Registration with the residents’ register

When you come to live in Barcelona you must register on the city’s register of residents.

The municipal register of residents (Padró) is a list registering all the people habitually living in a city or town (municipality) and who form its population.

Registering on this list is called empadronament in Catalan.

Everyone must register and this formality is essential as it gives you access to certain rights and is a necessary requirement for many other formalities.

When you register for the first time, you receive a document called volant de residència, which is a document issued by the Council certifying registration.

There is another document, the volant de convivència, which provides evidence of where a person lives and with whom at the time of the request. This document is sometimes necessary for other formalities if you need to prove who you live with, for example, to pre-register or enrol your child at a school.

Here are the formalities related to the municipal register of residents of Barcelona. The procedure is similar in other nearby cities and towns.