Spain Family Reunification for Americans: Who Can Join and When

Family reunification in Spain, reagrupación familiar, is the permit a foreign resident files to bring relatives who did not come on the same application. Many Americans plan to move first and send for a spouse or children a few months later, and the rules do not work that way: the procedure opens only after a full year of residence. This article is for informational purposes only and is not immigration or legal advice; verify current requirements with the relevant Spanish authority or a licensed professional.

Can your family join you a few months after you move?

Not through reunification: the Ministry of Inclusion’s information sheet allows the application only once you have lived in Spain for at least 1 year and have applied to renew your permit for at least another year. Even then, your relative’s permit cannot be granted until your own renewal is effectively granted.

Add up the steps and a relative who waits for reunification arrives in your second year in Spain at the earliest. The routes that avoid the wait all start before you move, or depend on who you are: relatives who file with you from the start, relatives of a student in higher education, and relatives of a Spanish citizen. The permit you hold decides which of them is open.

Your permit decides your family’s route

Five situations decide the route, each with its own timing and income rule.

Two details change the choice. A spouse, a partner and children of working age who arrive through reunification can work anywhere in Spain, as employees or self-employed, in any occupation, without any further procedure, the reunification sheet states. Relatives who come with a student cannot work at all. The non-lucrative file for a family is set out in the non-lucrative visa guide, and the student’s in the Spain student visa guide.

The reunification file, in order

The sponsor, the resident already in Spain, files the application; the relative only steps in at the visa stage.

1. Wait for the two triggers: 1 year of residence in Spain, and a renewal application for at least another year.
2. Gather your own evidence: proof of income, the housing report, health insurance for you and each relative, and, for a spouse or partner, a signed statement that no other spouse or partner lives with you in Spain.
3. Gather your relative’s evidence: a full copy of the passport and the civil records proving the relationship, apostilled and translated into Spanish by a sworn translator.
4. File form EX-02 at the immigration office of your province, in person or online through Mercurio, the online office of the Ministry of Territorial Policy, and pay the fee on form 790 code 052, heading 2.1.2, within 10 working days.
5. Wait for the decision: the office has 2 months, and silence counts as a refusal.
6. Within 2 months of the approval, your relative applies in person for the visa at the Spanish consulate for their place of residence, with a passport valid for at least 4 months, a criminal record certificate if an adult, a medical certificate and the original family documents. The consulate has 1 month to decide.
7. Your relative collects the visa in person within 1 month of the notice, enters Spain within 1 month of collecting it, and requests the TIE within 1 month of entry.

The relative’s permit expires on the same date as yours on the day they enter Spain, with a minimum of 1 year. Their first appointment at the police is the same card procedure covered in the TIE guide.

For income, an employee in Spain shows the employment contract and the last 6 payslips, with the latest IRPF income tax return if one was filed; a self-employed sponsor shows the activity and the tax returns. A sponsor with no activity in Spain, the usual case on a non-lucrative permit, proves the money with certified checks, traveler’s checks, or credit cards backed by a bank certificate of the credit available, or with a bank certificate.

The income and housing tests

For a household of two, the sponsor needs fixed and regular resources of 150 percent of IPREM a month, 900 euros at the 2026 value of 600 euros, and 50 percent more, 300 euros a month, for each additional member. When the relatives are minors, the ministry’s sheet allows a lower amount, pegged to the minimum wage or to the Ingreso Mínimo Vital, Spain’s guaranteed minimum income.

The housing test is proved with a report from your autonomous community, or from your town hall where the region has delegated it, no more than 6 months old on the day you file. If the report has not been issued and notified within 1 month of your request, any legal evidence works: the title that lets you occupy the home, the number of rooms and their use, the number of occupants and the state of the home, with proof that you asked for the report.

Health insurance must cover you and each relative. And if you already have children of compulsory school age with you in Spain, they must be enrolled in school.

Who counts as family

The reunification sheet lists five kinds of relatives:

• a spouse, or a partner over 18 in a relationship similar to marriage, registered in a public register of a European Union member state or proven by at least 12 continuous months of living together, in or outside Spain, unless you have children in common; only one spouse or partner can be reunited, and a second marriage requires proof of how the first was dissolved;
• your children, or your spouse’s or partner’s, under 18 on the day of the application, or older if they have a disability that requires support or cannot provide for themselves because of their health;
• minors or dependent adults you legally represent, on the same terms;
• your parents, or your spouse’s or partner’s, if they are over 65, depend on you, and there are reasons that justify their residence in Spain, or younger on humanitarian grounds; you show that you sent them money or paid their expenses during your last year of residence;
• an adult child of yours or of your spouse or partner who will care for you, if you have a recognized degree of dependency.

The sheet lists two exceptions to the one-year wait, both tied to long-term status: a long-term or EU long-term resident in Spain reuniting parents, and a resident whose status in Spain rests on EU long-term residence obtained in another member state. The step to that status is covered in the long-term residence guide.

Married to a Spanish citizen: a separate permit since May 2025

Since May 20, 2025, relatives of Spanish citizens who are not nationals of an EU or EEA country or Switzerland have their own permit under Spain’s immigration regulation, instead of the EU family card, according to the Ministry of Inclusion’s guide for relatives of Spaniards. The exception is a Spanish citizen returning after living in another EU or European Economic Area country or Switzerland: the family can then choose between the two regimes.

The information sheet for this permit, updated in April 2026, covers a spouse over 18, a registered partner, a partner who proves 12 continuous months of living together or has children in common, children of either partner under 26, dependent parents and a few other relatives, as long as they live with the Spanish citizen in Spain. The procedure is free, and the sheet lists no income, housing or insurance test.

Who files depends on where each of you is:

• if the Spanish citizen lives in Spain and you are abroad, they file at their province’s immigration office, and you then have 1 month from the approval to apply for the visa at your consulate;
• if you both live abroad, you file for the permit and the visa together at the consulate;
• if you are both in Spain, a spouse or partner can file there, as can the Spanish citizen.

The office has 2 months, and silence counts as a refusal. Filed from Spain, the application lets a spouse, a partner or a child stay and work while it is processed, subject to approval. The permit lasts 5 years, or less if the Spanish citizen plans a shorter stay, and allows work of any kind anywhere in Spain; after 5 years of continuous residence, the next step is long-term residence. The file holds form EX-24, the Spanish citizen’s passport or DNI, your passport, criminal record certificates for the last 5 years if you file from abroad, and the proof of your family link, apostilled and translated.

Where family files stall

• Filing before the triggers. An application lodged before 1 year of residence, or before your renewal is on file, does not meet the sheet’s condition.
• An old housing report. It must be no more than 6 months old on the filing date, so time the request close to filing.
• A chain of one-month deadlines. After the visa is approved, your relative has 1 month to collect it and 1 month to enter Spain, so plan flights around the approval, not before it.
• Relatives of Spaniards on the old track. Since May 20, 2025, the EU family card is the wrong procedure for most of them.

Pick the route before anyone books a flight

This month, write down your permit type and its expiry date, then check which route above your relatives fit: that decides whether they file with you now or wait for your first renewal.

A family filing together on one non-lucrative application, or a couple where the Spanish partner files, can handle the paperwork alone. Get advice before you file if you rely on an unregistered partnership, want to bring a parent, or plan to change permits during your first year, because each touches a condition the office checks.

The Spain Navigator puts every step of your move to Spain in order, from the visa to settling in.