets social assistance or the minimum Social Security pension (article 7). The Order then gives the office a yardstick: it treats as sufficient recursos que sean superiores al importe que cada año fije la Ley de Presupuestos Generales del Estado para generar el derecho a recibir una prestación no contributiva, resources above the amount the annual Budget Act fixes for entitlement to a non-contributory benefit, read with the applicant's personal and family situation. There is no Budget Act for 2026, so the figure comes from the decree-law that revalued pensions in February: the non-contributory pensions tendrán un importe anual de 8.803,20 euros, have an annual amount of 8,803.20 euros (Real Decreto-ley 3/2026, article 2), which is 733.60 euros a month. A couple is assessed as a couple, and an income a little under the line is not a refusal in itself.

On the insurance the Supreme Court has spoken twice. In July 2024 and again in February 2026 it held, in cases about the family of a Spaniard, that the public cover of the National Health System under the Act on cohesion and quality of the health system cubre la totalidad de los riesgos en España y cumple por ello plenamente con la exigencia contenida en el artículo 7.1.b) del Real Decreto 240/2007, covers all risks in Spain and therefore fully meets the requirement of article 7.1.b (judgments 1233/2024 of 9 July and 103/2026 of 4 February); the Court notes that the article reads the same as the directive it transposes. A newcomer from another EU country who has no job here will still be asked for the S1 or a policy, because the public cover of a person whose own State pays for their care is exactly the case the health Act sends back to that State; but a refusal for lack of a private policy, where public cover exists, is not what the law requires. Losing the job does not lose the status at once: a worker who falls ill, or who registers as a jobseeker after more than a year's employment, keeps the status of worker, and after a shorter contract keeps it for at least six months (article 7).

Your family's card

The Royal Decree reaches the family whatever its nationality: the spouse; the partner registered in a public register of an EU or EEA State, marriage and registered partnership being incompatible with each other; the children and grandchildren of either, under twenty-one or dependent; and the dependent parents and grandparents of either (article 2). A second article adds other relatives who were dependent on the citizen or living with the citizen in the country they came from, twenty-four months of cohabitation there proving it, relatives whose serious health or disability requires the citizen's personal care, and the unregistered partner in a stable relationship, one year of living together proving it, or less with a child in common (article 2 bis).

A family member who is an EU citizen asks for a registration certificate of their own. One who is not asks, within three months of entering, for the residence card of a family member of a Union citizen, on form EX-19, with the passport, proof of the family tie, apostilled or legalised and translated by a sworn translator where it comes from abroad, the citizen's own registration certificate, proof of dependence where the Royal Decree asks for it, and photographs (article 8; the Ministry's information sheet of May 2025 lists the documents). The day the application is filed, the office se entregará de forma inmediata un resguardo acreditativo de la presentación de la solicitud de la tarjeta, que será suficiente para acreditar su situación de estancia legal hasta la entrega de la tarjeta, hands over at once a receipt of the application that is enough to prove lawful stay until the card is delivered. The card must be issued within three months, La resolución favorable tendrá efectos retroactivos, a favourable decision has retroactive effect, back to the date of entry as a family member, and it is valid for five years or for the citizen's planned stay if shorter (article 8). The fee is again the one a Spaniard pays for an identity card.

The card survives most of what happens to families. The citizen's death or departure from Spain does not take it away from a family member who was already living here as such; children in school and the parent who has their custody keep their residence until the studies end; and after a divorce, an annulment or the cancellation of a registered partnership the non-EU spouse keeps it if the marriage lasted at least three years with one of them in Spain, if they have custody of the children, if they were a victim of gender violence or trafficking, or if a court or an agreement gives them access to a child who lives here (article 9). The death, and the divorce or cancellation, must be reported to the office. The office may refuse a card on grounds of public order, but only for personal conduct that is una amenaza real, actual y suficientemente grave que afecte a un interés fundamental de la sociedad, a genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat affecting a fundamental interest of society, and a criminal record alone is not enough (article 15). In October 2025 the Supreme Court added that a police arrest may count against an applicant only siempre que, en el marco de la apreciación global de ese comportamiento, se tomen en consideración, expresa y detalladamente, los hechos en los que se basa dicha detención y las eventuales consecuencias judiciales de esta, provided that, within an overall assessment of their conduct, the facts behind the arrest and its judicial consequences are expressly considered in detail (judgment 1227/2025 of 2 October).

One rule of the Royal Decree is no longer law. Article 14 said that the family card lapsed after absences of more than six months in a year. On 5 May 2026 the Supreme Court annulled that paragraph, because a regulation cannot restrict the freedom of movement and residence that the Constitution guarantees, and held that such an absence no puede suponer la caducidad de dicha tarjeta, cannot bring about the lapse of the card (judgment 564/2026); it ordered the ruling to be published in the Official Gazette. On 6 October 2026 the consolidated text on the BOE's site still printed the paragraph, so expect the point to be argued at a counter for a while yet. What does remain is the duty of every holder, citizen or family member, to report a change of nationality, marital status or address to the office (article 14).

