Do Brits in Spain with Irish citizenship need to swap their green certificates for TIEs?

The British Embassy in Madrid on Tuesday wrote their third Facebook post in a month telling Brits who reside in Spain to exchange their green EU residency certificates for Tarjetas de Identidad de Extranjero (Foreign Identity Cards), better known as TIEs.

The green certificates (Certificados de Registro de Ciudadano de la Unión) were issued to UK nationals who resided in Spain before the UK left the EU, but since July 2020 Spain has been issuing UK nationals who officially reside in Spain the biometric photo-based TIE card, the residency document of third-country nationals.

Even though the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement recognised Brits’ green certificates as valid proof of residency and the exchange to TIEs has never been compulsory, British and Spanish authorities have increasingly encouraged UK nationals in Spain to make the swap over the past five years.

The latest warning from the British embassy for those who haven’t exchanged is that “You could be treated as a tourist at the border, subject to full EES checks and potentially accused of overstaying in the Schengen Zone”.

The EU’s much-delayed Entry-Exit System is due to come into force in October 2025.

So where do UK nationals residing in Spain who also have Irish citizenship stand with regard to the need to exchange green residency certificates for TIEs? This is a question that often gets asked on Facebook forums.

An estimated 6 million people in the United Kingdom (around 10 percent of the population) have at least one Irish grandparent and tens of thousands of Britons have gained Irish passports via ancestry since Brexit.

Data from the UK's Office for National Statistics shows that UK nationals applying for Irish passports have risen tenfold in a decade to 160,000 dual citizens.

There is no exact data on how many of these British-Irish dual nationals reside in Spain, but the likelihood is that those who can take up Irish citizenship have done so.

After all, with an Irish passport via ancestry (an Irish parent or grandparent), UK citizens in Spain avoid the post-Brexit red tape, not least being able to rush through airport security with their EU passports.

It may seem obvious but Brits who've acquired Irish citizenship are no longer third-country nationals in the eyes of Spanish authorities.

In other words, British-Irish nationals in Spain with a pre-Brexit green residency certificate do not need to get a TIE as that’s the residency document for non-EU citizens.

However, if the nationality that features on their old green certificates is British and not Irish they do technically need to update these paper residency documents, which by the way are still the official Spanish residency documents for EU nationals.

Spain’s Interior Ministry states: “Interested parties must report any changes in circumstances regarding their nationality, marital status, or address to the Immigration Office in the province where they reside or, failing that, to the corresponding Police Station.” This applies to both EU green certificates and TIEs.

Getting a new green certificate involves some paperwork of course, and as is often the case you may struggle to get a cita previa (appointment) online, but not necessarily.

READ MORE: How to get Spain's green residency certificate if you’re an EU national

Crucially, if you’ve gone to the trouble of getting an Irish passport to guarantee your EU rights, you’re going to want a residency document that corresponds to your EU nationality.

There will also be other official processes where having a residency document with one nationality and a passport with another could be a stumbling block, from opening a bank account to voting in EU elections or applying for a job.

While it is true that becoming a British/Irish dual national isn’t the same as changing nationality (renouncing one and taking up another), if you intend to mainly use your new Irish nationality while in Spain to enjoy more rights you should get a new green residency certificate which has your nationality as Irish.

Certificado de Registro documents (the EU green residency certificates) don't have expiry dates but what a lot of people don't know is that after five years of residency in Spain, EU nationals can get a permanent green certificate, which gives them more rights in Spain.