Empadronamiento Cartagena: your address on the town’s register

Which town hall is yours

The municipality of Cartagena reaches well beyond the city: El Algar, Los Urrutias, Los Nietos, Los Belones, Cabo de Palos, Isla Plana and the Cartagena part of La Manga all belong to it. Los Alcázares, San Javier, San Pedro del Pinatar, Torre-Pacheco, La Unión and Mazarrón are municipalities of their own, each with its own padrón. On La Manga, shared between Cartagena and San Javier, the municipality named on your deed or rental contract tells you which register is yours, so check it when buying a home on La Manga. The police steps, the NIE and the cards, are not handled here but at Menéndez y Pelayo 6.

Where to register

In the city, the padrón is handled at the Registro General (the town hall’s main registry), in the Edificio de San Miguel, C/ San Miguel 8, on weekdays, 9:00–14:00 in winter and 9:00–13:30 in summer. Besides registrations, it issues individual or family volantes (simple notes of your padrón entry) on the spot and takes requests for family or historical certificates. The switchboard is 968 12 88 00. The Servicio Municipal de Estadística, the municipal statistics office, sits on the ground floor of the Edificio Ronda Ciudad de la Unión and is booked through the same line as the registry, 968 12 88 18.

Elsewhere, the padrón is handled by the OMITAS, short for Oficinas Municipales de Información y Trámites: the Ayuntamiento’s district offices. Each one registers people, records changes of address and issues residence and cohabitation certificates. They open on set days of the week, with no hours published; the Ayuntamiento’s OMITA page lists every office with its days.

• La Manga: Gran Vía km 1, Plaza de Europa, Edificio Stella Maris (968 564 951), Monday to Friday; the only municipal office on La Manga, and there is none in Cabo de Palos
• Los Belones: Local Social, C/ Marcos Sanz (968 137 750), Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday
• Los Nietos: C/ Lobarro 3 (968 133 662), Monday, Wednesday and Friday
• Los Urrutias: neighbours’ association premises, C/ Ramos Carratalá 52 (637 255 570), Tuesday and Thursday
• Isla Plana and La Azohía: Local Social, Plaza del Mar 4, Isla Plana (637 255 383), Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday
• El Algar: Local Social Municipal, C/ Piñero 1 (637 256 112), Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday
• In and around the city: Los Dolores, Barrio Peral, Santa Lucía, Pozo Estrecho, La Palma and many more

Booking the cita programada

Every visit needs an appointment, which the Ayuntamiento calls cita programada (scheduled appointment). For the Registro General and the statistics office, book on cartagena.es or on 968 12 88 18; for the OMITAS, use the separate OMITA booking page or call 968 12 88 48. Both pages hand over to an external booking tool, and each has its own page for cancelling.

There is an online route too. The request to register or change your entry can be filed on the Ayuntamiento’s electronic office and signed with a digital certificate. Filed with only an email address, it must then be signed in person, by appointment at an OMITA, the Registro General or the statistics office, within ten working days, and nothing moves until it is.

The papers to take

• The hoja padronal (registration sheet), completed and signed by hand by every adult listed on it
• The original identity document of each signatory, such as a TIE, or the EU citizen certificate showing the NIE together with a passport or national identity card
• Owners: one original showing the referencia catastral (the property’s cadastral reference), such as a nota simple from the land registry, the last IBI receipt or a water, electricity, gas or landline contract in a signatory’s name; bought this year, a copy of the deed or the nota simple
• Tenants: the rental contract in force and the last rent receipt and, if neither shows the referencia catastral, the owner’s signed statement giving it, on the Ayuntamiento’s model
• Joining a household already registered: the signature of the registered person on the hoja padronal, copies of their identity document and of their contract and receipt, and, in a rented home, the owner’s declaration on the Ayuntamiento’s model
• Children: the hoja padronal signed by both parents, the applying parent’s identity document and the family book or birth certificate; other forms apply when only one parent signs

Keeping the entry alive

The Ayuntamiento’s electronic office states that non-EU residents without permanent residence must renew their padrón entry every two years, or it may be declared expired. The pages read for this guide do not describe the renewal itself, the confirmation for EU citizens or any reminder, so ask at an OMITA as the date approaches.

Once registered, keep a recent volante or certificate to hand: offices ask for it as proof of your address, for the green certificate, the fingerprint appointment for a TIE and many other steps.

Help for newcomers from the Ayuntamiento

The Ayuntamiento has no separate office for international residents. Its contact for residents of foreign origin is the Unidad de Inmigración y Cooperación al Desarrollo, part of municipal social services, at Plaza de España, Edificio 2001 (968 12 89 16, weekdays 9:00–14:00, by appointment with a social worker). It informs and advises on the padrón, schooling, housing, health care, Spanish classes and other procedures, whether or not you are registered and whatever your residence status.

Social services can also be reached without an appointment through their access point, the PASS, at C/ Sor Francisca Armendáriz, Edificio La Milagrosa, first floor, or on 900 923 491; it arranges a meeting with the social worker nearest your home, and the coast has points in Los Belones and on La Manga.

In the Región de Murcia, two reports used in immigration files come from the town hall: the informe de integración social (social integration report) for an arraigo application, and the housing report for family reunification. Cartagena’s electronic office has a procedure for each.

For Spanish lessons, the regional adult-education centre, CEA Cartagena, teaches Spanish for foreigners at C/ Sóller 4 and in classrooms in El Algar, Pozo Estrecho and La Aljorra, among others; it lists none on La Manga or in Cabo de Palos (968 52 71 15).