Spain's digital nomad visa: requirements, the 24% tax and step-by-step filing in 2026

What the digital nomad visa is

The digital nomad visa (officially the visado para teletrabajadores de carácter internacional) appeared in December 2022 together with the startup law Ley de Startups (Ley 28/2022). It is the first Spanish status that legalises remote work as such: you physically live in Spain but earn from companies or clients outside it.

The status closes a long-standing grey zone. Previously, a remote worker who spent months living in Barcelona or the Canaries on a tourist visa was formally breaching the rules of stay. Now you have a full residence permit with the right to residency for your spouse and children, access to the healthcare system and free movement around the Schengen area.

Who the visa suits:

• Salaried employees of a foreign company working remotely under an employment contract;
• Freelancers and autónomos whose main clients are outside Spain.

The key restriction: if you work for clients from Spain, their share of your income must not exceed 20%. The rest must come from foreign sources.

Requirements for the applicant

The requirements fall into financial, professional and formal. Let us take each block.

The financial threshold

The minimum income is tied to the SMI (Salario Mínimo Interprofesional, Spain's minimum wage) and stands at roughly 200% SMI. In 2026 that is about 2 650-2 700 euros per month (around 32 000 euros per year). Always verify the exact amount before filing, as the SMI is revised.

The threshold increases for family members:

The figures above are a benchmark. The final calculation depends on the current SMI at the time of filing and your family composition.

Professional requirements

• Track record: the relationship with your employer or clients must have existed for at least 3 months before filing, and the company itself must have been registered and operating for at least 1 year.
• Qualifications: a university degree in your field or proven professional experience of 3 years or more.
• Nature of the work: the activity must allow a remote format.

Formal requirements

• No criminal record for the last 5 years - a certificate from your country of residence (and the countries where you have lived in recent years) with an apostille.
• Health insurance with full coverage in Spain, without excesses or waiting periods.
• No entry ban for Spain or the Schengen area.

Which documents you need

The exact list depends on the filing route and the specific consulate, but the base package looks like this:

• A passport valid beyond the requested period, plus copies.
• An employment contract (for employees) or client contracts (for freelancers) confirming the remote nature of the work and the foreign source of income.
• A letter from the employer authorising remote work from Spain - for employees.
• Proof of income for the last 3-6 months: account statements, invoices, tax returns.
• A criminal record certificate with an apostille and a sworn translation.
• Health insurance with full coverage in Spain.
• Proof of qualifications - a degree or evidence of experience.
• Proof of the employer company's registration (a registry extract, at least 1 year in existence).
• Completed application forms and payment of the consular/administrative fee.

All foreign documents require an apostille and a sworn translation (traducción jurada) into Spanish. This is a separate line of cost and time - allow several weeks for it.

The filing process: consulate or UGE

There are two routes, and the choice between them determines both the timeline and the scope of rights you start with.

Route 1. The Spanish consulate in your country of residence

You file the documents at the Spanish consulate, receive a type D visa for up to 1 year, enter Spain and within a month arrange the TIE (resident card) and complete your registration (empadronamiento). After that, already in Spain, you apply for the full residence permit.

Route 2. Filing from Spain via the UGE

If you are already legally in Spain (for example, on a tourist visa or visa-free entry), you can file directly with the UGE (Unidad de Grandes Empresas) - the specialised unit that processes applications quickly. The main advantage: the residence permit is issued for 3 years straight away, skipping the one-year visa.

Step by step, the UGE route looks like this:

1. Legal entry into Spain.
2. Collecting and legalising the document package (apostilles, translations).
3. Filing the application online with the UGE.
4. Processing and a positive decision.
5. Arranging the NIE/TIE and registering at your address.
6. Filing the tax regime application with the AEAT (more on that below).

For most clients already in Spain, the UGE route is the better deal: it is faster and gives three years of status immediately. The consular route is usually chosen by those applying in advance without leaving their country.

Processing times

Timelines depend on the filing route and the workload of the specific body. Benchmarks for 2026:

An important nuance: the UGE operates under the positive silence rule - if the authority has not responded within the set period, the application is deemed approved. In practice most of the time goes not on the processing itself but on preparing and legalising the documents. So start assembling the package 2-3 months before your planned moving date.

The 24% tax regime (Beckham)

One of the visa's main advantages is access to the special tax regime for inpatriates known as the Beckham law (régimen especial para trabajadores desplazados). It lets you pay tax at a flat rate instead of the progressive scale.

How it works

• A flat rate of 24% on employment income up to 600 000 euros per year (47% above that).
• You are taxed as a non-resident (under the IRNR model) - that is, mainly on income from Spanish sources rather than your entire worldwide income.
• The regime applies in the year you move and the following 5 years (up to 6 tax periods in total).

For comparison: the ordinary progressive IRPF scale reaches 45-47%. On an income of around 36 000 euros a year, the saving easily comes to several thousand euros annually.

The regime's pitfall

The Beckham regime application is filed separately with the AEAT tax agency (form Modelo 149) within 6 months of starting your activity or registering with social security. Miss the deadline and you lose the right to the benefit. It is one of the most frequent and costly mistakes, which is why the tax side is best run in parallel with the immigration side, not left for later.

Validity and renewal

The status is issued in stages and, as long as the conditions hold, leads to long-term residency:

After 5 years of legal, continuous residence you are entitled to apply for residencia de larga duración (the long-term permit), and further down the line for citizenship (for most countries that means 10 years, but the conditions depend on your situation).

To renew, you confirm that you still meet the requirements: the foreign income stays at the required level, the insurance is in force, there are no long breaks in residence, and your tax record is in order.

Pitfalls and refusal reasons

Most refusals happen not because the applicant does not qualify, but because of mistakes in the package. The most frequent:

• Weakly documented foreign income. Irregular payments, mismatches between contract amounts and statements, cash - all of it raises questions. You need a clean, consistent picture of payments.
• Unsuitable health insurance. Policies with an excess, waiting periods or incomplete coverage in Spain are not accepted. You need private Spanish clinic-level insurance without restrictions.
• An expired or incorrect criminal record certificate. The certificate takes a long time to obtain (1-2 months), goes stale quickly and needs an apostille - a frequent cause of missed deadlines.
• Exceeding the share of Spanish clients. If more than 20% of income comes from Spanish customers, this visa will be refused.
• Missing the Beckham deadline. Immigration approved, but the tax benefit lost - a straight loss of money.
• Translation mistakes. Only a sworn translation (traducción jurada) counts; an ordinary translation is not accepted.

The digital nomad visa is one of the most advantageous legalisation routes in Spain for remote workers and entrepreneurs, but the price of a mistake here is measured in months and money. That is why it is critical to assemble the package correctly the first time and to synchronise the immigration and tax parts.

We prepare digital nomad visa applications end to end: we check that you meet the requirements, gather the proof of income and run the case through to a decision. See our Residency in Spain service - or just leave a request, and we will tell you what your case needs.