Spain's NIE Catch-22: Can't Rent Without It, Can't Get It Without Renting

Finding an apartment in Spain even when it's impossible.

My wife and I had never visited Spain before moving here from the US in September 2025, so people were rightfully concerned.

Fortunately, we love Spain. It’s exceeded all expectations.

Well, except for one thing… a catch-22. We needed a foreigner identification number called a Número de Identidad de Extranjero (NIE) to rent an apartment, but we also needed an apartment to get a NIE. In other words, WTF? But before we continue on this Homeric epic, thump that subscribe button!

Other visa paths have the same problem.

For the usual visa paths, this isn’t supposed to be a problem. The NIE can be — theoretically — obtained abroad from the Spanish consulate.

In real life, it’s not so simple. Maybe except for the case of an employer-sponsored move, committing to a multi-month housing arrangement without visiting is not a good idea. At the same time, visiting an apartment months in advance of signing a rental contract is impractical if not impossible. Naturally, Airbnb and Vrbo come to mind, but they won’t necessarily cut it, because there’s no guarantee they’ll be accepted as proof of accommodation.

Even then, the host would probably have to be willing to assist with the empadronamiento.

Papers, please: The empadronamiento (often informally called the padrón) is mandatory municipal registration for all residents of Spain, foreign or native. It’s possible to register with a passport and housing contract at city hall. However, think of the passport as temporary. After obtaining a NIE, you’ll have to go back to city hall and update your empadronamiento… and also, the NIE requires empadronamiento documentation! 🙃

Here’s what Airbnb and Vrbo are good for: to be used as a launchpad for finding a longer-term accommodation. I recommend that, and I’m not the only one. Lainey and Shawn from Days We Spend recommend this strategy as well. Their content is informative and entertaining, to the extent they arguably influenced our move to Galicia. Before we ever left the states, my wife and I booked a month-long stay in our target city, Santiago de Compostela. That’s where we landed after flying for several hours and then riding the train from Madrid.

Our temporary stay was more expensive than a typical rental contract, but worth it in the end.

Renting & you: A six-month accommodation or longer is strongly advised for acquiring the certificado de empadronamiento (municipal registration certificate), then the NIE, and finally, residency. (EU citizens can apply for the NIE and residency as a package deal, as can eligible family members afterward.)

So, faced with the uncertainty of an apartment they’ve never physically seen and a landlord they’ve never met, many immigrants apply for residency after arrival like us. Whether or not you can depends on visa type, and whether you’re coming from a visa-exempt country, such as the US.

If you’re moving to Spain, you need to check all of that yourself! The rules and procedures change over time, and also depend on your situation. You must qualify for whatever visa path you take, obviously.

Immigrants just want to have fun: “Visa-exempt” means travelers don’t need to apply for a visa before arrival and can enter Spain for tourism for up to 90 days within any 180-day period under the Schengen Agreement. At least, at the time of this writing.

“But I’m from the EU.”

Many people, even those immigrating to Spain through EU freedom of movement rights, encounter impediments in “freely moving” to Spain. If you thought the so-called “easy” EU migration path would be simpler — it absolutely is. Yet, it’s still difficult to navigate, which says a lot about other visa paths. This EU path is actually how my wife and I moved to Spain.

“But you moved from the US…?”

Yeah, but my wife is a (non-Spanish) EU citizen.

EU citizens enjoy freedom of movement rights, as do their spouses and children. Without an EU residence card, I typically entered the EU/EEA passport control line together with my wife, though policies on whether non-EU family members can use this line vary by country and even depend on the discretion of individual border officers.

If your spouse is an EU citizen but you lack a residence card: bring a copy of your marriage certificate when entering the EU/EEA line with your spouse, and be prepared to present it. Ideally an apostilled marriage certificate. Apostilling is a form of international certification recognized by countries party to the Hague Apostille Convention, which includes all EU member states. US-based travelers can have birth or marriage certificates apostilled by the state where it happened.

Alternatively, a family member who already has an EU residence card can use the EU/EEA line on their own.

But no matter how you get here, you still need a place to live. We needed a place to live, and we weren’t so sure we’d find one.

Why getting an apartment is hard.

We reached out to several real estate agents and landlords, and we were ignored, rejected, and ghosted when they found out neither of us had a NIE, despite the fact that a passport is a perfectly valid identification document for a rental agreement. This was a huge problem, considering we only had a month to find an apartment!

In retrospect, we were in this dilemma for four primary reasons:

1. Non-payment insurance uncertainty

2. Legal confusion

3. Bias about foreigners

4. Poor communication skills (on our part)

Before I proceed to the solution my wife and I found, understanding these four reasons is essential to finding those who can help and how to explain your specific situation, should you move to Spain too.

1. Non-payment insurance uncertainty.

Rational landlords are financially risk-averse. If a tenant damages a rental, the deposit paid at the start of the contract mitigates that risk. Similarly, there’s the risk of a tenant failing to pay rent, which is so common in Spain that landlords take out insurance to protect themselves from non-payment. This way, if a tenant doesn’t pay, the landlord can file a claim with the insurance. Typically, the insurance requires a valid work contract for at least one of the tenants.

This presents yet another catch-22: you’re not entitled to work in Spain without an appropriate visa or residency. Certainly not while in Spain on a tourist stay. And for my wife and I, we had considerable savings but no current or future work contract. We intended to pursue self-employment after attaining residency.

Even though we could live for a fair amount of time without any income, landlords rejected us left and right because they doubted our ability to meet the non-payment insurance requirement.

