NEARLY half of all British citizens legally residing in Spain have still not swapped their old green paper residency certificates for the biometric TIE card.

Official data published by the Permanent Immigration Observatory (OPI) confirms there were 379,801 UK nationals with valid residency documentation in the country as of June 30, 2026.

But out of that total, only 198,173 people actually hold the Tarjeta de Identidad de Extranjero (TIE) issued under the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.

READ MORE: TIE warning in Spain as ‘emergency plan’ activated to boost residency appointments after migrant amnesty swamped systems

It leaves roughly 181,600 Britons — or 47.8% of the official census — relying on the non-biometric community registration certificate.

Under the Withdrawal Agreement framework, exchanging the green certificate for a TIE card remains a voluntary process rather than a mandatory requirement.

However, the British Embassy in Madrid has strongly advised that its citizens in Spain go through the bureaucratic process of doing it.

For British residents clinging to their green certificates, they may come to regret it once they arrive at a border under the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES).

READ MORE: EXPLAINER: Thousands of British expats in Spain are facing TIE residency card renewals five years after Brexit – here’s how to do it

According to official UK Government guidance, the old green paper certificate ‘will not be accepted as proof of legal residency status at Spanish or other Schengen borders’ under this new system.

Crucially, the guidance states that holding the green certificate does not exempt travellers from registering with the EES.

Without the biometric TIE card, British residents risk facing the same border friction as short-stay tourists, whereas the TIE explicitly proves their Withdrawal Agreement rights and ensures they are exempt from EES registration when travelling within the Schengen area.

The British community remains the third largest nationality under the TIE residency regime.

READ MORE: Moving to Spain in 2026: When You Need NIE, TIE or Residency Documents

They sit behind only Romanians, who number 1,142,644, and Italians with 527,890.

Together, those three nationalities account for 51% of all foreigners registered with a European Union certificate or Withdrawal Agreement TIE in Spain.

The British census under this regime skews significantly older than the general foreign population, with an average age of 58.

Just 3% of Brits holding a certificate or TIE are under the age of 16, while women make up 49% of the group.

Nationwide, Spain hit a record 7,909,008 foreigners holding valid legal residency documentation at the end of the first half of 2026

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