Spain

Spain's residence routes split by how the applicant earns a living. Remote workers for foreign companies have their own permit, and so do people living on savings, founders and self-employed people with Spanish clients. The comparison table on this page lines up each route's income floor, fee, first stay and filing place.

Short stays and who needs a permit

Non-EU nationals, whether visa-exempt or holding a short-stay Schengen visa, can spend up to 90 days in any 180-day period in the Schengen area. That allowance is shared across all 29 member countries, and a longer stay takes a national visa or residence permit.

The permits below are for nationals of countries outside the EU, the EEA and Switzerland. EU and EEA citizens who stay longer than three months register in person at the provincial foreigners' office or a police station within three months of arriving.

Remote workers: the digital nomad visa

Spain's digital nomad visa is built for people who work remotely for companies outside Spain, as employees or freelancers. Employees may work only for companies based abroad, while self-employed holders can also bill Spanish clients, up to 20% of their total professional activity.

• Who qualifies: A university or postgraduate degree, a vocational or business-school qualification, or at least three years of professional experience; at least three months of employment or contract relationship with the non-Spanish company, which must have been active for at least a year; work that can be done remotely; age 18 or over.
• From abroad: the telework visa, requested at a Spanish consulate and valid for up to 1 year. To stay on, holders apply in Spain for the residence authorization shortly before the visa expires.
• From inside Spain: Anyone legally present, for example on a visa-free stay, can file online with the Large Companies and Strategic Groups Unit (UGE-CE) for a residence authorization valid for up to 3 years. Filing extends the applicant's legal stay until the decision, which is due within 20 days; without an answer by then, the application counts as approved.

The route can decide whether an applicant meets the income test. The UGE-CE and most consulates apply the official minimum of €2,442 a month, twice the monthly minimum wage. Consulates that spread the annual minimum wage over 12 payments, such as the embassy in Canberra, compute €2,849 a month, so an applicant earning between the two figures meets the test in Spain but not at those consulates.

Spouses or partners, minor or dependent children and dependent parents can apply with the holder or join later, and each adds to the income test. Relatives of residents on other permits use family reunification instead. The sponsor must have lived in Spain for at least one year and have applied to stay at least one more year. Families of digital nomad visa and entrepreneur permit holders use a separate route with no one-year wait.

Living on savings or passive income

The non-lucrative residence permit fits retirees and others who will live on savings, pensions or investment income. It rules out work entirely, and the Spanish consulate in Washington says the ban covers remote work for foreign clients too. Applications go through the Spanish consulate for the applicant's place of residence and can't be started from inside Spain.

Founders and the self-employed

Founders of an innovative business of special economic interest to Spain can apply for the entrepreneur residence. There's no minimum investment, but the project needs a favorable report from ENISA, Spain's national innovation company, and the income test follows the same minimum-wage rule as the telework permit.

Freelancers who would bill more than 20% of their work to Spanish clients, or who plan to open a business in Spain, fall outside the telework permit. The self-employed work permit is the general route for them: It's requested at a consulate, the initial permit is limited to one region and one sector and renewed permits allow work anywhere in Spain.

The golden visa for property and other investors has been closed to new applicants since April 3, 2025. The nearest alternatives are the entrepreneur residence for people who will run a project in Spain and the non-lucrative permit for those who won't work.

Long-term residence can be requested after five years of continuous legal residence in Spain. Time on any of the active permits above counts toward it.

Rent sets most budgets in Spain. In Numbeo's crowd-sourced prices for September 2026, a single person's monthly spending excluding rent differed by only about €110 across the four cities below, while the average one-bedroom rent ran between about €930 outside central Valencia and €1,460 in central Barcelona.

Each total adds the average one-bedroom rent, outside the center and in it, to Numbeo's estimate of a single person's other monthly costs. Numbeo's national rent averages, which also cover smaller cities, run about €210 to €560 a month below the four cities' rents, so the choice of city moves a budget more than any other line in it.

