Spain Digital Nomad Visa Renewal: What the UGE Checks in 2026

• The usual window is the 60 days before your permit expires. That's when we file our clients' renewals.
• Filing keeps your permit valid until the UGE decides, even if the decision comes after the expiry date.
• Late by up to 90 days? The law still extends your permit if you file within 90 days after it expired, but you can be fined. Don't plan on this.
• Renewals run in two-year periods. First permit (3 years) + one renewal (2 years) = five years, which is when you can apply for long-term residence (see below).

If you came on a one-year visa from a consulate, what you do next isn't technically a renewal. In the 60 calendar days before the visa expires, you apply in Spain for the residence permit (up to three years). The conditions are the same as for a first application from inside Spain. Our full guide covers it.

The law says you renew "as long as the conditions that gave rise to the right are maintained". In practice that means four things.

1. Your income, year by year

Since June 2026 the renewal form asks for your Spanish tax returns (Modelo 100) for the two previous years. The UGE compares your declared annual income with each year's threshold: 200% of that year's minimum wage for you, plus the family supplements.

The threshold rises with the minimum wage almost every year. Your income has to rise too. In 2026 we've seen renewals refused when income stayed flat for three years. A raise just before renewal doesn't help, because the UGE looks at whole years. For the current monthly figures and the family table, see the income requirement page.

2. Social security from the day after approval

After your first permit is approved, you have to register with Spanish Social Security straight away. For freelancers that means the self-employed scheme (RETA). People often register weeks or months later, and nobody notices until renewal. Then the UGE asks you to backdate your registration to the day after approval and pay the missing contributions.

3. Your contract or clients

• The contract should be open-ended or run for at least two more years, and be at least three months old.
• If your pay went up, attach the amendment that shows it. The new figure is what keeps you above the threshold.
• Clients must still be companies, Spanish clients no more than 20% of your work, as on the first application.
• The company's registration certificate must be less than three months old, the same as on the first application.

4. Your family members' documents

Family members renew with you, and each one still raises the threshold. A marriage certificate older than a year is usually rejected at renewal, so order a fresh one with an apostille and sworn translation.

• Passport and current TIE.
• Spanish tax returns for the two previous years.
• Proof of social security registration and contributions since approval.
• Current contract (and any amendment) or service agreements with your clients.
• Bank statements for the last three months with the bank's stamp. Statements downloaded from online banks without a stamp lead to a document request, at renewal as much as on a first application. A statement with the bank's stamp, even an electronic one, goes through.
• Company registration certificate, less than three months old.
• Health insurance if you're not covered by Spanish Social Security.
• Fee: form 790, code 038 (€73.26 in our 2026 applications), for each person. Our clients usually pay it at an ATM or in a bank's mobile app.
• Fresh family documents (see above).

• The legal deadline is 20 days. A document request usually comes close to day 20, and you get 10 working days to answer. A late answer leads to a refusal, and a missing document doesn't get extra time "until it arrives".
• If 20 days pass with no answer, silence counts as approval (silencio positivo). It doesn't make the UGE reply sooner, though.
• Once approved, you book a fingerprint appointment for your new TIE, the same way as after the first permit.

Three years of the first permit plus a two-year renewal gives you five years of continuous legal residence. At that point you can apply for long-term residence (residencia de larga duración). Spanish citizenship by residence generally takes ten years.