What is empadronamiento

When you first move to Spain and if you intend to stay for more than 3 months, you are required to register as a member of your municipality (municipio) on the municipal register (or census record). The municipal register provides an official tally of the number of local inhabitants and their demographics in each municipality to enable the allocation of appropriate funding for essential services such as policing, health centres, cleaning and maintenance.

The municipal register is called the Padrón Municipal de Habitantes and is also sometimes referred to as simply, the Padrón. You have to register on the Padrón at the Ayuntamiento, or town hall in your municipality.

Registering on the Padrón comes with important benefits, however for our purposes here, if you are a British citizen and want to submit your residency application as a beneficiary under the Withdrawal Agreement, it is important to be registered on the Padrón to demonstrate that you started living in Spain before the end of the transition period and that you fall within the scope of the Withdrawal Agreement.

When you register on the Padrón, you will be given a document that indicates that you have been registered within your municipality– this is called the volante de residencia or empadronamiento. Here at TIE BREXIT SPAIN we use the term empadronamiento to refer to this document.

In some provinces, it may be sufficient to just provide your empadronamiento to demonstrate that you started living in Spain before 31 December 2020 (as long as the date of initial registration is on/prior to 31 December 2020). Other provinces may require more documents – see our blog article for more information.

If you live in Barcelona city, we provide guidance on how you can get your empadronamiento below. We also provide services related to getting your empadronamiento – we book appointments and can accompany you to your appointment.