Empadronamiento Benidorm: putting your address on the padrón

Everyone who lives in a Spanish town is expected to be on its padrón, whatever their nationality. You register in the town where you actually live: a flat in Rincón de Loix goes on Benidorm’s padrón, a house in L’Alfàs del Pi or Finestrat on theirs.

The town hall’s page on cita previa says its online booking is not in service: you are seen without an appointment at the Ayuntamiento and at the Extensiones of Rincón de Loix, Foietes-Colonia Madrid, Els Tolls-Salt de l’Aigua and La Cala, from 9:00 to 14:00. The town hall’s service charter for the Extensiones gives slightly different hours, from 8:30 to 14:30 in winter and to 13:30 in summer, so a morning visit suits both.

According to that charter, the Extensiones handle new registrations, changes of address, corrections of personal details, the renewal or confirmation of foreign residents’ registrations, and registration certificates.

No official Benidorm page we found lists the documents for a first registration. Across Spain, town halls ask for an identity document and proof that you live at the address, so take these and ask at the counter if anything else is needed:

A volante de empadronamiento is a simple note of your registration; a certificado is the formal version that some offices insist on. With an electronic DNI or a digital certificate, you can download a volante from the town hall’s sede electrónica, and certificates through its Carpeta ciudadana. Otherwise ask at the counter of the town hall’s main hall or at any Extensión, again without an appointment, showing your passport, NIE or another identity document. Parents or guardians request them for children.

The town hall reminds foreign residents that, depending on their nationality, they must renew or confirm their registration from time to time, and that not everyone does so on time. The pages we found do not give the intervals, so ask at an Extensión when you register.

For newcomers, the Ayuntamiento also has a Concejalía de Residentes Extranjeros, its department for foreign residents, and PANGEA (OAPMI), a municipal service that welcomes and advises migrants, by appointment, at the Jelena social services centre, Calle Olivos 11.