Working checklist

DNV health insurance checklist: what to gather, person by person

There is no single list, because what your application needs depends on how each person will be covered for healthcare in Spain. So start by sorting the people, then work through the short list that belongs to each of them.

Why one list would send you gathering the wrong things

Most checklists for this visa are a single column of documents with a box beside each, and two things go wrong with that shape.

First, a document that matters for one person is irrelevant for the next. Somebody covered through Spanish Social Security and somebody buying a policy are assembling different files, so a merged list sends each of them after things they do not need.

Second, a tick records that you thought about an item, not what you did about it. "Asked for it", "got it", "read it properly" and "sent it" all collapse into one box, and the space between them is where applications come apart.

So there are two questions to answer before anything gets gathered: how will this person be covered? and what does this particular item still need from me?

Four things you can do with any item

Write one of these four words beside every line on the sheet. It takes a second and it is most of what makes a checklist work.

Get it. You do not have it yet. Notice how much of this list is not in your hands at all: it waits on an employer, an institution or a government office. Start these first, because you cannot hurry somebody else up. Done when you are holding it. Having asked for it does not count.
Check it. You have it, and nobody has read it yet to see whether it says what you think it says. This is the step people skip, because holding a document feels like having answered the question. It is also the step that catches the expensive mistakes. Done when you can say in one sentence what the document shows, and for whom.
Send it. It goes with the application, and not everything you hold does. What to include is a question for the consulate or office you are applying through. Done when it is in the file, in the form they asked for.
Keep it. Its job starts after approval, or at renewal. Done when it is filed with two lines beside it: what it showed, and where it came from. Without those two lines you are handing your future self a puzzle.

Two of these get muddled more than the others. "Asked for it" quietly becomes "have it". And something gets sent that had no business in the file, or thrown away a month before it mattered.

When an item cannot be finished yet, leave the line open and write what you are waiting for and who owes it to you. An open line you can see is a manageable problem. An open line you have ticked to feel better about is not.

One sheet per person, and no shortcuts between them

Before anything else: every question below gets its own answer for every person on the application — you, a spouse or partner, each child, each dependent parent. One person's answer never fills in somebody else's.

The method that survives a real family is dull and it works. One sheet per person, with how that person will be covered written at the top, and nothing ticked on one sheet because of a document sitting on another. A borrowed tick is invisible to whoever reads the file, because they cannot see the relationship you had in mind.

Which family members can be covered through you at all, and what to do when one of them cannot be settled, takes more than a checklist: the family test, person by person. Work through that first, then come back with a heading written on each sheet.

Step one: how does this person work?

This comes first because it decides which rules apply, and the rules decide which of the answers below is even available to them. It is settled by how the work is actually done, not by a job title.

If this person is employed

Get — from the employer, early. A straight answer on how your Social Security will be handled while you are in Spain. It is the item most often left until last and the one you control least, so ask in writing now. "We intend to" is not "we have", and the difference changes the answer.
Check. That what you were told matches what has actually happened rather than what is planned. What each employer answer means for you; when an employer registers in Spain separates intention from fact.

If this person works for themselves

Get — from yourself, mostly. This runs through your own registration, so the open items are yours rather than an employer's. Registering later and being registered now are different things and are shown differently: self-employed applicants and RETA.
Check. Which of the two is true today, in writing, before you fill in anything that depends on it.

If you cannot answer this cleanly

Contractor arrangements, employer-of-record structures and owner-directors are the genuine grey areas, and we do not decide them. That is not a delay in your checklist; it is the checklist item: how the distinction works, and where it needs professional review. Until it is answered, this person goes on the not settled yet sheet.

Step two: how will this person be covered?

There are three answers, and a fourth that says it is not clear yet. How Social Security decides what you show explains why the answers divide where they do. The lists below are what to do once you know which one you are looking at.

