You can now register as a civil partner via video conference

BarcelonaStarting this Sunday, any Catalan citizen can register as a civil partner, apply for a hunting license, or request a disability card via videoconference. These are just some of the 27 procedures that can now be carried out remotely with the assistance of an agent, without needing to visit the Generalitat offices in person. Users can access these services from home through the new Virtual Office launched by the Catalan Government. within the framework of the administration reform to bring it closer to the public and make it more efficient.

According to sources at the President's office, the new service is launching with a budget of €400,000 and an appointment system: each week, approximately one hundred appointments will be available, staffed by a total of six agents hired specifically to provide this service. The plan is to increase both the number of appointments offered and the size of the team managing them. Furthermore, in early 2026, tools will be incorporated to facilitate service for deaf people, such as simultaneous translation and the option to request a sign language interpreter, as well as for citizens who have difficulty with Catalan or Spanish. Three languages have been planned for testing the service—English, Arabic, and Urdu—in addition to the existing chats with automatic translation. To ensure that the citizen has all the necessary documentation and understands how the videoconference works, an information officer will contact them a couple of days beforehand. For the appointment, you will need to have your ID, documentation, a mobile phone to receive SMS messages, and the electronic device in question.

But what is the list of available procedures? There are very common ones, such as applying for benefits for families with children, but also more unusual ones, such as applying for a pine cone or truffle harvester's license. Also included are the skipper's and captain's licenses for ships or yachts, some university procedures, and social assistance through the thermal social bonus, in addition to support measures for victims of gender violence and those related to electronic signatures via Cl@ve or idCAT. The Government intends to expand the catalog to cover all procedures currently carried out at Citizen Service Offices before the end of 2026.

Machines in town halls

These thirty or so procedures can now be carried out not only from home. As part of a pilot program, the Catalan Government plans to deploy video service kiosks at ten locations throughout Catalonia this legislative term, where users can receive remote assistance from agents of the Virtual Office. The first of these locations is the Sant Feliu de Llobregat Town Hall: one of these kiosks has been installed there so that citizens can take advantage of their visit to the town hall, if necessary, to complete any procedures they need to carry out with the Catalan Government. The Secretary of Telecommunications and Digital Transformation, Albert Tort, and the Mayor of Sant Feliu, Lourdes Borrell, demonstrated how it works on Friday, in a simulation where they tested both the Virtual Office and the kiosk at the town hall. The Catalan government emphasizes that it has chosen Sant Feliu de Llobregat, where the PSC governs with the local Junts party as a junior partner, for its "track record in organizational and technological innovation"—among other measures, they offer 24-hour online channels and 48-language support. "The people of Catalonia deserve better service from the administration, easier, friendlier, and one that doesn't waste their time. We are deploying these services throughout the territory with the aim of not sending them door-to-door through the different departments," asserted the Minister of the Presidency, Albert Dalmau. This measure is combined with the opening of new citizen service offices across the territory (for example, in the Pyrenees) and the reinforcement of the staff providing this service. According to Dalmau, all these measures are not contingent on receiving new funding.