Spain's Digital Nomad Visa, explained.

What is Spain's Digital Nomad Visa?

On 22 December 2022, Spain's parliament passed Ley 28/2022 de fomento del ecosistema de las empresas emergentes — better known as the Ley de Startups or "Startups Law." The law created a new long-stay visa and residence permit for international remote workers, which entered into force on 1 January 2023. The legal basis is Article 71 of Ley 14/2013, as amended.

The visa lets you live in Spain while continuing to work for non-Spanish employers or non-Spanish clients. Two parallel routes exist: a 1-year visa issued by a Spanish consulate in your country of residence, or a 3-year residence permit issued by the Unidad de Grandes Empresas y Colectivos Estratégicos (UGE-CE) in Madrid if you apply from inside Spain. Both are renewable up to a total of five years, after which you become eligible for permanent residency.

Who qualifies?

To get the visa, you need to satisfy all of the following:

• Earn enough. At least 200% of the SMI — Spain's monthly minimum wage. For 2025 that's roughly EUR 2,762/mo or EUR 33,144/year. Family members add 75% SMI for the first dependant (~EUR 1,036/mo) and 25% per additional (~EUR 345/mo each). Most consulates ask for 3–12 months of consistent income proof.
• Be a remote worker, not a Spanish-client freelancer. Either an employee of a non-Spanish company, or a freelancer/contractor whose Spanish-resident clients account for no more than 20% of total income.
• Show qualifications or experience. Either a 3-year university degree (or equivalent) or at least three years of professional experience in your field. Most professional fields qualify.
• Show employment continuity. If you're an employee, your foreign employer must be at least one year old and you must have been with them for at least three months. A letter from the employer authorising remote work from Spain is required.
• Have private health cover. A Spanish-licensed private health insurance policy with full coverage in Spain, no co-payments, no deductibles, no waiting periods. Travel insurance does not qualify.
• Have a clean criminal record. Issued by your country of residence and any country you've lived in for more than 6 months in the past 2 years (FBI Identity History for US citizens, ACRO for UK, RCMP for Canada), apostilled and sworn-translated into Spanish.
• Have not been a Spanish tax resident in the past 5 years. This requirement is what unlocks the optional Beckham Law tax regime later.

The two routes — consular vs. in-Spain

This is the most consequential decision in your application, and most guides bury it. The Spanish DNV can be applied for in two ways, and the two routes produce different outputs:

If your timeline is tight or you're already in Spain, the UGE route is faster and gives you more residence time on the first approval. If you want every document signed, sealed, and apostilled before stepping on a plane, the consular route is the safer pick.

Documents you'll need

Spain's document list is one of the longer ones in Europe, but most of it is paperwork you can gather in a couple of weekends. Plan on these:

• Application form (Modelo nacional de visado, or the UGE online form for the in-Spain route).
• Passport, valid for at least one year past the visa start date, plus 2 photocopies.
• Two passport-sized photos, recent, on white background.
• Proof of remote work and authorisation: employment contract or services contract; letter from your employer authorising remote work from Spain; certificate that the employer has been operating for at least 1 year; certificate that you've worked there for at least 3 months.
• Proof of qualification: university degree (apostilled, translated) or 3 years of work experience evidence (CV plus reference letters).
• Proof of income: 3 months of payslips minimum, or 6–12 months of bank statements; recent invoices for freelancers.
• Proof of social security coverage: a certificate of social-security coverage from your country (form A1 if EU, US Certificate of Coverage if US), or proof you'll register with Spanish Seguridad Social on arrival.
• Spanish-compliant private health insurance, full coverage, no co-pays. SafetyWing, Cigna Global, Sanitas, DKV Mundicare, and Adeslas all issue compliant policies.
• Criminal record certificate from your country and any country you've lived in for more than 6 months in the last 2 years. Apostilled, sworn-translated into Spanish.
• Sworn affidavit of no criminal record in the past 5 years (declaración responsable).
• Visa fee receipt — varies by consulate, typically EUR 73–94. The UGE route is around EUR 73–80.
• Proof of address / accommodation in Spain — sometimes required, varies by consulate.

What it actually costs

End-to-end, an honest budget for a single applicant:

The application, step by step

Apostilles and sworn translations

Spain accepts the Hague Apostille Convention. That means foreign-issued documents — the criminal record, the university degree, the marriage certificate — must be apostilled in their country of origin before they're submitted in Spain. Once apostilled, the document and its apostille must be translated by a sworn translator (traductor jurado) accredited by Spain's Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores.

What this means in practice: order all documents at least 2 months before you plan to apply. Apostilles in the US are issued by the state Secretary of State (for state-issued documents) and the US Department of State (for federal documents like the FBI check). UK apostilles are issued by the Legalisation Office. Canadian apostilles are now (post-2024) issued by Global Affairs Canada under the Hague accession.

Tax — the Beckham Law option

If you stay in Spain more than 183 days in a calendar year, you become a Spanish tax resident. Worldwide income is then in scope, with progressive rates that top out around 45–47% depending on the autonomous community.

Spain's most consequential tax-policy lever for DNV holders is the Régimen Especial para Trabajadores Desplazados — better known as the Beckham Law, after the Real Madrid signing it was originally designed for. Ley 28/2022 explicitly extended Beckham Law eligibility to DNV holders. If you opt in:

• Spanish-sourced income is taxed at a flat 24% on the first EUR 600,000, then 47% above.
• Foreign-sourced income is generally not taxed in Spain.
• You're treated as a non-resident for wealth tax and Modelo 720 (the foreign-asset reporting form) — a major simplification.
• The regime lasts up to 6 years from the year you become tax resident.

To elect Beckham, file Modelo 149 within 6 months of registering with Spanish Seguridad Social or starting work in Spain. Miss the window and you can't elect later. This is the single most expensive paperwork mistake DNV holders make — most lawyers will run a Beckham eligibility check at intake. See our resources for listed firms.

Visiting Spain on the Schengen tourist stamp first

You can scout Spain on the standard Schengen tourist allowance — up to 90 days within any 180-day period, visa-free for citizens of the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, Argentina, and most South American countries. From late 2026 the EU's ETIAS pre-authorisation may apply (~EUR 7, valid 3 years).

Two important rules:

• The 90-day Schengen window covers all 29 Schengen countries combined. Days in Italy, France, Germany count against the same allowance.
• If you're applying via the in-Spain UGE route, you can file from inside Spain on a tourist stamp. You don't need to leave the country during processing — your tourist legal stay is bridged by the in-flight application.
• If you're applying via the consular route, you cannot apply from inside Spain. You must be physically in your country of residence.

Renewals and the 5-year horizon

Both routes lead to the same place. After your initial 1-year visa (consular) or 3-year permit (UGE), you can renew for additional 2-year periods, up to a total of 5 years on the DNV permit. At year 5 you become eligible for the Permiso de Residencia de Larga Duración — Spain's permanent residency, indefinitely renewable every 5 years.

After 10 years of legal Spanish residence (or 2 years for citizens of Ibero-American countries, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea, Andorra, and Sephardic Jews) you become eligible for Spanish citizenship. Spain generally does not allow dual citizenship except with the above-listed countries — applicants from elsewhere must usually renounce their original citizenship.

What to do next

Three practical next steps:

1. Open the application checklist. 30+ items, broken into 6 phases, progress saved in your browser. Gives you a single source of truth as documents accumulate.
2. Sort out an NIE. Free or near-free, available from any Spanish consulate. Unlocks Spanish bank accounts and rentals before your visa is even approved.
3. Pick a city. Browse the 20 city guides. The visa is country-wide; the lifestyle is not.