Covered in Spain

If this person will be covered by Spanish Social Security

Cover comes from being registered inside the Spanish system: through an employer who has registered here, or through your own registration as a self-employed person.

Get. Very little of this is yours to fetch, because it follows from something an employer or a government office does. What is yours today is finding out whether that thing has happened, is under way, or is only intended. If it is only intended, your open item is a question to whoever has to act, not a document you are waiting for. How cover through the Spanish system works covers the difference.
Check — this is the one that matters here. That what you hold shows this person is covered for healthcare, rather than simply that they belong to a system. The two look alike on paper and are not the same finding. Working through it properly is a page of its own; do that before you tick anything here.
Send. What to include, and when, is a question for the consulate or office you are applying through. Ask them. Whatever they currently ask for comes before any general list, including this one.
Keep. Write down what each document showed, who issued it and when you checked it, beside the file rather than in your head. At renewal these questions come round again, against facts that will have moved.

If registration is planned rather than done, say so on the sheet in those words. Planning to register is a real situation, shown with different paperwork; it is not a weaker version of being registered, and on its own it is not a reason to buy anything.

Covered from abroad

If this person stays in another country's system

Cover comes from staying inside your home country's Social Security under an international agreement, instead of joining the Spanish one.

Get. The document you are relying on is issued by an institution in the other country, so this is one to start before anything you control yourself. Until the document exists the line stays open, however far along the request has got. A confirmation that you asked is proof that you asked.
Check — twice, for two different things. Which country's rules apply to you, and whether healthcare in Spain comes with them, are separate questions. A document can answer the first with complete authority while saying nothing about the second. What your certificate proves sets that out; A1 and S1 healthcare in Spain covers the two documents people most often mistake for each other; bilateral agreements covers healthcare between countries outside the EU.
Check — again, name by name. A document that names one person covers one person. Everyone else needs their own line, and usually two things shown: the cover their entitlement comes from, and the relationship that carries it to them.
Send. Ask the office you are applying through what it expects and when. Where a document and what you have said about your work point in different directions, anyone reading the file can see it. Sort that out before you send, not after.
Keep. If the arrangement runs for a fixed period, that end date is a renewal question rather than a filing detail. Write it on the sheet.

If the healthcare half comes back unclear, this person is not settled here and is not settled on a policy either. They go on the not settled yet sheet until somebody qualified answers it.

Needs a policy

If this person needs private cover

This list is for people who have settled that they need a policy, and for nobody else. If the two questions above are still open for this person, go back: everything here may be work you do not need to do. Whether private insurance applies to you at all comes first.

Get. Cover that meets the requirements, for the people who need it and nobody else. The requirements are set out in one place, element by element: what a private policy has to include. If that is where you have landed, a personalised quote covers exactly the people who need it.
Check — what kind of policy you are actually holding. A contract bought for trips and a contract bought for living somewhere are built around different things, and the name on the front is not how you tell them apart: how to work out which one you hold. Do this first: measuring the wrong contract in detail still gets you nowhere.
Check — against the requirements, name by name. Hold what you have against each requirement rather than against the description you were given, and make sure everyone relying on the policy appears on the paperwork by name. Somebody who is not named is not covered by it as far as a reader is concerned.
Send. The documentation of the cover itself, showing the people and the dates — not the brochure, and not the quotation you were sent. What is in the file is what gets read.
Keep. These documents outlive the application. The same measuring exercise runs again at renewal, against whatever the requirements say then and whatever your situation is then. Both can change.

If you can’t answer yet

If you cannot answer this for somebody yet

This is a normal place to be, and it is the most common one. Somebody belongs here when how they work is genuinely arguable, when a document exists but you cannot tell what it says, when two documents point different ways, or when an answer you have asked for simply has not come back.

