Moving to Spain Checklist (2026): The Complete Timeline from 6 Months Out to Your First 90 Days

Moving to Spain fails in the sequencing, not in the effort. People book flights before the visa, order documents that expire before the appointment, and discover the NIE should have come before the apartment. This checklist puts every task in the right order, from six months before the move to the end of your first 90 days, with a link to the detailed guide for each step. Print it, tick things off, and you will not be the person at the consulate with a three-month-old police certificate that expired last week.

1. How to use this checklist

Work backwards from your target arrival date. The anchor is your visa appointment (or, for Digital Nomad Visa applicants filing from inside Spain, your entry date): consulate documents have short validity windows, so the timeline protects you from collecting papers too early or too late. EU/EEA citizens skip the visa blocks - everything from "arrival" onward still applies.

2. Six months before

• Pick your visa route. Remote worker: Digital Nomad Visa. Retired or passive income: Non-Lucrative Visa. The choice drives every later step, including the tax angle (the Beckham Law is only available through some routes - read that guide before you apply).
• Check your passport: valid well beyond the visa period, with blank pages.
• Request the criminal-record certificate from every country you have lived in recently (US: FBI check; UK: ACRO). These take weeks and must later be apostilled and sworn-translated into Spanish - but not yet: they expire. Request now only if your country is slow; otherwise diarize it for the 3-month mark.
• Start the income/paper trail: employment letters, contracts, bank statements in the format your visa requires.
• Research where you will live and what rents look like (see Renting in Spain for contract types and realistic up-front costs: 2-4 months' rent).

3. Three months before

• Book the consulate appointment if your visa route needs one - popular consulates run weeks or months out.
• Collect time-sensitive documents now: criminal record (typically valid 3-6 months for consular purposes), medical certificate (usually valid 3 months), marriage/birth certificates if applying with family. Apostille each one, then sworn translation (traductor jurado). Validity clocks run from issue, so do this inside the window before your appointment, not before.
• Buy visa-compliant health insurance: a Spain-authorized policy, full coverage, no copays, no waiting periods - the exact rules and the certificate format consulates want are in our health insurance guide.
• Get your NIE if your route allows early application - some consulates issue it with the visa; others require it beforehand. The process, EX-15 form and fee are in the NIE guide.
• Sort the money side: understand when you become Spanish tax resident and what that changes (Taxes for Expats), and check whether the Beckham Law application window (6 months from starting work/social security) will apply to you.

4. One month before

• Visa submitted or approved? If the consulate is still processing, plan accommodation that is refundable. Only book the one-way flight when the visa is in your passport.
• Line up housing: a first-month Airbnb or apartahotel while you flat-hunt on the ground is the standard play; landlords rarely sign with people who have not visited. Have your renter dossier ready (passport, NIE, income proof - see the renting guide).
• Prepare a Spanish-phone and address plan: you will need a phone number for almost every appointment (cita previa) and an address for registration.
• Scan everything twice: one cloud copy, one offline copy of every apostilled and translated document, the visa, and the insurance certificate.
• Driving licence: after you become resident you can drive on a foreign licence for six months; after that it must be exchanged (canje). Countries with an agreement (convenio) exchange directly; others require Spanish exams. Check your country's status on the DGT site now, not at month five.
• Pets: microchip, rabies vaccine and the health certificate your airline and Spanish entry rules require - start with your vet, timelines are strict.

5. One week before

• Confirm accommodation for at least your first two weeks.
• Notify your bank of the move; set up a way to move money to Europe at low cost.
• Pack the originals folder: passport + visa, apostilled documents, translations, insurance certificate, lease or booking confirmations, NIE if you have it. Hand luggage, never checked.
• Screenshot every appointment confirmation you have (consulate, cita previa) - Spanish offices want the printed or saved reference.

6. Arrival: the first week

1. Empadronamiento: register at the town hall as soon as you have an address (even temporary registrations exist in many cities). It unlocks healthcare, schools and later renewals. Full process: empadronamiento guide.
2. Spanish SIM card - cheap prepaid is fine; appointments and banks demand a local number.
3. Book the TIE fingerprint appointment (huella) if your visa requires the physical card: you generally have 30 days from arrival. Booking tricks, documents and the fee: TIE guide.
4. Open a bank account - what banks ask newcomers and which accounts work: bank account guide.
5. Start the flat search with your dossier in hand; insist on a vivienda contract and refuse agency fees on home leases (they are the landlord's by law since 2023).

7. The first 90 days

• Collect the TIE card (typically 30-45 days after fingerprints).
• Sign the long-term lease, transfer utilities, and re-register (empadronamiento) at the new address when you move.
• Sort healthcare: activate your private policy or register with the public system if your status gives access.
• Beckham Law window: if you qualify, the 6-month application clock is already running - filing late is the most expensive paperwork mistake expats make.
• Driving licence exchange: book the canje before your six-month window closes; medical fitness test (psicotecnico) required.
• Calendar the renewals: visa/residence renewal windows, tax-residency day count, insurance renewal.

8. The timeline mistakes that hurt

1. Collecting documents too early - police and medical certificates expire before the consulate appointment.
2. Apostille without sworn translation (or the reverse) - consulates want both, in the right order.
3. Booking the flight before the visa - processing times slip; only fly on an issued visa.
4. Signing a "temporada" contract for your permanent home - you lose the 5-year protection and fianza rules.
5. Missing the Beckham window - 6 months from your work/social-security start, no extensions.
6. Letting the licence lapse - after six months of residence your foreign licence no longer validly drives in Spain.

This guide is free and independent. It currently contains no affiliate links; if we later add partner links (for example to relocation or insurance services we recommend), we will label them clearly. This is not legal advice - confirm your case with your consulate or a licensed immigration professional.