The complete guide to moving from the UK to Spain

Where do you start when moving to Spain?

Start with residence, not removals. Since Brexit, a UK national who wants to live in Spain is a third-country national under Spanish immigration law, and the right to stay beyond a short visit comes from a visa or residence authorisation, not from owning or renting a home. Settle which route you qualify for first. It decides when you can travel, what evidence you need to gather in the UK and which Spanish offices you will deal with once you arrive.

Next, be honest about what kind of move this is. A second-home owner keeps UK residence, stays within the Schengen short-stay allowance and does not qualify for the customs relief on household goods. Someone changing residence gives up UK residence, registers in Spain, usually becomes a Spanish tax resident and can bring a household of belongings in free of import duty and IVA, provided the conditions in the customs guide are met.

Then secure the Spanish address. A long-term rental contract or a purchase completed before a notario gives you the address that the visa application, the padrón, the utility companies and the customs declaration all ask for. Most people who are not yet sure of an area rent first, and that choice changes the removal too: it often makes sense to move what you need and hold the rest in storage until a purchase completes.

If you need an NIE before you arrive, for example to sign a purchase contract or open a bank account, apply through the Spanish consulate-general that covers your UK address. If you are moving on a residence visa, the number is normally assigned to you as part of the visa and TIE process. The NIE guide explains the difference.

Finally, close down the UK side in good time. Tell HMRC you are leaving (GOV.UK guidance on tax when you move abroad), and let your pension providers, bank, council, GP and utility suppliers know. Set up post forwarding for the first months.

• Decide: a full change of residence, or a second home
• Identify your visa or residence route and start gathering its evidence
• Secure the Spanish address (long-term rental contract or completed purchase)
• Apply for an NIE at the consulate only if you need one before the visa process assigns it
• Notify HMRC, pension providers, bank, council and suppliers; arrange post forwarding

Which visa or residence route can a UK national use to move to Spain?

UK nationals moving to Spain now need a residence route chosen and, in most cases, granted before departure. The main options are the non-lucrative residence visa for people living on their own means, the international teleworking (digital nomad) visa for remote workers, employment and self-employment authorisations, study visas and family routes. People resident before Brexit follow the separate Withdrawal Agreement process.

Non-lucrative residence visa (residencia no lucrativa). This is the route most retirees and people living on pensions, savings or investment income use. You apply in person to the Spanish consulate that covers your UK address before you travel. The London consulate asks for proof of financial means calculated as a multiple of IPREM, Spain’s public income indicator, which is revised each year, with an additional amount for each dependant. It also asks for health insurance from an insurer authorised in Spain that covers the same risks as the public system (UK state pensioners can rely on a registered S1 instead), a criminal record certificate and a medical certificate. The visa does not allow you to work in Spain. Check the current list on the consulate’s non-lucrative visa page, because it changes.

International teleworking visa (the digital nomad visa). Created by Spain’s start-up law, Ley 28/2022, it is for people who work remotely for employers or clients based mainly outside Spain. Applicants show either relevant qualifications or professional experience, the remote employment or client relationship itself, and sufficient income. It can be requested at a consulate before you travel or, if you are already in Spain lawfully, as a residence authorisation from inside Spain. UK government guidance lists it among the routes open to UK nationals (GOV.UK: Living in Spain).

Employment and self-employment. To take a job with a Spanish employer you need a work and residence authorisation, which the employer normally applies for in Spain before you request the visa at the consulate. Highly qualified professionals and senior staff transferred within a company can use separate skilled-worker routes. Self-employment (trabajo por cuenta propia) requires a credible business plan, any qualifications or licences the activity needs and evidence of the investment and income it will produce.

Study. Students on a recognised course apply for a study visa. It allows limited work alongside the course and can, in some circumstances, lead on to a work authorisation once the studies end.

Family routes. Spouses, registered partners and certain relatives of Spanish or other EU citizens use a dedicated family-member route rather than the general immigration rules. Family reunification (reagrupación familiar) is a different mechanism: it lets a non-EU national who already holds legal residence in Spain bring close family members to join them once they meet the residence, housing and means requirements.

The investor visa is closed. Spain abolished residence by investment, the so-called golden visa, in 2025. Buying a property no longer gives anyone a right to live in Spain, and new applications are not accepted. People who already held an investor permit keep it under transitional rules.

Withdrawal Agreement residents. If you were living in Spain before the end of the Brexit transition period at the close of 2020, your rights are protected by the Withdrawal Agreement and you do not need any of the routes above. Your residence document should be a TIE issued under the Withdrawal Agreement. UK guidance asks anyone still holding the old green EU registration certificate to exchange it for a TIE, because the TIE is the document recognised at the Schengen border.

