Coming to Pamplona to study or research: the route for each passport

EU, EEA or Swiss: a matter of registering

No visa and no permit. When the course or the post runs beyond three months, the EX-18 records you as a resident: in the student category, backed by enrolment, health insurance and a signed declaration of means, or as a worker when a researcher holds a contract. The green certificate is issued by Personal comunitarios y regresos at Avenida de Guipúzcoa 40.

From outside the EU: the consulate comes first

Most students apply for a study visa at the Spanish consulate for their area before they travel, with the letter of admission, proof that they can support themselves, health insurance and whatever else that consulate lists. Researchers come on a visa or authorisation tied to their post, whether a contract, a grant or a hosting agreement; the host’s international or human resources office usually knows which route it uses, and often sets it in motion.

In Pamplona, the Oficina Única de Extranjería lists study stays among its procedures, with stays for training activities, student mobility within the EU and volunteering: these come into play when an application, a change or an extension is made from inside Spain.

After landing: the card and the address

If your visa covers more than six months, the TIE fingerprints at Recogida de tarjetas come next, booked once you have an address, and that address goes on the padrón of your town; in Pamplona/Iruña that is done by appointment at the Ayuntamiento’s Oficina de Atención Ciudadana on Calle Mayor. A shorter stay needs no card: the visa covers it.

A second year, a master’s, a new contract

Ask for the extension (prórroga) before the current stay runs out. In Pamplona, policia.es lists students and extensions at the police unit; the Delegación places extensions of stay with its Unidad de Documentación de Extranjeros section (pamplona.udeye@policia.es); and the Oficina Única lists study stays, with online filing through MERCURIO. Your cita previa for Navarra, or the online form, settles which desk your file reaches.

Going from studies to a job is a change of situation (modificación), which the Oficina Única also lists. Look into it before the course ends rather than after.

Earning alongside the course

A study stay allows paid work within limits the rules set, provided it fits around your studies. Check what your own authorisation allows before signing anything with an employer, and keep the course first: the stay depends on it.

Help on campus

Both universities have an office for people arriving from abroad. At the Universidad Pública de Navarra (UPNA), the Oficina de Acogida Internacional, or Welcome Office, supports international teaching and research staff, doctoral candidates, postdocs and visitors, as well as degree and master’s students, with procedures, health care, housing and Spanish courses; it is on the ground floor of the library building, Campus de Arrosadia (welcome.office@unavarra.es, 948 16 96 40). At the Universidad de Navarra, a private university, the Servicio de Relaciones Internacionales guides international students on immigration matters, with a dedicated address for them, visa@unav.es.

Neither office replaces the police or the Oficina Única, but each knows the papers that follow from its own admission letters and contracts.