Families moving to Valencia usually make the big decisions months ahead: the neighbourhood, the school, perhaps a flat near the old riverbed gardens in Campanar. The children's paperwork is the part that tends to arrive as a surprise, because every child needs their own NIE and their own file.
The most useful thing to do at home is to collect each child's birth certificate in a version that names both parents. Ask the issuing authority about the apostille, and plan for a sworn translation into Spanish if the certificate is in another language. Both steps can take weeks, and both are far easier from your home country.
Next, passports. Check that every passport stays valid well beyond your planned arrival, because renewing a child's passport from abroad adds a step nobody needs in the first months.
In non-EU families, the children's visas or authorisations follow those of the main applicant, and each child then needs a TIE. In EU families, each child registers for the green certificate alongside the parents. Either way, a parent signs for the minor, as our page on the NIE for children and families explains.
Once in Valencia, register everyone on the padrón at the same address: schools rely on it, and it keeps the other files consistent. Then line up the appointments as close together as you can, and keep one folder per person with originals and copies.
And then the part that made it all worthwhile: the first after-school swim at La Malvarrosa, in October.
