Spain digital nomad visa: requirements in 2026

Some guides publish €2,849 instead. That figure annualises the SMI over 14 payments and divides by twelve. The requirement is set on the monthly SMI of €1,221, so the threshold is €2,442.

The requirements that actually decide it

1. Financial means

The main applicant evidences €2,442/month. With family, add 75% of the SMI for a two-person unit — €915.75/month — and 25% of the SMI for each additional member, €305.25/month. A couple with one child therefore evidences €3,663/month.

2. Where the company is — and the limit on Spanish clients

This is the requirement most often described incorrectly in English, and the error changes who thinks they qualify. The rule is not about where the money comes from: it is about where the company is based. Art. 74 bis.1 separates two cases, and the difference is large:

• Employment relationship (employee). You may only work for companies based outside Spanish territory. There is no 20% margin here and no tolerance;
• Professional relationship (freelance). You may also work for a company located in Spain, provided that part does not exceed 20% of your total professional activity.

Note that the law speaks of a percentage of professional activity, not of income or turnover. And that the allowance exists only for those working as independent professionals.

3. The company must have been genuinely active for at least a year

Art. 74 ter a) requires evidence of real and continuous activity for at least one year by the company or group you have the relationship with. That is not the same as the date the company was incorporated, nor the length of your own relationship with it — three different things that are routinely confused.

4. A relationship at least three months old

As an employee, you must evidence the employment relationship with the non-Spanish company over at least the three months preceding the application. As a professional, a commercial relationship with one or more non-Spanish companies over the same period. That relationship must have existed lawfully. Where it was maintained during another immigration status in Spain, whether that status authorised the activity has to be checked: the UGE answers that non-lucrative residence does not serve as a basis, because it does not permit work, and that a stay for higher studies may, provided there was social security registration from the start of the services.

5. Evidence that the work can be done remotely

You must show documentary evidence that the activity can be carried out remotely from Spain. That possibility may appear in the contract or in supporting company documentation — the law does not require a specific clause. For employees, a document in which the company allows remote work from Spain is required; for professionals, the terms and conditions under which the activity will be performed remotely.

6. Professional qualification

A degree or postgraduate qualification from a university of recognised prestige, vocational training, or a business school of recognised prestige — or, in the absence of a qualification, a minimum of three years of professional experience. Experience can replace the degree where it meets the legal requirements.

The general requirements of art. 62 also apply: not being irregularly in Spanish territory, being over 18, having no criminal record in the countries of residence over the last two years (with a responsible declaration covering the last five), not being listed as inadmissible, holding health cover and sufficient resources, and paying the processing fee.

Social security: employee and freelancer

The social security obligations differ between employees and independent professionals, and this is the part that most often stalls an otherwise sound application.

Employee. As a rule the foreign company must first be registered with the Spanish social security system as a non-resident entity without establishments in Spain, so that it can register the teleworker under the general regime. The alternative is to keep home-country coverage — but only where there is an international social security agreement between Spain and that country and the home institution issues a certificate of applicable legislation expressly stating that it covers remote work from Spain. The UGE records that it does not accept a mere application for that document.

Independent professional. Registration is under RETA, the Spanish self-employed regime, and the UGE states that keeping coverage under a bilateral agreement is not available here. Treat that as the management criterion the UGE applies: the joint Instrucción does not draw that distinction expressly.

Non-compliance has consequences: the UGE indicates that failure to register may lead to the authorisation being terminated, reaching both the main applicant and dependent family members.

Health cover

If you will be affiliated to Spanish social security, public cover satisfies the requirement. If you are covered by an international coordination instrument providing healthcare, you produce the entitlement certificate issued by the competent institution in your country. Outside those cases you need public or private insurance with an insurer authorised to operate in Spain, with cover comparable to the Spanish national health system.

The UGE is explicit about what it does not accept: travel insurance, policies based only on reimbursement of medical expenses, and policies with co-payments or waiting periods. The insurer must appear in the register of the Dirección General de Seguros y Fondos de Pensiones.

Applying from abroad or from inside Spain

These are two different instruments, and the choice is not free — it depends on where you are.

From outside Spain: the visa. Applied for at the competent consulate, valid for up to one year, and it is sufficient title to reside and work remotely while it lasts. A practical consequence that is rarely mentioned: someone entering on this visa does not need to process a TIE while it remains valid (art. 75.4). With 60 days left before expiry, you can apply for the residence authorisation.

