The permit for remote workers, in 7 steps: who qualifies, how much you need to earn, which route to take, and how we can help at each step.
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The Spain digital nomad visa lets citizens of countries outside the EU, the EEA and Switzerland live in Spain while they work remotely for an employer or clients abroad. Its legal name is the residence for international telework (teletrabajo de carácter internacional).
In 2026 you need €2,442 a month from that work, twice Spain’s minimum wage. Apply from inside Spain and you get a 3-year permit; apply at a consulate and you get a 1-year visa first. This guide takes you through the requirements, the documents and the 7 steps.
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The Spain digital nomad visa in 6 numbers (2026)
Yes to all five? The digital nomad visa is your visa.
Living on savings, a pension or investments, without working? Look at the non-lucrative visa instead. A doubt on one point? Ask us in a free call.
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It is Spain’s residence for international telework: the right to live in Spain while you work remotely for companies based outside Spain. Spain created it in December 2022, in its Startup Law (Ley 28/2022), as part of the law on entrepreneurs (Ley 14/2013). Officially nobody calls it a digital nomad visa: the forms say teletrabajador de carácter internacional.
Two documents hide behind the same nickname:
The conditions are the same. What changes is where you apply, how long you get, and how fast you get an answer.
The visa is for citizens of countries outside the EU, the EEA and Switzerland who work remotely, using only computers and telecommunications, for companies based outside Spain. The law names two profiles:
In both cases, the company or group you work for must have been really active for at least one year. You also need:
The threshold follows Spain’s monthly minimum wage (the SMI, €1,221 in 2026): 200% of it for you, 75% for the first family member and 25% for each other one, before tax:
| Household | A month |
|---|---|
| You alone | €2,442 |
| You and your partner | €3,357.75 |
| You, your partner and a child | €3,663 |
| You, your partner and two children | €3,968.25 |
Spain’s minimum wage is also paid in 14 instalments a year, and some consulates have counted the threshold that way (London’s checklist did in 2023): €34,188 a year for one person. Income that reaches it is safe at every consulate. Either way, show steady income: three months of payslips or invoices that match your bank statements weigh more than one large transfer just before you apply.
As an employee, no: your employer must be outside Spain, and a Spanish employer ends the basis of your permit. As a freelancer, yes, up to 20% of your total professional activity: four clients abroad and one in Madrid is usually fine; a single client who is Spanish is not.
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If you can enter Spain legally (as a visitor without a visa, for example), applying from inside Spain is usually the stronger route: you get the 3-year permit straight away, the UGE-CE has 20 days to decide, and if it doesn’t answer in time, your application is approved by silence. Your application also keeps your current stay valid until the decision.
| At a consulate | In Spain (UGE-CE) | |
|---|---|---|
| What you get | A visa of up to 1 year | A permit of up to 3 years |
| How you apply | In person, at the consulate for where you live | Online |
| Time to decide | 10 days | 20 days, approved if no answer |
| Fee | €90 (US citizens $190) | €73.26 |
| Then | Apply for the permit in Spain in the visa’s last 60 days | Renew for 2 years at a time |
On the consulate route, you apply for the residence permit from Spain in the 60 days before your visa expires. Until then, the visa itself is your residence document. Consulates usually keep your passport while they decide, and several (New York, Houston, Toronto) ask for your NIE before you apply. The Spanish embassies and consulates directory finds the one for where you live: each consulate publishes its own checklist and appointment system, so read it before you book.
Spain asks every applicant to be covered by a social security system, and this is where many files fail. In practice:
Applying in Spain, a commitment to register once the permit is granted is enough. Several consulates (New York, Houston, Toronto) want the registration done before they issue the visa.
Only some countries with an agreement issue that certificate to someone teleworking from Spain. US employees are the best-known case: the US–Spain agreement (in force since 1988) covers employees their company sends to Spain for up to five years, and says nothing of remote work. Immigration firms report both acceptances and refusals of US certificates in 2025 and 2026: check with your employer and your consulate before you build your file around one.
Once registered, you get your Spanish social security number: our NUSS guide explains how.
Yes. Your family can apply with you, at the same time, or later:
Each one raises the income you need to show (the table above). Applications made together are decided together.
From your sofa to your Spanish residence card. Each step says what to do and what it costs. In a free AnchorLess account, you tick them off one by one and get expert help where you need it.
Remote work for an employer or clients outside Spain for at least three months, €2,442 a month, a degree or three years of experience, a clean criminal record and social security cover.
Take the 30-second checkYour foreigner’s number in Spain: several consulates (New York, Houston, Toronto) ask for it before you apply, and a bank, a landlord and the tax office ask for it too. You can get it from abroad.
Get my NIEThe law doesn’t require one for this visa, but a Spanish IBAN makes the move simpler: rent, bills, and your social security contributions once you live there.
Open my accountYour contract or client contracts, three months of payslips or invoices with matching bank statements, your degree, your criminal records, your social security proof: the full checklist is below. Apostille first, then a sworn translation into Spanish.
Ask us in a free callApplying from Spain is online: the certificate lets you pay the fee, file the application, sign it and follow it. You will use it again for your social security and your taxes.
Get my certificateIn Spain, at the UGE-CE, online: it has 20 days to decide, or your application is approved by silence. From abroad, at the Spanish consulate for where you live.
Find your consulateRegister your address at the town hall (empadronamiento) and with Spanish social security. Once the UGE-CE grants your permit, ask the police for your foreigner’s card, the TIE: book that appointment early, the cita previa guide shows how. With the consulate’s visa, the visa is your residence document until you switch to the permit.
