Rishta in Spain

What a family needs to establish first

One year, and the income table

Spain calls it reagrupación familiar, and unlike most countries on this site it publishes the figure you have to hit. That makes it unusually checkable before anyone commits to anything.

First, time. The sponsor must have been lawfully resident in Spain for at least one year, and must hold — or have applied to renew — a residence authorisation valid for at least another year. One year is short by the standards of Denmark or Portugal, and it is the most generous condition on this page.

Second, the money. The requirement is expressed as a percentage of the IPREM, the Spanish public income indicator, which is set annually and currently runs at roughly 600 euros a month. Against that, the thresholds work out at about 150 per cent of IPREM — around 900 euros a month — for the sponsor plus one family member, rising by roughly 50 per cent of IPREM, some 300 euros, for each further adult: so about 1,200 euros for two, 1,500 for three and 1,800 for four. A sponsor bringing a spouse alone is therefore looking at the 900-euro figure. Children are assessed on a lower scale. IPREM is revised each year, so take the current number from the official source rather than from this page.

Third, and this is the one that delays families: the housing report. The accommodation must qualify as vivienda adecuada, and it has to be proved by a report from the regional or municipal authority — an actual document someone has to come and issue, which commonly takes several weeks. Start it early. It is the single most common reason a file that was otherwise ready sits waiting.

Then the Pakistani document chain, as everywhere: the nikah registered with the union council, the computerised marriage certificate from NADRA, legalisation by the Pakistani foreign ministry and the Spanish mission, and sworn translation into Spanish by a recognised translator. Names must match the passports exactly. Collect several legalised copies before leaving Pakistan.

Arraigo, and why what your cousin did may no longer apply

A great many Pakistani families in Spain hold their papers through arraigo — the group of routes by which someone already living in Spain can regularise their position on the basis of time spent in the country and ties to it. It is a defining feature of this community and it is spoken about constantly, usually with out-of-date information.

Spain overhauled the immigration regulations in 2025. The arraigo categories, the periods of residence they require and the conditions attached to them changed, and the position today is not the position of 2019 or 2022. Anyone relying on what an uncle or a neighbour went through is working from a rule that may no longer exist.

Why this belongs in a rishta conversation rather than a legal one: the document a man holds, and how he came to hold it, determines whether he can sponsor a wife and when. So ask plainly, and ask to see it on a video call. What card does he hold. When was it issued and when does it expire. How many times has it been renewed. Is it a work-and-residence authorisation or something narrower. And has he completed the one year of lawful residence that reagrupación requires, counted properly — because time spent in Spain without papers does not count towards it, even though it may have counted towards the arraigo application itself. That distinction catches people, and it is better understood before a wedding date than after.

One kindness worth extending here. A family that regularised through arraigo has usually been through something hard, and it is not a mark against them — it is how most of Pakistani Spain was built. The question is about timing and eligibility, not about standing.

The marriage file, and the interview

Spain examines marriages, and a Pakistani family should expect that rather than be alarmed by it.

Where a marriage is celebrated in Spain, the civil registry first opens a marriage file — the expediente matrimonial — before the ceremony can take place. It checks capacity and documents, and where one or both parties are foreign nationals it commonly includes separate interviews with each of them. The purpose is to identify marriages entered into for immigration advantage rather than for marriage, which Spanish law treats as void. The same scrutiny can be applied when a marriage performed abroad is presented for registration or relied on for a visa.

There is nothing to fear in this for a genuine match, but there is something to prepare. Both sides should be able to speak consistently and in ordinary detail about how the proposal came about, who introduced them, when and where they met, the names of each other’s close family, and what was agreed. A couple who have met in person, spoken regularly and kept some record of contact answer this easily. A couple who have never met, cannot describe each other’s households and were introduced entirely through an intermediary will struggle, honest or not.

Which leads to the practical instruction this site gives on every page and that matters particularly here: meet in person before anything is fixed, insist on a video call early, and keep the ordinary evidence of a real relationship as it develops. That is not paperwork for the state. It is what a careful family would do anyway.

Castilian for the street, and the language of the region

Spain is not linguistically uniform, and for a bride arriving it matters more than families expect.

Castilian Spanish is what she will need for daily life everywhere — the shops, the clinic, the paperwork, most work. English will not carry her; Spain is like France in that respect rather than like the Netherlands. The practical point is the same one: her Spanish will shape her life here more than her qualifications will, and the couples who manage this best start lessons before she travels.

But in Catalonia — which is where the larger half of Pakistani Spain lives — there is a second language with an official status, and it is not decorative. Catalan is the normal medium of school education in Catalonia, so children growing up in Barcelona, Badalona or Santa Coloma will be taught in it, and it appears in public administration and in a good deal of local employment. A mother who speaks only Urdu and some Castilian will find her children’s schooling conducted in a language she does not have. That is manageable and thousands of families manage it, but it should be known in advance rather than discovered at the first parents’ evening. In Madrid the question does not arise: Castilian is all that is required.

So add it to the list of things to establish: which city, and therefore which languages the household and the children will actually be living in.

Two cities, and the countries next door

Pakistani Spain is really two places. Barcelona and its industrial belt hold the largest community by a clear margin, and Madrid the second, with much smaller numbers in Valencia, Zaragoza, Murcia and the agricultural areas. The two cities are about two and a half hours apart by high-speed train, which makes them a single search in practice even though they feel like different countries to live in.

Beyond them the widening is across borders. Lisbon is a short flight and holds a fast-growing Pakistani community of its own; Paris is around two hours by air, Milan about the same with one of the largest Pakistani populations in southern Europe, and London roughly two and a half, where many families here have relatives.

One note on filtering, because Spain behaves like Norway rather than like France. Pakistani Spain came overwhelmingly from Gujrat and Gujranwala through kinship chains, so the pool is narrower in origin than the population figures suggest. Keep the biradari filter wide to begin with, filter on sect and profession first, and widen the city before you narrow the zaat — otherwise the list empties almost immediately.

And Pakistan. There is no direct service, so the journey runs through the Gulf or Istanbul and takes most of a day. Spain runs four hours behind Pakistan in winter and three in summer, because Spain changes its clocks and Pakistan does not, so an evening call in Barcelona lands late in Punjab for half the year. Set your own country to Spain and the partner preference to Pakistan, settle the residence and income questions above first, and arrange a video call early and one proper visit before anything is fixed.