Welcome to Barcelona Expat
About Us
Your Guide to Settling in Spain
We started the administrative management company more than twenty-five years ago and specialized in expat administrative procedures when realized the overwhelming challenges of adapting to the Spanish bureaucracy first-hand. Recognizing a gap in the market for reliable, friendly assistance, we created a service that eliminates the hassles and anxiety often associated with moving and settling in Barcelona. From humble beginnings to trusted advisors for newcomers navigating their new life in Spain.
Over the years, we have proudly served a diverse range of clients, from young digital nomads seeking a fresh start to families looking to establish roots in Barcelona. Our clients come from various backgrounds and nationalities, each with unique needs and challenges. By understanding their individual circumstances, we ensure tailored assistance, making their transition to life in Spain both smooth and enjoyable.
Streamlined Support Solutions
Expert Guidance
Stress-Free Experience
Fast-Track Services
Who we are
Barcelona Expat is the trade name of Gestoría Beltrán Cifre, S.L., an administrative management practice that has been handling paperwork in Spain for more than twenty-five years. We began as a general administrative office and specialised in the procedures foreigners need after seeing, case after case, how much time people lose to a system that assumes you already know how it works.
That is the whole idea behind this office: you should not need to understand Spanish administrative practice to live here. Someone who does it every day handles it for you, tells you what is going to be asked of you and warns you when something in your case does not fit the route you had in mind.
Where to find us
We work from a physical office in the Eixample, and clients can come in person or handle everything remotely.
- Address: Carrer del Comte d’Urgell, 16, entresuelo 2, L’Eixample, 08011 Barcelona, Spain
- Opening hours: Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 18:00
- Phone and WhatsApp: +34 673 374 567
- Email: contact@barcelonaexpat.com
- Area served: Barcelona and the rest of Catalonia, and procedures that apply anywhere in Spain
- Company: Gestoría Beltrán Cifre, S.L., NIF B24897050, registered in the Registro Mercantil de Castellón, sheet CS-50329, with registered office at Avenida Mare de Déu dels Àngels, 26, 12170 Sant Mateu (Castellón), Spain. Client work is carried out from the Barcelona office above.
Being in Barcelona matters more than it sounds for some of these procedures. Empadronamiento is handled by each town hall, appointment availability varies between offices, and several immigration and traffic procedures are processed provincially. An office that works with the Barcelona offices every week knows what each one is currently asking for.
What we handle
Two families of procedures, all of them with a published price on our packs and services page.
Residency, paperwork and tax: NIE, empadronamiento, residency applications, Spanish nationality, social security number, opening a bank account, health insurance, housing, university and master enrolment and income tax for foreigners.
Traffic and vehicles: vehicle registration, scooter and personal mobility vehicle registration, driving licence exchange, vehicle transfer and car import. The traffic services page groups them together.
How a case starts
The first thing we do is not paperwork. It is establishing which procedure your situation actually calls for, because the request people arrive with is frequently not the one that applies to them. Someone asks for residency when what they need first is a NIE. Someone asks to register a car when the file is really an import. Someone asks for a tax return when the question underneath is whether they are tax resident at all.
So the first exchange is about facts: your nationality, how long you have been in Spain or when you arrive, what documents you already hold and what the deadline is, if there is one. From that we tell you the route, what it costs and what we need from you. If your case needs something we do not handle, we say so at that point rather than after you have paid.
What we do and what we do not do
We handle administrative procedures: preparing files, checking documents before they are submitted, booking and attending appointments, and following the case with the administration until it is resolved. That is what the fees on the prices page cover.
What we publish on this website is general information and practical guidance, and it does not amount to binding legal, tax or immigration advice for every possible situation. Cases involving litigation, appeals against a refusal, or unusual family or criminal circumstances need a specialist, and when that is what your case needs we will tell you instead of processing something that is not going to work.
Who our clients are
Over the years we have worked with people arriving in very different circumstances, and the paperwork changes with each one:
- Remote workers and digital nomads, whose residence, self-employment and tax questions all arrive at once
- Employees moving with a Spanish contract, usually needing NIE, empadronamiento and social security number in the right order
- Families settling in Barcelona, where school enrolment and empadronamiento depend on each other
- International students starting a degree or a master, who need enrolment and residence to line up with the academic calendar
- Non-resident owners of Spanish property, whose obligations are mostly tax ones
- Foreign entrepreneurs setting up an activity in Spain, who need tax and labour orientation from the start
If you recognise your situation in any of those, tell us where you are and what you need. You can reach us on WhatsApp at +34 673 374 567, by email at contact@barcelonaexpat.com, or through the contact page.