From inside Spain: the authorisation. Anyone already lawfully in the country, or who entered on the visa, may apply for the residence authorisation directly to the UGE. It is valid for up to three years and renewable for two-year periods. Where the period granted exceeds six months, a TIE does have to be processed (art. 76.2). You cannot apply for this authorisation directly from abroad.

Useful detail on arrival: the passport works as the document for registering with social security during the first six months, even without a NIE. What to do after landing is gathered in moving to Spain.

How long it takes, how long it lasts, how it renews

The ten working day limit for the visa carries a caveat: it does not apply where the applicant is subject to the consultation provided for in the Visa Code. For the authorisation, administrative silence is positive — once the twenty days pass with no decision, it is treated as granted. Filing the application also extends the validity of the previous status until the decision.

The six-month rule that does not exist

English-language content on this route repeats, almost universally, that you must spend at least six months a year in Spain. We published that claim on this page ourselves, and it is wrong.

Searched explicitly across the consolidated text of Ley 14/2013, the joint DGEEAC/DGM Instrucción and the UGE FAQ, no minimum annual presence is set for this authorisation. What the rule requires is that you continue to meet the conditions that gave rise to the right (art. 74 quinquies.3 and the seventh additional provision). If the company stops being active, if the relationship ends, if the income falls below the threshold or the insurance lapses, that is what puts the authorisation at risk — not a calendar count.

Tax residence is a separate question with its own rules, and the two should not be conflated. The 183-day threshold people are half-remembering belongs to tax law, and to the renewal conditions of a different authorisation — the non-lucrative visa, where it genuinely is a requirement.

The special tax regime, and why this visa is named in it

Art. 93 of Ley 35/2006 sets out a special regime for people who move to Spain: they acquire Spanish tax residence but may opt to be taxed under non-resident rules — 24% up to €600,000 of taxable base and 47% above — for the year of the change of residence and the five following tax periods.

Art. 93.1 does not leave this route to interpretation. It states that the condition is met where the work is performed remotely using exclusively computer, telematic and telecommunication means, and expressly names employees holding the international teleworking visa of Ley 14/2013. The regime requires not having been a Spanish tax resident during the five tax periods before the move.

We are immigration advisers, not tax advisers. What belongs on this page is that the regime exists, that it is an option with its own procedure, deadlines and conditions, and that whether it benefits you depends on your income mix and your home country's rules — US citizens, in particular, remain taxed by the United States on worldwide income wherever they live. Model it with a professional in both countries before you move.

Bringing your family

Yes. Art. 62.4 admits the spouse or person in an analogous relationship, minor children and adult children who are financially dependent and have not formed their own family unit, and dependent ascendants — a wider list than the non-lucrative route, which excludes ascendants. Applications may be filed jointly and simultaneously, and are then decided at the same time as the main one.

Two practical points. The financial one has been covered: €915.75/month for the second person in the unit and €305.25/month for each additional one. And the more consequential one: according to the official UGE FAQ, family members are authorised to reside and work, whether employed or self-employed. That is a significant difference from other authorisations — the student route, for instance, where accompanying family cannot work.

The documents most often required

The base is common to both relationships, and then each has its own proof:

• valid passport, criminal record certificate and the processing fee;
• evidence of the company's real and continuous activity over at least one year;
• evidence of financial means: payslips or invoices for the three preceding months, plus a bank certificate for the same period;
• health cover, in the form described above;
• qualification, or evidence of the three years of experience.

• Employment relationship: evidence of the relationship with the foreign company over the three preceding months, a document in which the company authorises remote work from Spain, and evidence of the company's registration with Spanish social security without workplaces in Spain, with the undertaking to register you — or the certificate of applicable legislation from your country;
• Professional relationship: contracts with the overseas clients covering the three months, the terms and conditions of the remote activity, and an undertaking to register under RETA before starting activity in Spain.

The consulate and the UGE may require specific documents and formats — the final list should be confirmed through the channel your application will actually run through.

When another route makes more sense

If you are an employee of a Spanish company, international teleworking is not the route — the work authorisations are, and there the process is started by the employer. An independent professional may keep activity with Spanish companies within the Ley 14/2013 limit, provided the foreign professional relationship underpinning the authorisation is preserved. Living on passive income rather than working? See the non-lucrative visa. Coming to study? The student visa. Or compare them all in the visa comparison.