Permanent residence after five years

Permanent residence belongs to EU citizens and to their non-EU family members que hayan residido legalmente en España durante un período continuado de cinco años, who have resided legally in Spain for a continuous period of five years, and from then on the conditions of the previous section no longer apply to them (Real Decreto 240/2007, article 10). On request the office issues a certificate of the right to reside permanently, as quickly as possible once it has verified the length of residence; for the non-EU family member it issues a permanent residence card, applied for in the month before the five-year card expires or within the three months after, decided within three months and renewed automatically every ten years (article 11). The directive says what continuity means: absences of up to six months a year do not break it, nor longer ones for military service, nor a single absence of up to twelve months for an important reason such as pregnancy and childbirth, serious illness, studies, training or a posting to another country (Directive 2004/38/EC, article 16).

The word that decides cases is "legally". The Supreme Court has held, for the non-EU family member, that permanent residence requires que ese período de residencia previo de cinco años sea legal, es decir que durante el mismo se reúnan las condiciones enunciadas en el art. 7 del RD 240/07 y art. 7, apartado 1 de la Directiva, that the previous five years of residence be legal, that is, that during them the conditions of article 7 of the Royal Decree and article 7 of the directive were met (judgments 1280/2020 of 13 October and 1632/2020 of 30 November, following the Court of Justice). A card held for five years is not the same as five years of work, means or study behind it, and the office may ask for the proof when the permanent paper is requested. Once acquired, the right is lost only por ausencia del territorio español durante más de dos años consecutivos, through absence from Spanish territory for more than two consecutive years (article 10). Some reach it earlier: a worker who stops working at pension age after at least twelve months' work and more than three years' residence, or because of permanent incapacity after more than two years' residence, and their families with them (article 10).

What the certificate does not do

It does not make you a tax resident, and it does not stop you becoming one. Tax residence is a separate test, run mostly on days spent in Spain and on where your interests sit, and our colleagues at AAA Plus explain it in their note on tax residency and the 183-day rule. The registration at the town hall, the padrón, is another register with other effects. A British passport has opened none of this since the end of the transition period: the police's fee table still names the card of the Withdrawal Agreement for those who were living here before, and newcomers from the United Kingdom use the routes of any third country. And the family of a Spanish citizen who has never lived in another EU State follows a different regulation since May 2025, Real Decreto 1155/2024, which the Supreme Court pruned in July 2026; that is another note of ours.

What our team does

EU-citizen registration and family cards are part of our residency and immigration practice: choosing the right route, assembling the file and following it through the immigration offices and, where a visa is needed, the consulates. We advise workers, retirees, families and remote professionals moving to the islands from our offices in Costa Adeje, in Tenerife, and Corralejo, in Fuerteventura, in person or by video, in Spanish, English, German, Russian and Italian in-house. Every case starts with a consultation in which we read your situation and your papers and agree a clear plan and fee before any work begins; write to us or book an appointment.

Common questions

We have been in Tenerife for four months and never registered. Is that a problem?

The duty was there from the third month and not meeting it is a minor offence, fined from 100 to 600 euros; the registration is the cure. Register now: the certificate is issued on the spot and dated the day you ask. Your rights as an EU citizen did not depend on it.

My pension is paid in Germany. What do I show for health cover?

The certificate of entitlement to health care at the expense of the State that pays your pension, the S1, which the Order names in terms. With it, and proof of your means, you meet the two conditions of article 7 without a private policy.

My husband is Moroccan. Can he come with me?

Yes. He asks, within three months of entering Spain, for the residence card of a family member of a Union citizen, with your marriage certificate, apostilled and translated, and your own registration certificate. The receipt proves his lawful stay from the day he applies; the card follows within three months and lasts five years.

We spend winters here and summers at home. Do we lose anything?

Not the certificate, which has no expiry date: it holds while you remain in one of the three situations of article 7. For the five years that lead to permanent residence, absences of up to six months a year do not break continuity. The rule that made a family card lapse after six months' absence was annulled by the Supreme Court in May 2026. Permanent residence, once you have it, is lost only after more than two consecutive years away.

Does the certificate make me a tax resident?

No. The certificate records where you live for the purposes of free movement; tax residence turns on days present, family and economic interests, and is decided by the tax authority under its own rules. Many people hold the certificate without being tax resident, and the reverse happens too.

General information on the law as it stands in October 2026 (Real Decreto 240/2007, articles 2, 2 bis, 3, 7 to 11, 14 and 15, its article 14.3 annulled by the Supreme Court's judgment 564/2026 of 5 May; Orden PRE/1490/2012, articles 1 to 4; Directive 2004/38/EC, articles 6 to 8, 16, 19 and 25; Real Decreto-ley 3/2026, article 2; Ley Orgánica 4/2015, articles 37 and 39; the police portal's procedure and fee pages and its directory of immigration units, read on 6 October 2026; the Supreme Court's judgments 103/2026, 564/2026, 1227/2025 and 1632/2020). It is not advice on a particular case: your nationality, your family's, your income and the office you deal with decide what applies to you.