Moving to Spain from Ireland: Registration, Non-EU Family and Buying a Home

Moving to Spain from Ireland takes no visa and no residence permit, because Irish citizens are EU citizens. You arrive on your Irish passport and there is no time limit on your stay. After 3 months you need to work, study or have health cover and enough money to live on, and you must register in person. That gets you the EU registration certificate, which carries your NIE, the foreigner identity number you will use in Spain for tax, banking and buying property.

A move from Ireland gets harder in three places: proving you qualify to register if you are not working, getting a residence card for a husband, wife or partner who is not an EU citizen, and buying a home without legal surprises. Those are the three things our lawyers handle for people moving from Ireland, and this guide follows that order. The rules come from Royal Decree 240/2007, which applies EU free movement law in Spain.

What you need to move to Spain from Ireland, by situation

Find your line. The deadline is the same in every case where you move from Ireland to live in Spain: 3 months from the day you enter.

Do Irish citizens need a visa for Spain, and how long can they stay?

No visa, and no limit. For a stay of under three months a valid passport is all you need (article 6). The 90 days in 180 rule that British and American visitors count does not apply to you, because it is a rule for people who are not EU citizens.

Past three months you have the right to live in Spain if you work here, are self-employed, study, or have health cover and enough money not to depend on Spanish social assistance (article 7). A worker, a retiree with a pension and a student from Ireland each fit one of those four cases.

Irish passport holders living in Northern Ireland or Britain

What counts is the passport, not the address. If you hold an Irish passport and live in Belfast, Derry or London, you move to Spain as an EU citizen and none of the British visa rules touch you. A spouse who only holds a British passport is a different matter since Brexit: they come in as your family member, with the card described below. If nobody in the household holds an EU passport, the route is a visa, and our guide to moving to Spain from the UK covers it.

How to register in Spain after moving from Ireland

The certificate is issued by the National Police. It shows your name, nationality, address, the date you registered and your NIE, and the office hands it over on the day (article 7.5). You apply in person at the Foreigners’ Office (Oficina de Extranjería) or, where there is none, the National Police station for the province where you live. Our page on the EU registration certificate explains the document itself. These are the steps.

• Get an address. A rental contract or title deed lets you sign on to the padrón, the town hall’s register of residents. The step is called empadronamiento.
• Book the appointment. Slots at the busy coastal offices go quickly, so book as soon as you have the address.
• Fill in form EX-18 and pay the fee. EX-18 is the official application form for EU citizens. The fee is €12 (National Police fees, September 2026).
• Bring proof for your situation. A job contract, your self-employed registration, or health cover and means if you do not work.

Miss the 3 months and you do not lose the right to live in Spain, which comes from EU law and not from the certificate. The decree does allow a fine, on the same terms as for a Spaniard who fails to get an identity card (article 15.8), and in daily life you will be asked for the certificate again and again.

How much money counts as enough if you are not working

The law forbids a fixed figure. Each case is judged on your own circumstances (article 7.7). What the offices use as a yardstick is the yearly non-contributory pension: income or savings above it are accepted as sufficient for one person, more with dependants, under Order PRE/1490/2012. In 2026 that pension is €8,803.20 a year (Imserso, 2026). A bank certificate, pension statements or proof of rental income all work as evidence.

Health cover is the second half. It can be public or private and bought in Spain or abroad, as long as it covers you in Spain to the level of the public system. Pensioners meet the condition with a certificate showing that the country paying their pension covers their healthcare, which for an Irish state pensioner is the S1 form.

Moving from Ireland with a husband, wife or partner who is not an EU citizen

Many couples moving from Ireland have one passport that is not from the EU. A British, American, Brazilian or Filipino spouse does not apply for a Spanish visa of their own. They live in Spain as the family member of an EU citizen and apply for the residence card of a family member of a Union citizen. It is valid for 5 years and it lets them work, employed or self-employed, on the same terms as a Spaniard (articles 3.2 and 8).

Who counts as family

• Your spouse, or a partner registered in a public register of an EU or EEA country.
• Your children and your spouse’s children under 21, and older ones who depend on you.
• Your parents and your spouse’s parents, if they depend on you.
• An unmarried partner in a stable relationship: one year living together is accepted as proof, and with a child in common a shorter period of proven cohabitation is enough (article 2 bis).

The order that works

You register first. Your certificate is one of the documents the family card requires, so the non-EU partner cannot file before you hold it. They have three months from their entry into Spain to apply, and that clock does not wait for you. If you arrive together, book your own appointment in the first weeks. The office gives your partner a receipt on the spot, which proves they are legally in Spain while the card is made, and the card has to be issued within three months (article 8). The file needs their passport, the marriage or partnership certificate, your registration certificate and three photos. A certificate issued outside Spain may need an apostille or legalisation and a sworn translation, and we check that before you travel.

To enter Spain, British and US passport holders need no visa. If your partner’s nationality does need a Schengen visa, the consulate issues it free of charge and with priority because they are joining an EU citizen (article 4.2). Our guide to the Spanish partner and spouse routes compares this card with the other options.

One warning. The card depends on the family link. After a divorce the non-EU partner keeps the right to stay only in set cases, the main one being a marriage or registered partnership that lasted at least three years before the court case began, with at least one of those years spent in Spain (article 9).

Buying property in Spain from Ireland

Irish citizens buy on the same terms as Spaniards, and you are buying in your own currency, so there is no exchange rate to watch between offer and completion. The legal risk sits elsewhere: debts registered against the home, building work with no licence, and a deposit contract signed too early.

