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Comment by tormeh

8 hours ago

If you're an EU citizen you by definition have a permanent permit, until either your country of origin or host country leaves the EU. If you are not then woe be you, but that's a separate matter.

In theory yes, one can stay in Spain as a citizen of a EU country indefinitely. In practice for anything in Spain you need a tax number. Even to get an Internet connection at home one needs it.

That's not actually the case, strictly speaking. Residence in another EU country requires meeting certain criteria even if some countries (like the UK when it was in the EU) do not check or really enforce them. This also means that an EU citizen can be deported from another EU country back to their home country if they don't meet those criteria.

"Permanent residence" is also again different and requires residence under those criteria for at least 5 years.