I am a UK citizen recently arrived in Madrid.

I have successfully obtained my NIE. Today I received a call from an an employer wanting to hire me for 5 days. They asked me what my social security number was and when I told them I didn’t have one yet, they told me I needed to get an empadronado and then my social security number or I could not work for them.

The way to get empadronado here is that according to several people and the ayuntamiento website, you must demonstrate that your name is on a lease contract. I now realize that this causes me a major problem because I now know that my roommate would never ever add my name to the contract and is doing something illicit with the way he is renting the place.

There are tons of people who go to Spain and I imagine many of them do not have lease contracts for various reasons yet they must be able to work legally and obtain a social security number. Can anyone help me with this?? I am really concerned. Any tips are appreciated.

Thanks…

Hi, another option is to go to your local town hall with your roomate and the lease contract. So, no need to write down your name, roomate can just declare that you live together. This is what we did with my boy friend. He took his contract and we went to the town hall and I recieved empadron for 5 minutes. Noone even asked what type of relations we have. I think it should work.

Do you have bank account statements or utilities bills that might show your current address? That should qualify as proof of residence. I had a NIE but it was under a diff address (moved from another province). I only needed to furnish on these documents and it was accepted. Of course each town hall have their own rules so wouldn’t hurt trying this one.

A friend with his name in the lease contract   will do. You go together and he declares that you live together. Its all done within few minutes (in Barcelona).  I even did that for a friend of mine who overstayed already, that way he could get free medical care (in Catalonia).