Averages hide a wide spread. Numbeo's range for a central one-bedroom runs €1,000 to €2,000 in Madrid and €1,100 to €1,800 in Barcelona, and Madrid's figures rest on 1,626 price entries from 238 contributors over the past year, so they work as a guide rather than a quote.

Leases and deposits

Spain's urban leases law treats a seasonal let as a lease for a use other than housing, so the protections of a standard housing lease don't apply to it. A standard housing lease renews year by year at the tenant's option until it reaches five years, or seven if the landlord is a company. The cash deposit is one month's rent on a housing lease and two months' rent on other leases, seasonal lets included, and on housing leases of up to five years any extra guarantee is capped at two months' rent.

What the totals leave out

• Health insurance: Telework, entrepreneur and non-lucrative applicants must hold it, and premiums depend on age, insurer and plan.
• Coworking: A desk comes on top of rent, and prices vary by city and operator.

Five cities cover the main trade-offs: big-city scale, the beach, winter warmth and rent. Climate figures are 1981-2010 averages from AEMET, Spain's state weather agency, and rents come from Numbeo's September 2026 prices.

Madrid

Madrid, the capital and largest city, suits nomads who want big-city scale in the center of the country. Summers are hot, with July highs averaging 32.1°C at the Retiro station, and January nights average 2.7°C. Its rents are the second highest of the four cities in the cost table, about €100 to €120 a month below Barcelona's.

Barcelona

Barcelona offers a big city on the Mediterranean with beaches inside the city limits and a gentler climate than the capital: January averages 9.2°C at the airport station and July highs 28.0°C. Catalan and Spanish are both official in Catalonia, and anyone can use either. It's the most expensive of the four for rent, with a central one-bedroom averaging about €1,460.

Valencia

Valencia, the third-largest city, pairs a beach with the lowest rents of the four cities in the cost table, which suits longer stays on a budget. Winters are mild, with a January average of 11.8°C, and July highs average 29.7°C.

Málaga

Málaga suits nomads who want a smaller coastal city with mild winters. January averages 12.1°C at the airport station, and July highs average 30.5°C. Central rents are close to the capital's, at about €1,330 for a one-bedroom against Madrid's €1,340, so the saving over Madrid comes mostly from other costs.

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the largest city in the Canary Islands, suits nomads chasing winter sun. Gran Canaria airport averages 17.9°C in January and 24.6°C in August, with about 151 mm of rain a year. The trade-off is distance: The islands lie off northwest Africa, so reaching the mainland takes a flight or a long ferry crossing.

Fiber to the premises reached about 95% of Spanish households in 2024, against an EU average of 69%, according to the European Commission's Digital Decade report published in June 2025. The same report put 5G coverage at about 96% of households and found that a quarter of fixed broadband subscriptions ran at 1 Gbps or more. Coverage thins out in the countryside, where fiber reached about 86% of households in sparsely populated areas.

Speedtest's Global Index for August 2026 put Spain's median fixed broadband download at about 263 Mbps, 18th in the world, with a median upload of about 208 Mbps and latency of 12 ms. The median mobile download was about 84 Mbps. A home broadband line of 60 Mbps or more averaged about €29 a month and a mobile plan with calls and at least 10GB of data about €16, in Numbeo's September 2026 national prices.

Before signing a lease, renters can ask whether the flat has its own fiber line and which speed tier it's on. A local prepaid SIM or an eSIM with a data allowance makes a simple hotspot backup when a home line drops.

Coworking

Madrid and Barcelona, the two largest cities, have the widest choice of coworking spaces. Valencia, Málaga and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria also have spaces aimed at remote workers, while smaller towns may have one space or none. Day passes, part-time plans and fixed desks are the usual formats, and prices vary by operator and district.

A day pass is a low-cost way to test a space's connection, noise and opening hours before paying for a month.

