Long-Term Residence in Spain: Requirements and How to Apply

What most people call permanent residence, Spanish law calls long-term residence (residencia de larga duración). After five years of legal and continuous residence you can apply for it, and once granted it lets you live and work in Spain indefinitely on the same terms as a Spaniard. That is the wording of article 32.1 of the Immigration Act (Organic Law 4/2000). The details sit in Title X of the immigration regulation approved by Royal Decree 1155/2024, in force since 20 May 2025.

In short: five years on a residence permit, no long trips out of Spain, a clean criminal record, and for the EU version enough income and health insurance. The immigration office has three months to decide, and if it says nothing in that time the application counts as approved. You then collect a card valid for five years. No language test, no civics exam and no renunciation of your current nationality.

EU or national: the two long-term permits

Spain issues two different long-term permits, and you can only hold one. The EU version comes from Directive 2003/109/EC and is regulated in articles 175 to 178 of the regulation. The national version is purely Spanish and lives in articles 182 to 185. Both let you stay and work without further permits. The differences are in what you have to prove and what you get outside Spain.

If you have the income and the insurance, the EU version is usually the better one to hold because of the mobility. The national version is the fallback for people who meet the five years, or one of the special cases, but would struggle with the income test.

The five years: what counts and what breaks the clock

Only legal residence counts. Time on a residence permit counts in full, whether you got here on the non-lucrative visa, the digital nomad visa, a work permit, family reunification or arraigo. Months spent in Spain as a tourist count for nothing, and so do periods without papers before an arraigo permit was granted.

You can travel. Articles 176.a and 183.2 say the residence stays continuous despite absences of up to six months in a row, as long as they add up to no more than ten months across the five years. If you were away for work, the total can reach eighteen months. The national version also forgives absences caused by properly documented force majeure, assessed case by case.

Student years are the trap. For the EU version, time on a student stay counts at half its length, and only if you already hold a residence permit on the day you apply. Two years as a student therefore give you one year towards the five.

Timing matters too. The rule is to apply during the two months before your current permit expires, and filing in that window keeps your permit alive until the decision. If you already meet every requirement you do not have to wait for that window (articles 177.2 and 184.2). File up to three months late and your permit is still extended, but you can be fined for the gap.

Cases that do not need five years

Article 183.3 grants national long-term residence without the five-year wait to:

• Residents receiving a contributory Spanish Social Security retirement pension.
• Residents on a contributory Spanish pension for absolute permanent disability or severe disability, or a similar life annuity earned in Spain that is enough to live on.
• People born in Spain who, on reaching adulthood, have lived here legally and continuously for at least the three years immediately before applying.
• Former Spaniards by origin who lost Spanish nationality.
• Young people who reached adulthood after five consecutive years in the care of a Spanish public body.
• Stateless people, refugees and holders of subsidiary protection recognised in Spain or in another EU country.
• People who have made a notable contribution to Spain’s economic, scientific or cultural life. This one is started by the Directorate General for Migration on a proposal from a public authority, not by the applicant.

The fourth case is worth checking if a parent or grandparent was Spanish. Some families qualify for citizenship itself, which is a better result; our Spanish citizenship guide explains those routes.

Income and health insurance for the EU permit

Article 176.b borrows the income test from family reunification (article 67.1 of the regulation). The figure is set per household: 150% of IPREM for a household of two, which is €900 a month in 2026, plus 50% of IPREM, €300 a month, for each additional member. Income counts gross, and self-employed earnings count by their net return. It can come from work, a pension or your own assets. The regulation does not print a separate figure for someone applying alone, so we build single-applicant files with income that clears the two-person figure and leave no room for argument.

Health cover can be public or private, as long as it covers the risks normally covered for Spaniards and comes from an insurer authorised to operate in Spain. If you pay Social Security in Spain, your public cover already meets this.

Documents

• Application form EX-11, signed.
• Copy of your full, valid passport.
• Receipt for the government fee (form 790, code 052).
• For the EU version: proof of income and proof of health insurance.
• Criminal record certificates from your country of origin and from any other country you have lived in during the last five years. The immigration office pulls your Spanish record and a police report on its own.
• If you have children of compulsory school age in Spain, a report showing they are in school (article 9.4 of the Immigration Act).
• For the special cases above, the document that proves yours, for example the pension award.

Foreign documents need an apostille or consular legalisation and a translation by a sworn translator. Our team arranges both as part of the file.

How to apply for permanent residence in Spain

Where. If you live in Spain, at the immigration office (Oficina de Extranjería) of your province, in person or online through the Mercurio platform of the Ministry for Territorial Policy. If you are abroad, which mostly applies to the special cases, in person at the Spanish consulate for your area, which forwards it to the office of the province where you will live.

The fee. It is paid on form 790, code 052, section 2.6, which covers both long-term permits. It falls due when the application is admitted and must be paid within ten working days.

