If you’re an EU/EEA/Swiss citizen living in Spain you will probably have a green residency card or certificate. But do these documents ever expire? And do you need to renew them?
Although EU citizens have the benefit of freedom of movement and can move to Spain with relatively no hassle, they still have to register as residents in the place they choose to settle.
In Spain, this registration involves applying for a green residency certificate, officially called el Certificado de Registro de Ciudadano de la Unión.
As Spanish National Police state, “The European Union Citizen Registration Certificate is a mandatory document for EU/EEA/Swiss citizens residing for more than three months in Spain”.
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This card issues you with an NIE or Foreigner’s Identity Number. This explains why a lot of people wrongly refer to the green certificate as the NIE, when it’s not the same thing.
READ ALSO: How to get Spain’s green residency certificate if you’re an EU national
The green certificate also features your address, nationality and date of registration, but doesn’t feature a photo, unlike the biometric TIE cards for non-EU citizens residing in Spain.
EU/EES/Swiss nationals used to get an A4-sized paper green certificate, but for some years now they’ve been issued a credit card-sized one that fits in a wallet.
You can apply for the certificado de registro if you meet one of these criteria – you have an employment contract in Spain, you are self-employed and register here, you can support yourself financially and have private health insurance or you are a student.
A common question regarding these cards is if they expire or not.
The quick and simple answer is no; they don’t. Unlike the TIE, the EU green residency certificate doesn’t include an expiry date, or date of renewal.
The Spanish Interior Ministry does not explicitly state that there is no general expiry date, but other official sources such as Barcelona City Hall do say that “the registration does not expire” for the green certificate.
What the Spanish government does state on its website are the circumstances which lead the EU green residency certificate to become invalid.
The first cause for it to be expire is “if there are absences exceeding six months in any one year”.
It can only be more than six months if you absence is due to military obligations, or that do not exceed twelve consecutive months and is due to pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum recovery, serious illness, studies, vocational training, or transfers for professional reasons to another Member State or a third country.
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Spanish law firm Rubio Espíritu Abogados also explains that the green certificate can become invalid if you lose or quit your work without justification of active job search, or you lose your economic resources. In both cases you would not be meeting the conditions you applied for the card with ie. a job contract or enough funds to financially support yourself.
Therefore, if you continue living in Spain and meet the conditions your card will not expire and you do not have to renew it.
If it becomes invalid for some reason like you have left the country for more than six months, then you should be able to apply for it again if you want to return to live in Spain – one of the perks of being an EU national.
So to summarise, the green certificate for EU/EES/Swiss nationals doesn’t have a formal expiry date and you are not required by law to renew it.
While the green certificate denotes residency, it is really a registration certificate that only remains valid as a residency document while you maintain the conditions for residency.
Can I get a permanent green residency certificate after five years?
Although the card doesn’t expire, after five years continuous residency in Spain you can apply for the permanente (permanent) version of the green residency certificate.
What happens if I lose my green residency document, it gets damaged or I move house?
Given that both the A4 and card-sized docs are made of paper, they can easily get damaged. You may also move house meaning your address will change and will be different from the one on the card.
If you have lived in Spain for less than five years, law firm Pellicer & Heredia explains that in these cases you can’t simply go to the police station or foreigners’ office and ask for a duplicate, you must apply for the card again as if it were your first time.
If you have lived for more than five years in Spain, this means you can get the permanent card and will not need to start the process all over again.
