The green registration certificate: what you bring to the appointment

The green registration certificate, officially the certificado de registro de ciudadano de la Unión, is the document with which Spain records that you live here. If you stay longer than three months, you're obliged to apply for it.

• You apply in person at the immigration office or the police of your province.
• You do so within three months of entry.
• The fee is € 12 per person.
• Under Real Decreto 240/2007 the certificate is issued immediately, provided you come with the right papers.

It isn't a residence permit. As an EU citizen you don't need one; your right of residence comes from European free movement. What this certificate does is register that right.

When do you have to apply, and where?

You submit the application in person within three months of your arrival in Spain. That's the deadline from article 7 of Real Decreto 240/2007, and it runs from the date you entered the country, not from the moment you found a home.

You need to go to the Oficina de Extranjería (the immigration office) or the police station (Comisaría de Policía) of the province where you're going to live. Not the municipality: that's where you arrange the empadronamiento, your registration as a resident.

• The form is called EX-18.
• You pay the fee in advance with modelo 790, código 012, the payment form for this fee: € 12.00 per person according to the fee list of Orden PJC/617/2025.
• Each family member needs their own certificate, and their own appointment.

What	Term or amount
Stay without registration	up to 3 months
Application for the registration certificate (EX-18), in person	within 3 months of entry
Fee (modelo 790, código 012)	€ 12.00 per person
Issue of the certificate	immediately at the application, under the Real Decreto
Threshold for "sufficient means"	no fixed amount; at most the social assistance level or the minimum pension
Certificate of permanent residence	after 5 years of continuous legal residence, on request

What is asked of you?

Article 7 of the Real Decreto names four situations in which you may reside here. Which applies to you determines what you bring.

Do you work in Spain, employed or self-employed? Then it's simple. You show your employment contract or your registration as an autónomo, and with that both your income and your health cover are settled: you fall under Spanish social security.

Don't you work in Spain? Then you have to prove two things, and this is where the homework is.

First, sufficient means for yourself and the family members coming with you, so that you don't need to rely on Spanish social assistance.

• The Real Decreto forbids a fixed amount. The assessment is individual, and the bar may never be higher than the level below which Spaniards receive social assistance or the minimum pension.
• The 2012 implementing order names as sufficient: means above the amount the budget law sets each year for a non-contributory pension, a pension for people who paid too few contributions.
• Accepted proof includes a title deed, certified cheques, proof of capital income.

Second, health insurance, public or private, with cover in Spain equivalent to the national health system.

What "sufficient means" is exactly isn't in this article — and that's deliberate. The amount is set annually and the assessment is individual. You'll find the current threshold through the sources below.

Two exceptions are worth knowing.

Are you retired? Then you meet the health requirement if you show with a certificate that you're entitled to healthcare at the expense of the country paying your pension. For the Dutch that runs through the CAK's S1 form.

Are you a student? Then a European health insurance card may suffice, provided it covers your whole period of residence.