The decision. The office has three months from the day your application enters its register to decide and notify you (articles 177.6 and 184.6). If it does not answer in that time, the application is treated as granted. That is the opposite of most Spanish procedures, where silence means no.

The card. Within one month of the grant, you apply in person for your foreigner identity card (TIE) at the police station that handles foreigners, where your fingerprints are taken. That card fee is separate and is paid on form 790, code 012.

The long-term resident card and its renewal

The permit has no end date. The card does. Articles 178 and 185 set the first card renewal at five years; after that, renewals come every five years until you turn 30 and every ten years once you have. You renew in the two months before the card expires, or up to three months after, with the old card valid until the new one is decided. You bring your passport, a photo and the fee receipt. No new proof of income is asked for.

Missing the renewal does not end your long-term status. It can bring a fine, and for the national version the office will check that you still meet the conditions.

What long-term residence gives you

• The right to live and work in Spain indefinitely, employed or self-employed, with no separate work permit (article 32.1).
• Access to public housing aid on the same terms as Spaniards (article 13).
• The right to bring your parents or your spouse’s parents over 65 who depend on you, which most temporary residents cannot do (articles 17.1.d and 18.1).
• Extra protection against expulsion: before expelling a long-term resident, the authorities must weigh the time lived here, family ties and age (article 57.5.b).
• With the EU version, the option to apply for residence in another EU country under that country’s rules.

It does not give you a vote in general elections or a Spanish passport. It also does not let you settle in another EU country automatically; the EU version only opens the door to applying there.

How you can lose it, and how to get it back

Article 201 of the regulation lists the causes. The one that catches people is time away: twelve consecutive months outside the European Union ends either permit. For people who reached EU long-term status after holding an EU Blue Card, and their family, the limit is 24 months. The EU version also ends after six years outside Spain, even if you stayed inside the EU, unless the authorities decide exceptional reasons justify keeping it.

The other causes are a permit obtained by fraud, an expulsion order, acquiring EU long-term status in another member state, and a final conviction for human trafficking or for promoting illegal immigration.

If you lose it through absence, there is a simplified recovery procedure (articles 186 to 189). You can apply from the consulate or in Spain. The office has three months to decide, silence again counts as approval, and the new card lasts five years. For the EU version you have to show income and health insurance again.

Long-term residence or Spanish citizenship?

Long-term residence arrives at year five. Citizenship by residence takes ten years as a rule, needs the DELE A2 and CCSE exams, and for Americans a declaration renouncing their previous nationality, made before the Civil Registry or a notary. In exchange you get an EU passport that you can pass to your children. Most people hold long-term residence while they wait, and some stop there on purpose. We compare the two side by side in our Spanish citizenship guide.

British citizens under the Withdrawal Agreement

If you lived in Spain before 1 January 2021, none of the above is your route. Your rights come from the Withdrawal Agreement, and article 15 gives you permanent residence once you have five years of continuous legal residence, counting the years before Brexit. Spain documents it with a TIE marked “Article 50 TEU”: the card lasts five years if you have been here less than five, and ten years if you have been here longer (Spanish government Brexit guide, September 2024). Under article 15.3 that permanent right is lost only after more than five consecutive years away.

British citizens who moved after 2020 are treated like any other non-EU national, so the long-term permits on this page are the ones that apply to them. Our guide for UK citizens in Spain after Brexit covers both groups.

EU citizens and their family

Citizens of the EU, the EEA and Switzerland do not apply for any of these permits. After five years of continuous legal residence they can ask for a certificate of permanent residence under article 10 of Royal Decree 240/2007, and their non-EU family members get a permanent residence card. That right is lost after more than two consecutive years outside Spain.

Common questions

Can I go from the non-lucrative visa to permanent residency?

Yes. Every year on the non-lucrative permit counts towards the five. The initial permit lasts one year and each renewal two (article 64.7 of the regulation), so the usual path is the initial permit and two renewals, then long-term residence. Keep an eye on travel: to renew the non-lucrative permit you must spend more than 183 days a year in Spain (article 64.2.f), a stricter rule than the absence allowance for long-term residence. The income you already prove for the non-lucrative visa, €2,400 a month in 2026, is well above the long-term threshold. Once you hold long-term residence you are also free to work, which the non-lucrative permit does not allow.

Can I live in Spain permanently without becoming a citizen?

Yes. That is exactly what long-term residence is for. It has no expiry date, only a card to renew, and it lasts as long as you do not spend twelve consecutive months outside the EU or fall into one of the other causes of loss.

Do I need to speak Spanish?

No. There is no language or integration exam for long-term residence. Those exams only come in if you later apply for citizenship.

The part that needs the most care is the count: which permits, which dates, which trips. If you want our advisors to check yours before you file, book a consultation and we will tell you which of the two permits fits you and when you can apply.