Marta is Polish and has accepted a post with a company near Valladolid. Her husband, Diego, is Argentine. They are invented, but their question is the natural one for any couple with one European passport and one other: who applies for what, and in which order?
Marta’s side is the simpler. As an EU citizen she may live and work in Spain freely. Once settled, she registers as a resident on form EX-18, with her work contract as proof, at the brigade on C/ Gerona s/n, which policia.es lists for EU citizens. She receives the green certificate, and with it the right on which Diego’s card will rest.
Diego does not need the work authorisation another non-EU worker would. As the husband of a European living in Spain, he applies for his own residence card on form EX-19. Once he holds it, he may live here and take a job as well.
The proof takes longest. Their marriage certificate, issued in Argentina, has to be apostilled there and then translated into Spanish by a sworn translator. They ordered both before leaving, so that nothing was missing once they were here.
Then the two addresses. In Valladolid, the family card of EU citizens is on the list of the Oficina de Extranjería at Calle Arzobispo José Delicado 7 (983 999 222, weekdays 9:00 to 14:00, by appointment): that is where Diego’s EX-19 goes. Once it is granted, he books fingerprints for the TIE at the brigade on C/ Gerona, which issues TIE cards, and returns later to collect the card.
Along the way, both go onto the padrón at the Casa Consistorial, Diego in their first week with his passport, Marta once she has her green certificate, which the Ayuntamiento asks Europeans to show. The padrón is the step that shows where the household lives, and nearly every other file asks to see it.
Two variations deserve a word of warning. If Marta were Spanish rather than Polish, Diego would not file the EX-19 at all: since the 2025 reform of the immigration regulations, a Spaniard’s non-EU relative requests an authorisation of their own. And if neither of them were European, the route would be family reunification, decided by the same Oficina de Extranjería under other rules, with a housing report from the Ayuntamiento.
For couples who want the whole move handled from abroad, from visas to the first weeks, a relocation firm can carry more of the load. For the steps once in Valladolid, the order above is the one that keeps each gate opening onto the next.