Autorización de regreso: the return authorisation for travelling while your card is expired or lost

What it is and when you need it

The autorización de regreso (return authorisation) is a document that lets you leave Spain and come back in when, at that moment, you have no valid card to show at the border. The Policía Nacional describes it as the document issued to a foreign national whose authorisation "is in the process of being renewed or extended".

If your TIE is still valid, you do not need one: you travel with your passport and your card. You need it when the card has expired or gone missing and the trip cannot wait for the new one.

Who can apply

Spain's immigration regulation (article 5 of Real Decreto 1155/2024) provides for three cases:

You are renewing or extending. Your residence or stay authorisation is being renewed or extended, and you can prove that you filed the application on time. This is the most common case: renewing the TIE takes a while, and the card expires in the meantime.
You have lost your card. Your TIE was valid and it has been stolen, lost or damaged, and you have already applied for the duplicate.
You have been granted your first authorisation and do not have the card yet. Only if the trip is a matter of necessity and there are exceptional reasons.

How long it lasts

No more than 90 days, counted differently depending on when you apply:

When you apply	When the 90 days start
Before your authorisation expires	From the expiry date
After it has expired	From the day it is granted
With your first authorisation already granted	From the day it is granted

Within that period you can leave and enter as many times as you like on the same document.

It only works for entering through a Spanish border

This is the detail that causes the most grief. The regulation says the autorización de regreso "shall only be valid for entry through the authorised Spanish border crossing points". It is not a European travel document: if your return journey has a stopover in another Schengen country, you would go through entry control there, and there this paper is no use. Come back through an airport, a port or a land crossing in Spain.

How to apply

In person, at an Oficina de Extranjería or a Comisaría de Policía Nacional, with a cita previa. The official portal has two procedures with this name, and which one appears depends on the province:

Autorización de regreso at the comisaría, the more widespread one.
Autorización de regreso at the Oficina de Extranjería, in some provinces.

The police ask for two things:

Form EX-13 (application for an autorización de regreso).
Proof that you have paid the fee: modelo 790, code 012, heading "Autorización de regreso", €10.72.

Also bring your passport and the evidence for your case: the receipt for your renewal or extension application, or the one for your duplicate application if you have lost the card.

If the trip is a matter of necessity, the application is given priority: bring whatever proves it as well.

If there are no appointments

The problem is usually the calendar: the trip has a date and the appointment does not appear. First look at what to do when there are no appointments, and do not assume you can go to another province without reading when you can get a cita in another province.

You can also create an alert for the autorización de regreso in your province and you will get a notification by email or Telegram as soon as our checks find available appointments. You book it yourself on the official portal, free: Cita Ping does not book for you and cannot guarantee you an appointment.