Question
As I posted many days ago, we had our NL visas approved. I have just finished a major endeavor of getting to Spain- we drove from Guadalajara MX to Chattanooga TN to put some of our things in storage and to sell our car. Then we flew back to CDMX, which we will depart from next week to Madrid. My husband has already tried to email about some rentals in Zaragoza and they are telling him that he needs a padrón to do a rental. I thought we needed a rental to do a padrón?
Can anyone share with me a proper sequence of events once we arrive? I saw something posted already that said to first open a bank account, then find a rental, then do your city hall registration. Is this correct? Is there anything we can do now to move the process along? I think I’ve seen something about making an appointment somewhere for something online with our NIEs?
Answers
These are the answers of some Facebook group members:
“Phone, find a place to live, padron, TIE. Bank depends. You can get a non-resident account with some before you have your TIE, otherwise you have to wait until you have a TIE in-hand.”
“You can sign a rental contract with your passport. After that you can register for padron . You will need padron to obtain your TIE card. Apart from this, you can open a non resident account initially using your passport”
“Ok, realtor here, most realtors in Spain don’t respond to emails nor phone calls, but phone calls will get you much further ahead, also, since you’re just renting, i’d recommend you book a place for a few days, fotocasa and idealista are going to be what you’ll use to find a place, you can also create alertas, most agencies (and this really bugs the hell out of me) charge renters instead of the landlord….what do they do…basically nothing…but that’s how it is….welcome to spain. Most flats are furnished with basic stuff, since i’m guessing you’re coming from the states, do not worry about expanding your search area or being in the center center, what looks like a long distance may be a 15 minute walk which is really easy. Anything else you want to know?”
“Your padron, which to register in the city, you need a rental agreement or a document sign by a person that has a property saying you will live in their house. So, padron goes first. I rented an Airbnb for 30 days from the US to give me time to do things and had plenty of time. I emailed a lot of people in idealista and the majority did not answer and I wrote in Spanish. After many emails I was able to set up 4 appts for the week after we arrived. One of them was directly with the owner and happened to be the one that we rented. At the same time, Caixa bank allowed us to open an account with a passport and NIE number. We got a SIM card by the month for the cell that was the only deal we could not do without the TIE. After we signed our contract we went to get a padron and then to the TIE. We got the appt to TIE ahead of time from the US on line you only have 30 days after you enter Spain to do it all. Will try to give you link.”
“AirBnB until you arrive. Be sure you ask where the grocery store is when you look at rentals. You’ll probably be walking until you get your docs sorted. Phone is your first stop. Lowi has a no contract option. Then when you find a rental ask about fiber and isps. Get a bundle. You’ll probably need a NiE to set this up but if you do it online you can just type it in without having the physical card.”
