How to get your Empadronamiento in Valencia if you are living with a friend or relative

| Also known as vivienda ajena or third-party home

| This article also discusses requirements if you are a single parent with a minor

| This is written specifically for non-EU citizens

One of the first things you have to do when you move to Valencia as a foreign resident is to get your NIE (Número de Identidad de Extranjero) card and Empadronamiento. Either one can go first, even if both require the other (you can just use your passport instead).

Appointments are very difficult to book through their online link (see step 1 below) so it's better to try booking this and your NIE appointments as soon as you get issued a visa in your home country. I consulted with a lawyer from this firm for my visa, and my sister also uses their services so they were kind enough to give me the appointment slot of their client who cancelled. If you want to avail of services to help you book and even translate for you as you do your paperwork you can contact them or search for recommendations in Facebook groups such as Valencia Expats or Expats Valencia.

There are a lot of articles that already talk about how to get an empadronamiento such as this one, so I just want to share my own case, living with my sister who is working here, and having 2 teens. This would be useful to you if you are living in someone's home without a lease. Here are the steps I took:

1. Get an appointment here. Here is how to fill out the drop down form:

   1. Servicio and Centro: select “PADRON CP” and choose the same location where your host got their Empadronamiento

   2. Día and Hora: Select the date and time of your appointment

   3. Nombre and Apellidos: Insert your first and last names.

   4. Tipo de documento: Select PASAPORTE

   5. Documento: Insert the number your passport number

   6. Teléfono: Insert your mobile number (or your host's if you don't have a Spanish number yet)

   7. Email: Insert your email address

2. Prepare the following documents - all in Spanish. Not all of them may be strictly needed but I've learned that Spanish agents appreciate it when you are ready with supporting documents:

   1. Filled out form. Check the image below with guides on how to fill it out

   2. Passport, original, and photocopy. I only needed the main page but I brought a copy of the entire passport

   3. NIE - I didn't have it yet and it was fine, but bring yours if already available.

   4. Empadronamiento of your host - original and photocopy

   5. NIE of your host - original and photocopy

   6. Photocopy of proof of home ownership/ lease contract of your host

   7. Letter from your host - I didn't officially need it but the Padron agent read it while she interviewed us.

   8. For my kids, I brought the following and both were needed:

      1. Apostilled birth certificates with Spanish translation (you would have gotten this when you applied for their visa)

      2. Notarized and apostilled consent from their father with Spanish translation (even if the Embassy doesn't require it for your Visa application, you will need this document every time you have transactions involving your child). If there is an official judgment that you have sole custody of your child, then you can present that instead, but have an official Spanish translation.

3. Show up for your appointment (best to be there 20 minutes before your time, but no earlier)

4. You will get your document on the same day. Our agent printed out 3 copies of our Empadronamiento. All of them had my name on top, and the rest of the household members listed below, including my sister, so it's a household document rather than an individual document.

This is how to fill out the application form linked in item 2.a:

Best of luck!!! 🍀

Note: I am not paid to advertise any of the linked sites, I am sharing them because they've been helpful to me.