Get — nothing yet. You cannot gather paperwork for an answer you do not have. Anything you collect now is a guess with a receipt attached.
Check — by asking whoever can actually answer. What a document means goes back to whoever issued it. What your application needs goes to the consulate or office handling it. A genuinely arguable working arrangement goes to a Spanish employment or Social Security professional. None of those answers comes from a website, this one included.
Write the question down in the words of the question, on that person's sheet. A doubt you have not written down gets resolved optimistically every single time.
Send — nothing from this sheet. There is nothing settled here to send.

Not knowing is not a reason to buy, and a policy is not an answer. Closing an open line with a purchase turns an unanswered question into a paid-for unanswered question. What helps is getting it answered: send us the facts for this person, or take the question to whoever it belongs to.

What goes in now, and what has a job later

Whether you have a document is at least obvious. Whether it belongs in the application is quieter, and it goes wrong in both directions.

Sending something whose job had not started puts paper in front of a reader who did not ask for it, and every extra page is another surface for an inconsistency to show on. A file is not stronger for being thicker.

Treating something as finished when its job is still ahead is the more expensive mistake. At renewal your situation is looked at against facts that have moved: an agreement has ended, a registration has become active, a family has changed. Reconstructing all that a year later is far harder than writing two lines today — what the document showed, and where it came from.

What happens after approval belongs to the office handling your application, so ask them rather than a website. The one thing worth knowing now is that these questions come round again.

Where working from a checklist goes wrong

Picking up a list before you know how each person is covered. Gather first and ask afterwards, and you have been assembling somebody else's application.
Ticking "asked for it" as "got it". The commonest single mistake, and the easiest to prevent: two boxes, not one.
Ticking "checked" without actually reading it. Checking means reading the document as a stranger would, not confirming that the envelope you expected has arrived.
Letting one strong document speak for several people. It covers the person it names, and says nothing about anybody else.
Closing an open line with a purchase. The item was a question. It still is.
Doing it all once. A changed employer answer, a new registration, a family member added or removed: each one re-opens the sheet it touches, and sometimes the answer at the top of it.
Mistaking a finished list for a finished file. The list is yours; the requirements belong to the office you are applying through. Where the two disagree, they win.
Assembling it all from memory at the end. This is how a family member goes missing, and nobody notices until somebody else reads the file.

What we can't answer for you

We can't hand you a list of document names. The official guidance says what has to be shown and leaves the paperwork open, so a named list from any website is somebody's guess. Check anything you find against what your own consulate or office asks for.

We can't tell you whether you will be approved. That decision belongs to the Spanish authority handling your application, and anybody who promises you an outcome is guessing.

We won't give you timings. How long anything takes depends on who has to act, and we would rather say nothing than guess. The one rule that needs no timing is the one above: start what you do not control first.

We can't decide whether you are employed or self-employed. That is a legal question with consequences well beyond insurance, and where it is arguable it needs a qualified answer rather than a confident one from us.

And you will never quite finish. The last line on every sheet is the same: what does the office I am actually applying through want from this person, and have I asked them?

Stuck on one line of the sheet?

Tell us the item you cannot answer and what you know about the person it belongs to, and we will work through it with you. This is a look at your paperwork rather than a sales call: if the answer is that this person needs nothing from us, that is the answer you will get.

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Common questions

Can I just download a list of the documents I need?

Not from us, and be careful with one from anywhere else. The official guidance describes what has to be shown without naming the paperwork, so a list of named documents is somebody's guess at it. Check anything you find against what your own consulate or office currently asks for.

Do I fill this in once for the whole family?

No. Once per person, on that person's own sheet, with how they will be covered written at the top. A document that names one person covers one person.

I've asked for a document. Does that count as having it?

Neither yet. It is still a "get it" line, and it stays open until the document exists — a confirmation that you asked is proof that you asked. Leave the line open and write down what you are waiting for.

What if I can't work out how somebody will be covered?

Then they go on the "not settled yet" sheet, and the next thing to do is ask whoever can answer: whoever issued the document, the office you are applying through, or a qualified professional. Buying cover would not answer it.