“Sixty days before”, “ninety after”, “miss the date and you lose everything”: versions of the residence renewal rules keep circulating that do not match the regulations in force. If you hold a Spanish residence card, or know someone who does, these are the dates that matter. Here are the questions that come up most often, and what the rules say today.
When can I file the renewal, and until when?
The foreigner identity card (TIE) is not the permit: it documents a residence permit and has the same period of validity. What is renewed, and what sets the dates, is the permit itself.
The Immigration Regulations (Royal Decree 1155/2024), in force since 20 May 2025, set the same window for the most common renewals (non-lucrative residence, family reunification, employed or self-employed work and exceptional circumstances): from two months before to three months after expiry. Months are counted from date to date, as Article 30.4 of Law 39/2015 provides, and if the last day falls on a non-working day, the deadline moves to the next working day (Art. 30.5).
A hypothetical example: if your permit expires on 15 March, the window opens two months earlier, in mid-January, and the last day to file the renewal is 15 June.
The well-known “60 days before and 90 after” came from the previous regulations, Royal Decree 557/2011, now repealed.
For renewals of non-lucrative residence, employed or self-employed work and exceptional circumstances, the regulations also state expressly that an application filed on time extends the previous permit until a decision is made.
Permits under Law 14/2013 and student stays, which are not a form of residence, follow their own rules.
See also: Passenger Rights When an Accident Causes Life-Altering Injuries
Missed the deadline? What the law says about the three months afterwards
An expired permit does not mean you can no longer renew it. The window stays open for the three months after expiry; what changes is the consequence of the delay, which Organic Law 4/2000 sets out in Article 52.b.
Applying for renewal up to three months late is a minor offence, not the loss of the right to renew. Because those three months run from the date on which the permit expired, counted from date to date, the first thing usually checked in a consultation with a specialist in Spanish immigration law, what locals call an abogado extranjería Madrid, is that exact day.
It is best to take that date from the decision or from the card itself, not from memory or from what acquaintances who renewed under the previous regulations tell you.
If the three months have already passed, the renewal period is over. For anyone who held a residence permit that was never renewed, the regulations provide a possible route, not an automatic one: the second-chance settlement permit (arraigo de segunda oportunidad), with its own requirements and a one-year permit.
How long does the administration have to decide on the renewal, and what if it does not reply?
The rules set a maximum of three months from filing to decide on the renewal. If the administration does not reply within that time, the application is deemed granted: this is the positive administrative silence provided for in paragraph 2 of the first additional provision of Organic Law 4/2000.
That point has two limits. First, it is an exception, which the law also extends to long-term residence: as a general rule, for initial applications under the general immigration regime, no reply within the time limit amounts to a refusal: a deemed refusal (administrative silence).
Second, three months is the legal maximum, not an estimate of how long your office will take to reply; nor does it justify filing an incomplete application and relying on silence.
How many years is the renewal for?
It depends on the type of permit; there is no single duration:
- Employed work, self-employed work and family reunification: four years.
- Non-lucrative residence: two years.
- Extension of the settlement permit (arraigo) and other permits for exceptional circumstances: one year.
- Residence permit for family members of a Spanish citizen: up to five years.
Before preparing another renewal, do one more calculation. Anyone who has already completed five years of legal and continuous residence, with their permit in force and meeting the other requirements, can apply for long-term residence as soon as they qualify, without waiting for the renewal window to open. The regulations set a three-month time limit to decide on it, with positive silence.
Missing a requirement? The integration effort report
When preparing the renewal, some people discover that they do not meet all the requirements of their type of permit. The regulations do not close the door in that case: for renewals of non-lucrative residence and of employed and self-employed work permits, the integration effort report (informe de esfuerzo de integración) remains a factor to be assessed (Arts. 64.6, 80.6 and 86.6 of Royal Decree 1155/2024).
Being assessed means the office takes it into account along with the rest of the file, not that it automatically replaces the missing requirement. That is why it makes sense to review the requirements as soon as the window opens, not in the last few days: that leaves time to gather documents without entering the late-filing period.
And the physical card? The new TIE within a month
Each renewed permit leads to a new TIE (Art. 209 of Royal Decree 1155/2024). You apply for it in person within the month following the grant, with form EX-17 and by paying fee 790-012. The amount is updated, so it is worth checking it on the Police’s official online portal before paying.
The new card will be valid for as long as the renewed permit, and the cycle starts again.
Three dates organise the whole process: the expiry date, which opens and closes the window; the filing date, from which the time limit to decide runs; and the grant date, which starts the month to apply for the card. Noting them down from the start avoids many of the doubts that keep coming up among people renewing.
