Spain Digital Nomad Visa for Freelancers and the Self-Employed (2026)

On top of the general requirements (income, criminal record, health insurance), freelancers are checked on these points:

• Your clients must be companies. Private individuals don't count as clients for this visa. Universities, NGOs and government bodies don't either.
• Spanish clients: no more than 20% of your total work.
• Each client company must have existed for at least a year, and your work with it must have lasted at least three months before you apply.
• Your self-employed registration at home must be at least three months and one day old on the day you apply. The certificate that proves it has to be recent, apostilled and translated by a sworn translator, including the apostille.
• A criminal record certificate from the country where your business is registered, as well as from the countries where you lived for more than six months in the last two years.
• A degree or three years of experience. A self-employment certificate doesn't prove your experience. If you have a degree, use it.

A common worry, often repeated online, is the "two-contract rule": that a freelancer with one client is a disguised employee (falso autónomo) and will be refused. In our applications having a single client isn't a problem. Almost all our freelance clients have exactly one, and we haven't seen a refusal on this ground.

The opposite is the real risk. Several smaller payers don't add up for the UGE: three clients paying €1,000 each don't pass, even though together they come to €3,000, more than the €2,850 threshold.

The UGE also checks the client itself: that it's a company, that it has existed for at least a year, that your contract or service agreement is at least three months old, and that the money arrives.

The income threshold is the same as for employees: about €2,850 a month for an application in Spain in 2026, more with family, and one client has to pay your own threshold on its own. Savings can cover family members, not you. The details are on our income requirement page.

• Contract or service agreement with the client that pays the threshold, plus your invoices.
• Bank statements for the last three months showing the payments, with the bank's stamp. Downloaded PDFs without a stamp lead to a document request.
• The three months are looked at together, so an uneven month is fine if the total is above the threshold.
• The client's company registration certificate, less than three months old.

Once your permit is approved, you register as self-employed in Spain (RETA) straight away and pay monthly Social Security contributions.

• Don't wait. The UGE's own FAQ says that if a later review finds you didn't register right after approval, the permit is withdrawn, for you and your family members. In our applications the gap usually surfaces at renewal, as a request to backdate the registration and pay contributions from the day after approval. See our renewal guide.
• Contributions depend on your net income. Since 2023 Spain uses an income-based system: you pick a contribution base within the bracket for your expected net income, and the rate is a little over 30% of that base. New self-employed people can get a reduced fee for the first year. Social Security's website has the current brackets.
• You get public healthcare, and so does your family. In our applications freelancers registered in RETA, and their family members, haven't needed private health insurance. More on health insurance for the visa.

As a Spanish resident you'll pay Spanish income tax on your worldwide income. The Beckham Law's flat rate is mostly for employees: ordinary freelancing with foreign clients doesn't qualify unless your activity is recognised as entrepreneurial. See taxes on the digital nomad visa.

If after a while your business in Spain grows — Spanish clients above 20%, a shop, an agency, a practice — the digital nomad permit stops fitting. The next step is the residence and self-employment permit (cuenta propia). As a first permit it's applied for through a consulate, needs a business plan aimed at Spain and funds for the investment, and lasts a year before a four-year renewal. It's the route for people who don't qualify as digital nomads.

If you're already on the digital nomad permit, you switch from inside Spain: after a year on it, our clients change it to self-employment, and the new permit is issued for four years. The switch is accepted only when your circumstances have changed — your contract ended, your income fell below the threshold, or you want to work for the Spanish market beyond 20%. The full route is in our guide to the self-employment permit.