Not black and white: whether a foreigner’s work and income originate from within Spain or from abroad is a gray area. Generally, the legal test boils down to whether one takes economic opportunities away from the domestic population or not. If this sort of situation applies to you, consult actual lawyers (not me or ChatGPT). I’m not a lawyer and nothing I say constitutes legal advice!

Even with a work contract, there are unfortunately other reasons that could prevent one from renting.

2. Legal confusion.

My wife and I discovered, to our bewilderment, that we were more familiar with Spanish contract practices than some of the landlords we tried to rent from. Some were steadfast that a passport (and corresponding document number) could not be legally used. But here’s the thing: a passport is an acceptable form of identification for that purpose and many others.

Nonetheless, those landlords rejected our bid to rent because we failed to convey that we could.

3. Bias about foreigners.

Spain is brimming with upstanding, warm, patient, and graceful people. That’s one of countless reasons why we love living here. All in all, they’ve been relentlessly kind and accommodating to us. Still, when the lacking work contract or NIE didn’t seem to be the issue, we surmised the landlord preferred native Spaniards as tenants.

To be honest, I get it. They didn’t know us. Even if they understood our intentions, they were probably skeptical of our ability to follow through.

I imagine many landlords wonder about an immigrant’s commitment. These are natural questions: “What if these tenants change their minds and break the contract? What if they chose the wrong country, or city? What if they get homesick?” But this is really more of a communication issue, isn’t it?

4. Poor communication skills (on our part).

Communication was our biggest problem. It goes without saying that being as clear and direct as possible is helpful, mainly by basic proficiency in Spanish or even the region’s dominant language (e.g. Euskara in the Basque Country). This is important in communities not renowned for their English fluency. My wife and I will readily admit we didn’t prepare sufficiently language-wise.

Excuses, excuses: We originally planned on moving to northern Portugal, but changed our minds a couple of months before the move. In addition to switching from Portuguese to Spanish, we were swamped with work, donating and selling 99.999999% of our stuff (including our car), finishing aesthetic improvements to our condo before selling it, and getting some time in with the fam before executing the plan.

Now, Portuguese and Galego (the language of Galicia) are similar, hence the geographic proximity. It’s no wonder we gravitated toward Galicia, given our mutual appreciation of the green and wet. (It’s no coincidence my wife’s a rabid Shrek fan.)

What did help massively was to use translation apps on our phones, and to come prepared with pre-translated context we could offer to those assisting us. Many spoke English pretty well, as it turned out.

Our solution.

The solution my wife and I found is specific to our situation, which is why I stress it as “our” solution. I can’t guarantee it’ll work for anyone else. That said, I hope there’s something others can learn from our approach.

After running around our target city for a couple of weeks like chickens with their heads cut off, we finally tried a real estate agency known for two qualities: accommodating international clientele, and higher-end rentals and sales. The latter quality is what dissuaded me from considering this agency in the first place, because…

I’m not a “high-end” kind of guy. I listen to a band called the Viagra Boys.

Anyway, my wife insisted we walk into the fancy-pants agency and try explaining our situation to them. I hesitantly acquiesced.

The manager of the agency welcomed us with a smile, intently listening to us share our difficulties for ten minutes. She then assured us it was possible to deal with our lacking work contract and NIEs. Our provable financial solvency (via savings and past work history) was more than enough for the right landlord. I was doubtful, because… who in their right mind would choose us over someone with a work contract, anyway?

Within the hour, the agency manager had scheduled a viewing for an apartment that very day, which was, price-wise, at the lower end of the “high-end.” When we saw it in person, we knew it was perfect. The following day, the agency had arranged a face-to-face meeting between us and the landlord.

We attempted to explain our situation to her in cave-Spanish.

She made up for our shenanigans in adequate English. Moreover, she wanted to work with us, but seemed hesitant. Determined and persistent, we cleared up any miscommunication the next day via WhatsApp. Then a few days later, we signed the contract!

Takeaways.

So, what landlord in their right mind would rent to people without a NIE or work contract?

The answer is surprisingly simple: a motivated landlord.

As a rental becomes more expensive, the pool of available renters diminishes. The implication here is that motivated tenants can spend a little more money to find motivated landlords. Of course, we increased our forecasted budget not due to this self-evident logical deduction, but out of sheer panic — by a couple of hundred euros per month.

So am I saying the answer is money? Well, I’d advise against moving anywhere without considerable savings, if it can be helped.

Cookies courtesy of our landlord.

We were very lucky with this landlord in particular, because in addition to taking a chance on us, she helped set up our utilities and register our address. That’s not the only reason we like her; she gave us cookies! A box of delicious cookies from the heart of Santiago de Compostela.

One critical aspect of our success I can’t leave out: setting up a non-resident bank account (which can be changed later) with a well-established local institution shortly after arriving in Spain. Due to transfer limits, we shifted funds to it early and often. Most landlords here only trust a genuinely Spanish bank. Also, some people, like those from the US, should be mindful of foreign holdings reporting requirements.

Hope that helps. Do NOT subscribe to this newsletter if you don’t want my uncensored, raw observations about moving to Spain. The lack of vulgarity in this particular post is the exception — not the rule — just one strategy I use to lure prospective immigrants into the den of impudence that is Bebop Libre.

Thanks for reading the first-ever Bebop Libre post! In honor of the man who most inspired me to move abroad, I released this inaugural post on a special day. Happy Birthday, Pop Pop!