The Guiri Guide to Renewing Your Kid's Spanish Passport in Spain

Sharing my experience renewing my kid's Spanish passport in Spain while it's all still fresh in my mind. Info current as of May 2023 (and disclaimer, it's just based on my experience, read the official websites for the most accurate info.)

Spanish passports are good for only two years for kids under 5 (thereafter they are good for 5 years until age 30, and then 10 years after that).

The consulate process for renewing your Spanish kid's passport: You can renew your passport at the Spanish consulate at which you are empadronado (officially registered) overseas. We have done that and it was fine--you have to present a recent (printed within the last 6 months) birth certificate, both parents have to show up in person with ID and sign a form saying it's okay for the kid to have a passport (you can also get that form notarized so only one parent has to be there), and give them a Spanish passport-sized photo (we used one of those DIY online passport photo cropping services for this). The kid doesn't have to be there until they are like...12 years old?

 The Spanish consulate mailed off the packet and then we picked up the passport a few weeks later (probably now they mail it to your home address.) You pay 34 US dollars (or whatever the current exchange rate is for 30 euros). Takes a few weeks all in all.

However, if you renew in Spain, they print the passport for you RIGHT THERE IN THE MOMENT. Which is so great. Moreover, for kids, once they've renewed their passport in Spain once, future renewals require much less paperwork. So it definitely seemed worthwhile to renew the passport while visiting Spain.

To renew your Spanish kid's passport in Spain, you will need:

1. certificado literal de nacimiento printed within last 6 months

2. certificado de residencia/empadronamiento from your consulate

3. foto that is foto carnet-sized 

4. parent's IDs (DNI or passport)

5. you don't have to bring the parental permission form if both parents are there, they will provide the form for you to sign in the moment after checking your IDs

6. cita previa 

7. 30 euros

Notes:

At the appointment, they asked for our Libro de Familia, but it is not a requirement, the birth certificate was sufficient. 

They used the same photo from the kid's DNI which was already in the system. FWIW, we had just gotten the kid's DNI the day before. I guess if you renew the DNI and passport close together, the passport system can use the DNI photo. But still--bring a photo just in case!

Payment is accepted by card or cash.

And that's it! So, so easy!* And now that we've renewed in Spain and Don Loco has a DNI, I believe for the next renewal, we just bring a new photo and the old passport and the DNI (and ourselves as parents) and that's that! (Because the DNI establishes parentage so you don't need to get another "printed-within-the-last-six months" birth certificate...it's already in the system).

*Okay, it was not exactly super easy...we had to make three separate appointments because the online passport system was down in one office, then the next office, the passport printer was broken, but in the third place, everything was working. 

The picturesque streets of Sevilla