Moving to Spain with kids from the UK takes longer to organise than most families expect, and the order matters more than the paperwork itself. Since Brexit, British citizens can only stay in Spain for 90 days in any 180 without a visa, so everything starts with the right residence permit, then the town hall register, then school.
What follows is that sequence, step by step, from the first conversation at the kitchen table to the first birthday party invitation. Rules change and every region runs its own school system, so treat this as a map and check each step with the official source before you act on it.
Six months before: choose a visa and a city
The visa decides almost everything else, including when you can move and whether you can work. The most common routes for families are a work visa sponsored by a Spanish employer, the non-lucrative residence visa (for people living on savings, pensions or passive income, without working in Spain), and the visa for remote workers employed or self-employed outside Spain. The golden visa route closed in 2025. GOV.UK keeps an up-to-date guide called "Living in Spain", and the Spanish consulate in the UK is the authority on what each visa needs.
Two things catch British families out at this stage. Children need their own residence documents, not just a mention on a parent's file. And the non-lucrative visa usually requires private health insurance for the whole family, which is worth pricing early.
At the same time, narrow down the city. Spain is regional in a way the UK isn't, and the choice shapes school, language and daily life:
- Málaga and the Costa del Sol have the largest English-speaking community and a wide choice of international schools, but rents have climbed fast.
- Valencia offers beaches, a big park running through the city and a slower pace, with Valencian taught alongside Spanish in state schools.
- Madrid has the most jobs and bilingual state schools, with hot summers and cold winters.
- Barcelona and Palma teach mainly in Catalan in state schools, which children pick up quickly but parents should know about in advance.
- Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has mild weather all year and a relaxed family rhythm, and flights to the UK take a little over four hours.
Three months before: understand the school system
School is compulsory from 6 to 16, but almost every child in Spain starts at 3, in the free infant stage (educación infantil). If your child is 3 to 5, they will be joining classmates who have been together since they were toddlers, which is worth knowing for the friendship side later on.
There are three kinds of school. State schools (colegios públicos) are free, apart from books, the lunch service and after-school clubs. Semi-private schools (concertados) are publicly funded but privately run, usually with a monthly contribution. Private and international schools charge full fees and many follow the British curriculum, which makes sense if you may go back to the UK within a few years.
The school year runs from early September to late June, with two weeks at Christmas, a week at Easter and long summer holidays. Many state primary schools finish lessons at 2pm and offer lunch and clubs until 4pm or 5pm, but timetables vary by region and even by school.
The first week: the town hall register
Once you arrive and have an address, the first appointment is at the town hall to sign up on the municipal register (the padrón, or empadronamiento). You need the certificate to enrol your children in a state school, to register with a GP at the local health centre and for most other paperwork. Bring passports, your rental contract or deeds, and the children's birth certificates.
Then comes the residence card (TIE), which you apply for at a police station with a pre-booked appointment. Appointments can be scarce in big cities, so book the moment you can.
The first month: enrol at school
The main admissions round for state schools usually takes place in spring for a September start, and places are given by points: distance from home, siblings already at the school and family circumstances. If you arrive mid-year or miss the window, you apply outside the normal period through the local education office or the town's admissions committee, which assigns a school with free places. It may not be the one down the road.
Paperwork usually includes the padrón certificate, passports or TIE, the child's vaccination record and recent school reports from the UK. Ask whether reports need an official translation; some regions accept them in English, others don't. For international schools, apply directly and early, as popular ones have waiting lists.
The first six months: driving and healthcare
You can drive on your UK licence for the first six months of residence. Apply to exchange it at the DGT (the traffic authority) before those six months are up, because after that it is no longer valid for driving in Spain and the process takes time.
Healthcare depends on your situation. If you work and pay Spanish social security, the family is covered by the public health system once registered at the local health centre. If you're on the non-lucrative visa, private insurance does that job. Children get a paediatrician at the health centre, and check-ups follow the Spanish vaccination calendar, which differs slightly from the NHS schedule.
The first term: meeting local families
Guides to residence permits rarely cover this part, yet it shapes how the first year feels. Spanish family life happens outside, in public, and at hours that surprise British parents.
The best moment of the day is pick-up. Parents wait outside the school gate, chat while the children play in the playground or the square next to it, and many families head to the nearest park until 7pm or 8pm. Turn up, stay, and you will soon be recognised. Children's birthday parties are often for the whole class, in a park or a soft-play centre, and saying yes to every invitation in the first term is the quickest shortcut you'll find.
After-school clubs help too, and so does the parents' association (AMPA), which organises school fiestas and usually needs volunteers. Offering to help at a single event is enough to meet a dozen families in an afternoon.
Expect a different rhythm at home as well. Lunch is the main meal, served around 2pm. Dinner is at 9pm, sometimes later in summer, and children stay up later than in the UK, especially at weekends. Shops in smaller towns close for a few hours after lunch.
Moving to Spain with kids from the UK, the checklist in order
- Choose the visa route and check its requirements with the Spanish consulate.
- Price private health insurance if the visa requires it.
- Shortlist cities and schools, and check the language of teaching.
- Find an address and sign up on the padrón in the first week.
- Book the TIE appointment for each member of the family.
- Enrol the children, inside or outside the spring admissions round.
- Exchange your driving licence before six months are up.
- Say yes to the park after school and to every birthday party.
If you'd like a head start on that last step, Woltica's My City shows families with children near you. Seeing them is free; writing to a family that doesn't share your school costs one credit, refunded if they don't reply within 72 hours, and you get three credits when you complete your profile and the questionnaire. You can take a look at Woltica before you move, and arrange to meet in a park once you're there.