Spain Digital Nomad Visa: The Whole Route, Step by Step (2026)

You can apply if you work remotely, using only computers and telecoms, for an employer or clients based outside Spain:

• Employees may work only for companies outside Spain.
• Freelancers and contractors may also work for Spanish companies, as long as that work is no more than 20% of their total professional activity. More in our guide for freelancers.
• Your clients must be companies. Private individuals, universities, NGOs and government bodies don't count.
• Qualification: a university or business-school degree, or at least three years of experience in similar work.
• Your relationship with the company must have lasted at least three months before you apply.

Applying as an employee of your own company is reported to work when the company's country has a social security agreement with Spain (the UK and the US both do). We haven't filed this kind of case ourselves, so get it checked before you rely on it.

The threshold is a multiple of Spain's minimum wage (SMI). For 2026 the SMI is €17,094 a year — €1,221 in 14 payments, or €1,424.50 a month spread over 12. The UGE counts on the 12-payment figure, so in our 2026 applications we ask clients to show more than:

Consulates may quote less: the Spanish consulate in Washington lists €2,442, which is 200% of the 14-payment figure. If you might switch from a consulate to applying in Spain, plan for the higher number. The SMI usually rises every year, and so does the threshold — something that matters at renewal (see below). Savings, currency and the full consulate table are on the income requirement page.

To prove income, the UGE wants your contract or invoices and bank statements for the last three months showing the money arriving. This is where many applications get a document request now. Statements downloaded from online banks such as Revolut or Wise, or any PDF without the bank's stamp, often come back with a request for a stamped statement or a notarised copy. A statement that carries the bank's stamp — even an electronic one — usually goes through.

There are two routes, and they don't lead to the same document:

• Through a consulate in your home country you get a visa for up to one year. Before it ends, you apply in Spain for the residence permit.
• From inside Spain, while you're there legally (for UK and US citizens, usually within the 90 visa-free days), you apply online to the UGE — through a representative, since filing needs a Spanish digital certificate you can't get before residence — and get a residence permit for up to three years straight away.

All our applications go through the UGE. We compare the two routes in detail — speed, document requests, the 90-day window — in Apply from inside Spain or through a consulate. What the whole visa costs, and what our help costs, is in Spain digital nomad visa cost.

The Spanish side of the file is the same for every passport:

• Passport — the one you used to enter the Schengen area. If you entered on one passport and apply on another, expect a refusal or a request.
• Employer or client documents — your contract, a letter confirming you may work remotely from Spain, and the company's registration certificate. In our applications, a certificate older than three months raises questions about whether the company still exists, so order it last.
• Proof of income — contract or invoices plus three months of stamped bank statements (see above).
• Criminal record certificates — from every country where you lived for more than six months in the last two years. Freelancers are now also asked for one from the country where their self-employed business is registered.
• Degree or proof of experience.
• Government fee — paid with form 790, code 038; it was €73.26 in our 2026 applications.
• Health insurance — from an insurer authorised in Spain, with no co-payments or waiting periods. Not needed if you're covered by Spanish Social Security. Direct policies cost roughly €600–700 a year; brokers charge more. See health insurance for the visa.
• Family documents — marriage or birth certificates. At renewal, a marriage certificate older than a year is usually rejected, so get a fresh copy.

Official documents from outside the EU need an apostille and a sworn Spanish translation (including the apostille). Since September 2026 the UGE has started to question whether apostilles are genuine, and some applicants have been asked to show the originals at a government registry office. Bring paper originals of everything apostilled with you to Spain.

Home-country documents differ: the UK uses an ACRO police certificate and an FCDO apostille, the US an FBI check and a federal apostille. See Moving to Spain from the UK and Moving to Spain from the US.

By law, the UGE must decide within 20 days of your online application, and the application itself keeps your stay legal until the decision. Here is how it plays out in our applications:

• A document request usually arrives close to day 20, counting from the day after you file.
• You get 10 working days to answer. Answer on time: a late answer leads to a refusal.
• If 20 days pass with no decision and no request, you can file for silencio positivo — the law treats the permit as granted. It doesn't make the UGE answer any faster, though.
• Since spring 2026, decisions are slower. Some April applications were still waiting at the end of June, and the order in which files are decided looks random.
• Family members are often decided weeks after the main applicant — about three weeks is typical.

Approval isn't the end. Three things come next, and the first is the one people skip:

1. Register with Spanish Social Security straight away. Freelancers register as self-employed (RETA). A gap between your approval and your registration doesn't show up now — it shows up at renewal, when the UGE asks you to backdate your registration and pay contributions from the day after approval.
2. Book your fingerprint appointment (cita) in the province you gave in your application. An appointment up to three months after approval is normal and accepted. Some cities ask for proof of registered address (empadronamiento) at the appointment, others don't.
3. Collect your TIE, the residence card, usually about three weeks after the fingerprints.

If you need to leave Spain before you have the card, apply for a return authorisation (autorización de regreso). Banks will often open an account with just your approval letter, then ask for more papers later.

The three-year permit renews for two years at a time. You apply in the 60 days before it expires; filing in that window keeps your permit valid until the decision. At renewal the UGE looks back at how you lived on the permit:

• Since June 2026 the renewal form asks for your Spanish tax returns for the two previous years. The UGE compares your annual income with each year's threshold and checks your social security contributions.
• Your income has to keep up with the SMI. A raise just before renewal doesn't help; a stable income that never grew has led to refusals.
• Your contract should run for at least two more years or be open-ended. If your pay went up, attach the amendment.

The documents, the year-by-year income table and the social security check are in our renewal guide.

After five years of continuous legal residence you can apply for long-term residence. Spanish citizenship by residence generally takes ten years (two for nationals of Ibero-American countries and a few others).

Your spouse or registered partner, children and dependent parents can apply with you. Each one raises the income threshold (see the table above). An adult child or relative must prove they depend on you financially — for example, with certificates that they have no income in their home country.