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Since last July, and as part of the Withdrawal Agreement between the UK and the member states of the European Union, there have been certain changes in the process of obtaining residence in Spain that will affect, above all, those citizens who seek to obtain it as of January 1, 2021.

The are different situations for citizens already living in Spain and for those who manage to obtain the residency card before de 31st of December.
How to get the Spanish Residency before 31st December 2020.

The Withdrawal Agreement provides a transition period until December 31, 2020.
As from 6 July, the procedure for obtaining the residence document of Article 18.4 of the Agreement will be enabled. Therefore, if you arrive from that date on, you must apply directly for the residence document at the Inmigration Offices of the province in which you reside.

It will be verified that you meet the same requirements demanded for obtaining the Union citizen registration certificate.

Once this residence document has been obtained, it will be issued (in format Foreigner’s IdentityCard (TIE)) which will explicitly mention your status as beneficiary of the Withdrawal Agreement. If you have already obtained Spanish nationality you will not need to do any formalities.

What´s the situation if you arrive in Spain after January 1, 2021?

Unless covered by the subjective scope of the Withdrawal Agreement , United Kingdom nationals entering Spain after 1 January 2021 shall be considered as third-country nationals.

Therefore, the general immigration regime will apply to them, a future mobility scheme is negotiated within the framework of the future relationship being negotiated between the UK and the EU.

New TIE for UK nationals living in Spain:

On July 6, 2020, the Spanish government introduced a new residence document for UK nationals living in Spain who have rights under the Withdrawal Agreement: The “Tarjeta de Identidad de Extranjero (TIE)”
This card explicitly states that it has been issued to the holder under the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement. It´s essential to know that All UK nationals legally living in Spain before 31 December 2020 have the right to request this card.
If you already have a green residency certificate, you don’t have to apply for a new status as a resident in Spain, and the documents you already have as an EU resident in Spain remain valid. And most importantly, as long as you are legally resident in Spain before 31 December your rights are guaranteed.

However, although there is no definite date, we recommend that all residents with the mentioned green card try to migrate to the new TIE telematic card as soon as posible.

In regards to the different situations commented in the above paragraph, we can offer you a service and assistance which will make your life easiest at the time of applying of either obtaining the new biometric ID card (TIE) or submitting your residence application before December, 31 and obtaining the new biometric ID card (TIE).