IF YOU'RE living in Spain and want to be sure you don't miss the boat for your Covid vaccine when the time comes, you need to make sure you're on the padrón, or your town hall headcount register, warns Marbella's councillor for expatriate residents, Remedios Bocanegra.
She recently held a Zoom meeting with the chairs of several foreign residents' associations in the Costa del Sol town to discuss various issues affecting non-Spaniards who live there for all or most of the year – the main ones of which, in recent months, have been about how to ensure they get the summons for their Covid immunisation, whether they are entitled to it, whether they have to pay and how much, and how to get registered on the public healthcare service.
Remedios Bocanegra stresses that the vaccine is available to everyone as soon as it is their turn in line with the national immunisation programme established, and is free of charge to all those who are employed, registered as self-employed, or in receipt of benefits for sickness, maternity, disability, paternity or unemployment – meaning they are 'in the system' as far as Social Security is concerned – and, for those who do not fall into these categories, anyone who holds a healthcare assistance card, or SIP.
“To get a SIP card, you need to present a series of documents to your local GP surgery – which must include your padrón certificate,” the councillor says.
The padrón: What it is and why you should register
Anyone resident in Spain is required, and entitled, to register on the padrón, which is the town hall's official list of its inhabitants; it does not mean personal information will be shared, and even 'illegal immigrants', or migrants without residence papers, are allowed and expected to sign up to it.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com