Long-Term Residence in Valencia

The basics

Long-term residence allows you to live and work in Spain indefinitely, on the same terms as Spanish citizens (article 32.1 of Organic Law 4/2000). Royal Decree 1155/2024 sets out two versions. National long-term residence (articles 182 to 185) depends only on your time here. Long-term residence-EU (articles 175 to 178) also gives you the status created by Directive 2003/109/EC for long-term residents across the European Union, and asks for two more things: stable and regular resources for you and your family, measured with the same yardstick used for family reunification in article 67, and health insurance (article 176).

The core requirement for both is five years of legal and continuous residence right before you apply (articles 176.a and 183.1). Short trips do not break the count: absences of up to six months at a time are fine as long as they add up to no more than ten months in the five years, or eighteen months when the trips were for work. For the national version, absences caused by properly justified force majeure are assessed case by case (article 183.2). Under the EU version, years spent in Spain as a student count at half their length, provided you hold a residence permit when you apply. Some people reach national long-term residence without five years, for example holders of a Spanish contributory retirement pension or people born in Spain who have lived here legally for the three years before applying on reaching adulthood (article 183.3).

Residents of the province apply to the Oficina de Extranjería de Valencia, whose office at Calle Joaquín Ballester 39 handles long-term residence, or online through Mercurio. After approval you ask the police for a new TIE card; Valencia city residents give fingerprints at the Comisaría de Patraix, Calle Els Gremis 6. If your current card is close to expiry and you are not yet at five years, a residence renewal is still the step to take.

Who it is for

• Non-EU residents with five years of legal residence in Spain.
• Retirees on a non-lucrative permit reaching their fifth year in Valencia.
• Workers who want a card that no longer depends on a contract.
• People who may move to another EU country and want the EU status.
• Holders of a Spanish contributory retirement or permanent incapacity pension.

Paperwork checklist

• A complete copy of your valid passport.
• The official application form, signed.
• The paid 790 fee form.
• For the EU version: proof of stable and regular resources for you and your family.
• For the EU version: proof of health insurance.
• Where required, a criminal record certificate from the countries where you lived in the last five years.
• For the national version based on residence: a school report for children in your care of compulsory school age.

The office checks your years of residence itself and requests your Spanish criminal record and a police report (articles 177.4 and 184.4). We list your absences first so that nothing in the file surprises the reviewer.

Step by step with us

1. Counting your years. We set out every permit and every trip abroad and check the five years and the absence limits before anything is filed.
2. National or EU. We explain what each version gives you and whether your income and insurance meet the extra test for the EU one.
3. The file. We prepare the form, the fee and the evidence and file with the Valencia office, online whenever possible.
4. The new card. We follow the case to the decision and book your TIE fingerprints at the police station for your address.

Waiting times in Valencia

The office must decide and notify within three months of the date your application enters its register. If it does not, the application is treated as granted: silence is positive for long-term residence (Royal Decree 1155/2024, articles 177.6 and 184.6, and additional provision 1.2 of Organic Law 4/2000). After the grant, or after the three months pass, you have one month to apply in person for the TIE (articles 177.7 and 184.7).

If you are moving from a temporary permit, the application goes in during the two months before that permit expires, or up to three months after, though lateness may lead to a penalty procedure; filing on time keeps your current permit valid until the decision. If you already meet the requirements and your permit is still valid, you need not wait for that window (articles 177.2 and 184.2). The card is renewed after five years, then every five years until you turn 30 and every ten years after that (articles 178.1 and 185.1). The status itself can be lost after twelve consecutive months outside the EU, and the EU version also after six years away from Spain (article 201); there is a procedure to recover it (articles 186 to 189), also decided within three months with positive silence. Long-term residence and Spanish nationality are separate applications with separate rules.

Living outside Valencia city? We handle this for the whole region: see our local pages for Gandia, Alicante and Castellón, or the Valencian Community overview.

Fee for our help

Ask for a quote. A simple file with five clean years of one permit type is less work than a history of several permits, student years and long trips, so we review your years, absences and income first and confirm a fixed fee in writing before we start, including the TIE appointment if you want it. State fees are paid separately to the administration.

Official fees in 2026: 21.87 € for the long-term residence authorisation, national or EU (form 790, code 052), and 21.87 € for the long-term TIE card (form 790, code 012).

A typical case

As an illustration: a retired couple from South Africa have lived in Gandia on a non-lucrative permit for five years, and their cards expire in the spring. Their trips home add up to about seven months, never more than three at a time, so the count holds. They want the option of spending time in Portugal later, so we look at the EU version: we gather their pension statements and private health policies, file before their cards expire so they stay covered while the office decides, and book the new TIE fingerprints once it is granted.

Frequently asked questions

Source: Royal Decree 1155/2024, articles 175 to 189 and 201 (BOE), Organic Law 4/2000, article 32 and additional provision 1 (BOE). Last checked against the BOE on 14 November 2026. Laws and fees change, so we confirm the current ones for your case before you pay.