Tax residence in Spain turns on days and ties, not on the type of permit. A person who spends more than 183 days in Spain in a calendar year is tax-resident for that year, and sporadic absences still count toward the total unless the person proves tax residence in another country with a certificate from that country's tax authority.

Residence also follows if the main base of a person's activities or economic interests is in Spain. The tax agency presumes residence when a spouse who isn't legally separated and dependent minor children live in Spain, unless the person proves otherwise. Residents pay Spanish income tax on their worldwide income, wherever it's earned and wherever the payer is based.

The regime for workers relocating to Spain

Employees who hold the telework visa meet the move condition for Spain's special regime for workers relocating to Spain (often called the Beckham law): 24% on employment income up to EUR 600,000 for the year of arrival and the next five, if not tax-resident in Spain in the previous five years and opted in within six months. The tax agency does not name self-employed holders.

Under the regime, the person remains a Spanish income-tax payer but pays under non-resident income tax rules. The regime is open to founders as well. Moving to Spain to carry out an ENISA-rated entrepreneurial activity qualifies for the special regime for workers relocating to Spain if the residence authorization was obtained before the move.

What to check

• Day count: Days in Spain count toward the threshold whatever the permit, visa-free stays included, so tracking them per calendar year matters from the first trip.
• Employee or self-employed: The tax agency's statement covers telework visa holders who are employees. Self-employed holders should confirm with the agency before counting on the regime.
• Regional scales: Outside the special regime, part of the income tax follows a scale set by each region, so the same income can be taxed differently in the Madrid region, Catalonia or the Valencian Community.
• Filing: Returns are filed after the calendar year ends; the tax agency opened the campaign for 2025 income on April 8, 2026.
• Tax treaties: Spain's double taxation agreements, listed by the Ministry of Finance, set how income is taxed when two countries both have a claim. It's worth checking whether one covers the home country before moving.

Arrival and paperwork

• Entry/Exit System: The EU system started on Oct. 12, 2025, and has covered every external border crossing since April 10, 2026. It registers non-EU short-stay visitors with a facial image and, if visa-exempt, fingerprints. Holders of a residence permit or long-stay visa aren't registered.
• ETIAS: Not yet operating and no official start date. The EU says it will announce the date several months before launch. The earlier official target, the last quarter of 2026, was removed from the official ETIAS website on July 14-17, 2026.
• Residence card: Non-EU residents whose permit runs longer than six months need a foreigner identity card (TIE). Under the general immigration regulation, the in-person application at a police station is due within one month, counted from arrival, approval or Social Security registration depending on the permit. The consular telework visa works as a residence document on its own while it's valid.
• NIE: Anyone who applies for a document to stay in Spain, or who has economic, professional or social dealings with the country, gets a foreigner identity number (NIE). Residence applicants receive it automatically, and it appears on the documents issued to them.
• Padrón: Spanish law requires everyone living in Spain to register on the padrón, the residents' register of the town hall where they usually live.

Money and phones

Spanish banks that offer payment accounts must also offer a basic payment account to anyone legally resident in the EU, including people with no fixed address. They can refuse only on limited grounds, such as missing anti-money-laundering information.

Prepaid SIM cards need ID: Operators must record each buyer's name, nationality and passport or ID number. Travelers with a SIM from another EU country roam in Spain at home prices, though operators can add capped surcharges when a customer spends more time and uses more data abroad than at home.

Health cover

Applicants for the telework and entrepreneur permits need public or private health insurance from an insurer authorized to operate in Spain, and non-lucrative applicants need health insurance too. EU travelers can use the European Health Insurance Card for treatment that can't wait until they get home, but it doesn't cover private healthcare or repatriation.

Safety and emergencies

The emergency number is 112, free from any phone. In crowds, on public transport and in shopping centers, Spain's official tourism site advises carrying only the cash needed and watching belongings. The Interior Ministry's AlertCops app lets users send an alert to the National Police or Civil Guard and chat with them, and victims of crime can get help in their own language from the Foreign Tourist Service (SATE).