After you arrive on a residence visa. The visa gets you through the border; it is not the end of the process. Within the short window after entry that the consulate sets out, you apply in person for the TIE (Tarjeta de Identidad de Extranjero) at the Oficina de Extranjería or the Policía Nacional station that issues foreigner cards in your province, and you register on the padrón at your ayuntamiento. The residencia guide walks through those appointments.

Short stays are not a trial residence. Without a residence route, UK passport holders are limited to the Schengen short-stay allowance, which caps the days you can spend in the Schengen area within any rolling period. Overstaying it creates problems that follow you into later visa applications. See GOV.UK: Spain entry requirements.

Tax residence follows the facts, not the visa. You are generally a Spanish tax resident if you spend more than half the calendar year in Spain, or if your main centre of business or economic interests is there. The UK–Spain double taxation agreement stops the same income being taxed twice, but the year of the move often means filing in both countries. Take advice from an asesor fiscal and see the Agencia Tributaria.

Which documents does a UK to Spain move need?

A UK to Spain move produces two separate sets of paperwork. The customs side gets your belongings into Spain free of import duty and IVA, and we prepare and lodge it with you. The residence side, meaning the visa, TIE, padrón, NIE and healthcare registration, is personal: you attend those appointments yourself and nobody, including us, can do them for you.

On the customs side: a UK export declaration, which we lodge as your remover; an itemised inventory of the goods in English and Spanish, with values; your passport; evidence that you lived outside the EU before the move; evidence of your new residence in Spain, such as your visa or TIE, a padrón certificate, a rental contract or a purchase deed; and the Spanish import declaration that claims the change-of-residence relief (franquicia por traslado de residencia). Private households moving their own personal belongings do not normally need an EORI number of their own (GOV.UK: EORI).

On the residence side: the visa or Withdrawal Agreement status; the TIE card; the padrón certificate (certificado de empadronamiento) from your ayuntamiento; your NIE, which appears on the TIE once issued; a Spanish bank account, which is effectively essential; and healthcare registration through the route that applies to you, explained in the healthcare guide.

Some moves carry extra paperwork. A car needs its own customs entry, a Spanish ITV inspection and registration with the DGT, covered in the car guide. Dogs, cats and ferrets need an animal health certificate issued by your vet within the short validity window before travel that the rules set (GOV.UK: pet travel to Europe). In Catalonia, the Basque Country, Galicia, Valencia and the Balearics you will also meet documents in the regional language.

• UK export declaration (lodged by us)
• Bilingual inventory with values
• Proof of residence outside the EU before the move, and of your new Spanish residence
• Spanish import declaration claiming the change-of-residence relief
• Visa or Withdrawal Agreement status, then the TIE
• Padrón certificate from your ayuntamiento
• NIE (assigned through the visa and TIE process, or applied for separately)
• Healthcare registration or private cover, depending on your route
• Vehicle paperwork (customs entry, ITV, DGT registration) and pet health certificate, if relevant

How do your belongings get from the UK to Spain?

Most UK to Spain removals cross the Channel by Eurotunnel or ferry and drive south through France, entering Spain at La Jonquera on the Mediterranean side or at Irún on the Atlantic side. Direct Brittany Ferries sailings from Portsmouth or Plymouth to Bilbao or Santander suit northern and central Spain. Moves to the Balearic or Canary Islands add a sea crossing from a mainland port.

The choice of crossing follows the delivery address. La Jonquera suits Catalonia, the Valencian coast and the Mediterranean side generally. Irún is usually the shorter road for Madrid, the north and the west, and it is often competitive for western Andalusia too. A direct sailing to Bilbao or Santander removes most of the drive through France for anywhere along the Cantabrian coast, in Castilla y León or in Madrid. See the regional pages for how each destination is reached.

Customs does not take place at the France–Spain border. That border is internal to the EU. Your goods leave the UK under an export declaration, enter the EU customs territory at the Channel (or at Bilbao or Santander on a direct sailing) and travel under EU transit arrangements to the Spanish customs office where the import is declared. The Agencia Tributaria says the change-of-residence import is requested at the Spanish customs office of entry or the one nearest your home (AEAT guidance).

The islands differ. The Balearics are inside the EU VAT area and are handled much like the mainland, with a ferry leg from Barcelona, Valencia or Dénia. The Canary Islands are outside the EU VAT area and apply their own indirect tax, IGIC, so the relief is claimed against IGIC with customs in the islands. We plan the paperwork for the Canary leg separately; the Canary Islands page explains how.

We do not publish transit times, because they depend on the route, whether your goods travel on a shared load or a dedicated vehicle, customs, and access at the delivery address. Your written quote gives an estimated delivery window for the route we are actually putting you on.

Delivery-day access shapes the plan as much as the drive does. Madrid’s central low-emission zone, Barcelona’s ZBE, gated urbanizaciones on the coast, narrow streets in the pueblos blancos and Balearic ferry bookings all have to be arranged in advance. The survey is where we pick these up.

