The padrón, the TIE, the bank account, the driving licence, the utilities and the school place. Not a list, a sequence, because almost every wasted morning in your first three months comes from doing these in the wrong order.

Written in November 2026, which matters: the police changed how fingerprint appointments are assigned on 8 October 2026, and Valencia and Alicante are both in the pilot. Any guide written before that is wrong on the most painful step in the process.

Every rule is tied to the statute, the decree or the official page it came from. Where the official record is silent, including on several things everyone repeats as fact, we say so instead of guessing. The last chapter is a list of exactly what we could not verify.