NEW PADRON RULES

According to the local (Torrevieja) Coastrider newspaper (printed in English) the rules for obtaining the Padron have been changed in the Orihuela district ? with other areas changing soon.

Now you will have to obtain your Certificado de Registro (Residencia) before you can obtain Padron, and no you wont have to show a padron to obtain the Certificado!

This is because many more people are applying for padron than are applying for the Certificado.

Well it is the 3rd week of the new year so we were overdue some changes!

Interesting. That sounds like it will have a very great impact on how non-EU immigrants will be treated, as many of them have to wait years before being able to obtain a Residencia. In fact, that doesn’t make sense. How are people on a work visa supposed to empadronarse without a Residencia? *he says, accusatory as if Rob was a representative of the very government department to have passed the law* :D

Yes good point - this area does not tend to have many non EU so I guess that probably did not figure in their thinking to much but I understand in areas like Madrid/Barcelona this ruling would present problems.

We dont have problems we have opportunities

(I used to hate my director saying that!)

It’s very interesting to note this change.

When we moved here, we also obtained our Padron, mindful of obtaining residencia later on.

When the rules changed in March last year for EU citizens, we never followed up with getting residencias. We’re still thinking about getting residencia later this year though, so wonder if the changes have any bearing on our own status.

Hola Heath1974,

Try reading the regulations document below and see what you think:

N.I.E. (EX14) / RESIDENCIA (EX16)

Forms and the Regulations Governing EU citizens in Spain document.

http://extranjeros.mtas.es/

For forms - Click: Modelos de Solictudes

Or direct link
http://extranjeros.mtas.es/es/general/procedimientos_Solicitudes_index.html

For the Regulations document Click
R?gimen de los ciudadanos Comunitarios en Espa?a

We already have padron anyway as we were always planning to get residencia. If anything, I think it’s a more helpful system potentially for people moving to Spain who want to apply for residencia, streight away.

We did the usual NIE… Padron… going for residencia at some point…

What is interesting however, is how this will potentially affect second home owners. Granted, most will not bother with padron anyway, but purely out of courtesy, I’ve helped clients who’s properties I’ve worked on, get padron in the past. Mainly this is due to the additional funding that a village or area gets for each “resident” (or property owner) registered at the local Ayuntamiento. After all, these people are using local ameneties.

It appears that these changes have caused a lot of confusion (what a surprise!) especially at the Orihuela Costa office.

People are saying that the best option is to go to Orihuela City National Police building

Police Station of Orihuela
C/ Sol, 34. C.P. 03300 ? Orihuela. Tel. 965303244

They seem more helpful and organised. As usual the advice is take everything including photocopies!

It seems like this change is nationwide. A friend who works at the townhall has given me a copy of the directive they received from Madrid after we had a great deal of confusion trying to empadronarse some people.
The new directive affects only EU and not non-EU which continues the same. Basically, as the law changed before saying that anyone from the EU who is in Spain for over 3 months by law has to register with extranjeria, you need to do this before you can register with the townhall (the thinking being you don’t need to empadronarse if you are here for less than 3 months). This change came after many townhall complained that eu citizens were registering at the townhall but not on the register of foreigners. I think it’s an issue of local and national funding and local governments only get funding for the number of foreigners they have registered on the national registry rather than locally at the town hall.
The oficinas de extranjeria have been sent a notice from Madrid saying that eu citizens no longer need the padron to show that they are resident and only need the completed form & copy of passport & photos in order to get the resident certifiacte. You then take that & passport to empadronarse.