What affects the cost of a UK to Spain removal?

A UK to Spain removal quote is driven by the volume of goods, access at both addresses, the route and any sea legs, how much packing you want, whether you need storage, the level of insurance cover and how flexible your dates are. Once the Channel is crossed, distance matters less than people expect. The cost guide sets each factor out in a table, with what you can do about it.

Budget separately for the costs of setting up in Spain. Buyers pay transfer tax (ITP) on resale homes, or IVA plus stamp duty (AJD) on new builds, along with notary, land registry and legal fees; the municipal plusvalía tax normally falls on the seller. Renters pay a legal deposit and often an additional guarantee. Add sworn translations of UK documents, government fees for the NIE and TIE, private health insurance if your route requires it, and vehicle registration costs unless the change-of-residence exemption applies.

How does renting or buying in Spain work for British movers?

Most British movers do best renting in their chosen area before buying. Spanish purchases complete before a notario, usually after a private reservation contract (contrato de arras), and long-term residential rentals are governed by Ley 29/1994 de Arrendamientos Urbanos, which gives tenants a statutory minimum term they can extend year by year.

Homes are marketed through inmobiliarias, often with several agents listing the same property. The notario is a public official who checks the parties and the deed and authorises the escritura pública de compraventa; it is not the same as instructing your own lawyer, and most buyers also appoint an independent abogado to check the title, debts and planning status. Ask for a nota simple from the Registro de la Propiedad before you sign anything. If you withdraw from an arras contract, you normally lose the deposit you paid; if the seller withdraws, they normally return it doubled.

Tenancy protection is substantial. Under the LAU, a residential tenant can extend the contract each year up to a statutory minimum term, which is longer where the landlord is a company, and a further tacit extension follows if neither side gives notice. Under the 2023 housing law (Ley 12/2023), annual rent updates on many contracts are limited by a reference index rather than following inflation freely. The rental guide covers deposits, the dossier landlords expect and the seasonal-let trap.

Prices vary more between Spanish regions than most arrivals expect. Madrid, Barcelona and the prime Costa del Sol sit at the top; Valencia and the Basque cities are in the middle; Galicia, Asturias, inland Andalusia and much of the interior are markedly cheaper. The regional cost of living guide goes into the detail.

What happens in the first weeks after arriving in Spain?

The first weeks in Spain are best planned as a series of appointments in a sensible order: confirm the utilities are connected and meter readings recorded; apply for the TIE if you arrived on a residence visa; register on the padrón at the ayuntamiento; open a Spanish bank account if you have not already; register for healthcare through your route; enrol children at school; then sort out the phone contract, broadband and post.

Spanish administration runs on appointments (cita previa), paper forms and sometimes narrow office hours. Leave slack in the schedule and keep a folder of originals and copies with you. High summer, and August above all, is a slow period: many small businesses close and government offices reduce hours, so avoid planning critical appointments then if you can.

Learn the local services early: the market day, the nearest farmacia (Spanish pharmacists give first-line advice and dispense prescriptions from the public system) and a gestoría for any paperwork you would rather not handle yourself. These decide whether the first months feel like settling in or simply coping.

What goes wrong most often on a move to Spain?

The most common problems are avoidable. Households book the removal before the residence route is granted and then have to hold the goods. Others leave the padrón until later and find that healthcare registration, school places and car registration are all held up, because each one asks for the certificate. Some treat the Schengen short-stay allowance as a way to live in Spain while they sort things out, then overstay it.

On property, the expensive mistake is buying before living in the area long enough to understand it. Rural property in particular can hide issues such as water rights, access easements or a land classification that affects whether a house can be legalised. Renting first exposes most of these.

On delivery day, local access rules catch people out: gated developments that need advance notice for service vehicles, narrow village streets that need a smaller shuttle van, Madrid’s low-emission zone and Barcelona’s ZBE. The survey is where we plan for each of these, and it is why we ask so many questions about the Spanish address.

In the bilingual regions, many movers underestimate how much official and rental paperwork appears in Catalan, Basque, Galician or Valencian. A bilingual gestor or a sworn translator pays for itself quickly.

A planning order that works

Early on: read the guides for your destination region, customs, residence and healthcare. Identify your visa route and start collecting its evidence, including the apostilled certificates that take longest to obtain. Decide whether to rent or buy, and apply for an NIE at the consulate if you need one before the visa process.

Once the route and address are settled: book a survey so we can produce a written quote and inventory. Submit the visa application. Tell HMRC you are leaving. If you are taking pets, ask your vet about the rabies vaccination and health certificate sequence.

In the final run-up: confirm the collection date, check the customs pack with us, give us the access details for the Spanish address and arrange utility switching at both ends.

When you are ready, request a written quote or read how our full house removals and part loads run.