Read the TIE guide| Fee | When | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Residence permit fee (form 790, code 038), each applicant | When you apply in Spain | €73.26 |
| National visa fee, each applicant | When you apply at a consulate | €90 (US citizens $190; Canadians CAD 2,140) |
| TIE card fee (form 790, code 012) | At the police, in Spain | €16.08 |
Add the apostilles and sworn translations of your documents, and private health insurance if social security doesn’t cover you. Those cost more than the fees: count a few hundred euros for one person, more with a family.
In Spain, the UGE-CE has 20 days from your online application to decide; without an answer by then, the permit is granted by silence. If it asks for a missing document (a requerimiento), the clock stops and you have 10 days to send it: without an answer, your application is closed. Consulates have 10 days to decide, and you collect the visa within a month. Gathering, apostilling and translating your documents takes several weeks before that.
A doubt about your application? Book a free call to clear it up.
Every foreign public document needs an apostille and a sworn translation into Spanish, in that order: translate the document and its apostille together. Bring:
Send everything in one go: a file with gaps is slower, and can be refused. A consulate adds its own items (New York asks for the NIE and a passport valid for at least a year): download its checklist before you book.
If Spanish social security doesn’t cover you, take private health insurance with an insurer authorised in Spain, covering what the public system covers, without co-payments or waiting periods. Travel insurance and reimbursement-only policies are refused. Our guide to healthcare in Spain compares the options.
Live in Spain more than 183 days in a calendar year, or keep the centre of your work or interests there, and you become a Spanish tax resident: your worldwide income is taxed in Spain, at progressive rates up to 47%. Our guide to Spanish tax residency explains the rules.
The special regime for workers moving to Spain, known as the Beckham Law, taxes your employment income at a flat 24% up to €600,000 (47% above), and taxes the rest as a non-resident’s: income from savings and investments abroad stays outside Spanish tax. Remote employees on this permit can choose it if they were not Spanish tax residents in the five years before.
As a resident, your Renta (or Modelo 151 under the Beckham Law) is due between early April and 30 June each year, and the self-employed also have quarterly returns: our Spain tax calendar has each date.
US citizens keep filing a US return wherever they live: see a tax adviser who knows both systems.
Apply for the renewal online before your permit expires: your application keeps it valid until the decision. An application made in the 90 days after it expires still does, but can bring a fine. You show again that you work remotely, earn enough, are covered and have paid your taxes. Keep proof that you really live in Spain: your padrón certificate, your tax returns.
After five years of continuous legal residence, you can apply for long-term residence (residencia de larga duración): your right to live and work in Spain no longer depends on remote work. Absences of up to six months in a row, ten in total over the five years, don’t break that continuity. Spanish citizenship takes 10 years of legal residence, 2 years for nationals of Ibero-American countries, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea and Portugal, and 1 year for the spouse of a Spaniard. Our guide to becoming a legal resident in Spain covers each status.
Both visas do the same job. Spain asks €2,442 a month, decides in 20 days when you apply from inside the country, and gives 3 years at once; it also asks for a degree or three years of experience, and its social security requirement is where files fail. Portugal asks €3,680 a month in 2026, and its known wait is the residence permit appointment once you are there: see our guide to the Portugal digital nomad visa (D8).
Spain asks less income and decides faster; Portugal asks fewer conditions. If you hold an Ibero-American passport, Spain’s 2-year route to citizenship can settle the choice on its own. Our guide to Spanish visas compares the other routes.
The rules, amounts and fees in this guide were checked on 26 October 2026 against the law and the official portals:
Written by Brenda L., relocation expert at AnchorLess. Where consulates differ, check the checklist of yours.
Be a citizen of a country outside the EU, the EEA and Switzerland, working remotely for an employer or clients outside Spain for at least three months, for a company active for at least a year. Earn at least €2,442 a month in 2026, hold a degree or three years of experience, have a clean criminal record and health insurance, and be covered by a social security system.
Twice Spain’s monthly minimum wage: €2,442 a month, before tax, for one person. Add 75% of the minimum wage (€915.75 a month) for the first family member and 25% (€305.25) for each other one. Some consulates have counted it over a year of 14 payments, €34,188: income that reaches it is safe everywhere.
Your application is approved by administrative silence. If it asks for a missing document, the 20 days stop until you send it, and you have 10 days to do so; without an answer, your application is closed.
Yes, if you are in Spain legally, for example as a visitor. You apply online to the UGE-CE and get a residence permit of up to 3 years, instead of the 1-year visa a consulate gives.
Several consulates (New York, Houston, Toronto) ask for it before you apply for the visa, and you need one to live in Spain: for the TIE card, a bank account, a lease and your taxes. AnchorLess can get your NIE from abroad.
Employees can’t: their employer must be outside Spain. Freelancers can, up to 20% of their total professional activity.
No. It is a separate choice made with the tax office on form 149, within six months of your registration with Spanish social security. Ordinary freelancers can’t choose it.
Yes: your spouse or partner, your children under 18 or dependent, and your dependent parents, with you or later. Each one raises the income you need to show.
The consulate’s visa lasts up to 1 year; the residence permit up to 3 years, then renews for 2 years at a time. After 5 years of legal residence, you can apply for long-term residence.
Most often for social security that isn’t settled, income at the threshold with irregular payments, health insurance with co-payments or waiting periods, and missing apostilles or sworn translations.
Can't find the answer you're looking for? Contact our team of experts.
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