Get the NIE first

You cannot sign a deed without a NIE number. Where you get it depends on your plans. If you are moving, it comes with your registration certificate. If you are buying a holiday home and staying in Ireland, you apply through the Spanish Embassy in Dublin, which accepts only residents of Ireland who are not moving to Spain. It works by appointment, uses form EX-15 (the NIE application), charges €9.84 and usually sends the number by email within five weeks (Embassy of Spain in Dublin, December 2025). The Embassy sends residents of Northern Ireland to the Spanish Consulate General in Edinburgh instead. We can also obtain it for you in Spain with a power of attorney.

The deposit contract and the taxes

The first binding paper is the deposit contract, called contrato de arras. The usual deposit is 10% of the price. If the contract sets the deposit as penitential arras (arras penitenciales), article 1454 of the Civil Code applies: a buyer who walks away loses it and a seller who walks away pays it back double. Other wording can oblige both sides to complete, so we check the clause first. Have the Land Registry entry, the town planning status and the community debts checked before you sign, not after. Our guide to buying a house in Spain goes through the whole purchase step by step.

The 19% rate and the right to deduct expenses apply because you are resident in Ireland, an EU country. A co-owner resident outside the EU and EEA, for example in Britain, pays 24% on the gross rent.

Healthcare in Spain for Irish citizens

How you get into the public system depends on what you do here.

• You work or are self-employed in Spain. You pay Spanish Social Security and you and your dependants are covered from registration.
• You draw an Irish state pension. Ireland stays responsible for your healthcare. You ask for an S1 form in Ireland and register the S1 with the INSS, Spain’s Social Security institute, and then use the public system like any resident.
• You are retired early or live on savings. You need private health insurance to register. After one year of residence you can join the public system through the convenio especial, a pay-in scheme run by each region’s health service, which costs from €60 a month under 65 and from €157 a month from 65 (Royal Decree 576/2013, articles 3 and 6).

The European Health Insurance Card is for visits. It does not count as health cover for registering as a resident, with one exception in Order PRE/1490/2012: students.

Tax and your Irish pension after moving to Spain from Ireland

You become tax resident in Spain when you spend more than 183 days here in a calendar year, or when your main economic interests are here (article 9 of the Personal Income Tax Act). From then on Spain taxes your worldwide income, and the 1994 tax treaty between Spain and Ireland decides which country taxes what.

The Irish State Pension is a social security pension, not pay for service to the State, so article 19.2 does not reach it and the treaty leaves it to Spain once you are resident here. A civil service, Garda or local authority pension stays taxable only in Ireland, unless you are also a Spanish national. Many retirees from Ireland hold both kinds, and our tax specialist works out the split and the year in which you change residence before you move.

Pitfalls of retiring to Spain from Ireland

• Arriving before pension age with no health plan. No S1 means private insurance, and the convenio especial only opens after a year.
• Letting the 3 months pass. Without the certificate you cannot sponsor a non-EU spouse, and banks and the tax office will keep asking for it.
• Keeping Irish tax habits. After 183 days Spain expects a return on your worldwide income, pensions included.
• Signing the arras on a viewing trip. The 10% is at risk from that moment. Checks come first.
• Long absences. A family member’s card can lapse after more than six months away in a year (article 14).

Driving licence and permanent residence

Your Irish driving licence is valid in Spain while it is in date, with no exchange needed. The exception is a licence with no expiry date or one valid for more than 15 years: once you are resident you must renew it after two years (DGT, 2026).

After 5 years of continuous legal residence you and your family members gain permanent residence, which no longer depends on work, means or insurance. You lose it if you leave Spain for more than two years in a row (article 10). Spanish nationality by residence is a longer road for Irish citizens: the Civil Code asks for 10 years (article 22.1), and you must declare that you renounce your Irish nationality (article 23).

How our lawyers help with a move to Spain from Ireland

We have been handling Spanish residence applications since 2010. For a move from Ireland the work usually comes down to this:

• We book the appointment, prepare form EX-18 and check your proof of means and health cover before you stand in front of the officer.
• We prepare the family card file for your non-EU spouse, partner, children or parents, including translations and apostilles.
• We obtain NIE numbers, in person with you or by power of attorney while you are still in Ireland.
• We run the legal checks on a property, draft or review the arras contract and go with you to the notary.
• Our tax specialist plans the year you change tax residence and how your Irish pension and property will be taxed.

Moving to Spain from Ireland: frequently asked questions

Sources

• Royal Decree 240/2007 on entry, free movement and residence in Spain of EU citizens, articles 2 to 10, 14 and 15, consolidated text (BOE, November 2026).
• Order PRE/1490/2012, article 3, on the documents for registration (BOE, November 2026).
• Royal Decree 576/2013 on the special healthcare agreement, articles 3 and 6 (BOE, November 2026).
• Imserso, non-contributory pension amounts for 2026.
• Embassy of Spain in Dublin, consular page on the NIE, updated 1 December 2025.
• Spanish Civil Code, article 1454; Law 37/1992 on VAT, article 91; Non-Resident Income Tax Act, articles 13, 24 and 25; Personal Income Tax Act, article 9 (BOE, November 2026).
• Convention between Spain and Ireland for the avoidance of double taxation, 10 February 1994, articles 18, 19 and 22 (BOE, 27 December 1994).
• Dirección General de Tráfico (DGT), validity of EU driving licences in Spain, 2026.