From pilgrim to resident in Pamplona

Anouk is Dutch and Tom is Australian. They meet on the first stages of the Camino Francés, walk into Pamplona together, and within a week both are asking the same question: could I simply stay? They are invented, but the question is a real one, and the answer depends entirely on the passport in the rucksack.

Anouk’s case is quickly told. Her Dutch passport lets her settle and take a job in Spain with no permit at all. For her first three months nothing is required; beyond that, she must register as a resident. She finds work in a café in the Casco Viejo, signs a contract, and books the EU citizens’ certificate for Navarra. At Personal comunitarios y regresos, Avenida de Guipúzcoa 40, she hands over the EX-18 with the contract, her passport and the paid 790-012, and leaves with the green certificate and a NIE.

She registers on the padrón too, at the Ayuntamiento’s Oficina de Atención Ciudadana on Calle Mayor, by appointment, with her passport and the authorisation of the friend whose flat she shares. The Ayuntamiento accepts a passport, so she could have done it before the certificate as easily as after.

Tom’s road is longer. A pilgrim from outside the EU walks in on a short stay, and a short stay cannot simply be stretched into residence. For most routes, the first application goes to the Spanish consulate of your home country, so Tom has to finish his walk, go home and choose a route: a job offer whose employer applies for his authorisation, a place on a course, or the means to live here without working.

He chooses study, a year of Spanish followed by a master’s, and applies for the visa in Australia. When he comes back, the stages that remain are the ones every non-EU resident walks: the padrón, the fingerprints for his TIE at the Recogida de tarjetas section, the resguardo, the card. When the course ends, an extension or a change of situation, listed by the Oficina Única de Extranjería, will be his next stage.

There are exceptions to the go-home-first rule, and the reform of the immigration regulations in force since 2025 changed some routes. If you are reading this in a hostel in Pamplona, check your own case before your permitted stay runs out, not after.

Both of them still have their pilgrim credentials, full of stamps from albergues and churches. The papers that make them residents follow the same logic: one stage at a time, each finished before the next one begins.