Family & Spouse Visas in Spain
Sponsoring a partner, children, or parents
Legal residents may reunite a spouse, children, and dependent parents after one year of residence, and the rules for family members of EU citizens — including Spaniards — are far lighter than for third-country sponsors.
| Sponsor requirement | Generally 1 year of legal residence plus a renewed permit |
| Who qualifies | Spouse or registered partner, children under 18, dependent parents over 65 |
| Income requirement | Benchmarked to IPREM, scaled by family size |
| Housing | An official adequacy of housing report from the local authority |
| Work rights | Reunited spouses may work |
The two regimes
If your sponsor is a third-country national resident in Spain, the general regime applies: one year of prior residence, an income test, and an inspected housing report.
If your sponsor is a Spanish or other EU citizen, the community regime applies instead. It is faster, cheaper, has lighter income requirements, and extends to unmarried partners registered as a couple. People frequently apply under the wrong regime and lose months.
The housing report
Spain requires an informe de vivienda adecuada, an official assessment that the accommodation is suitable for the number of people who will live in it. It is issued by the regional or municipal authority, takes weeks, and is a common source of delay. Start it before the rest of the file is ready.
Parents
Reuniting parents is possible but restricted: they must generally be over sixty-five and dependent, and the sponsor must usually hold long-term residence. Exceptions on humanitarian grounds exist and are decided case by case.
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Official sources
Checked against these pages in September 2026. Fees and processing times change without notice — confirm before you act.