Spain Digital Nomad Visa: income, two routes, documents and steps

What is the Spain digital nomad visa, and who is it for?

The Spain digital nomad visa (DNV) is Spain's residence route for non-EU people who work remotely for companies outside Spain. It has been in force since 23 December 2022. The law calls these workers "teletrabajadores de carácter internacional", international teleworkers. The rules sit in Ley 14/2013, extended by Ley 28/2022.

Spain granted 9,386 of these permits in 2023, 19,500 in 2024 and 28,324 in 2025, counting main applicants and family members. In 2025, 14,912 went to main applicants and 13,412 to family, according to Spain's Permanent Observatory of Immigration (OPI).

The conditions:

• You're 18 or over and not an EU, EEA or Swiss citizen. (Those citizens can already live in Spain freely and don't need it.)
• You work remotely, using computers, phones and similar tools, for a company or clients based outside Spain.
• You have a degree or a similar qualification, or at least three years of work experience. Either one is enough: "o bien con una experiencia profesional mínima de tres años" (art. 74 bis.2).
• The company has been running for real for at least a year: "actividad real y continuada durante al menos un año". You've worked with it for at least the 3 months before you apply, and it allows you to work from Spain.
• You have a clean criminal record, health cover and enough income.

Four kinds of worker usually fit:

1. An employee of a company outside Spain.
2. A freelancer with foreign clients. Spanish clients are allowed, up to 20% of your work.
3. The owner of a company outside Spain, with four extra documents. This is the hardest case to get approved.
4. A sole trader (someone registered as self-employed) in your home country, with foreign clients.

Some people are shut out. If your foreign employer has a branch in Spain, you fall under a different permit, the one for staff moved within a company. The 2023 Joint Instruction, the government's guidance note on this visa, rules out the DNV for you. If you hold Spain's non-working residence permit, the "non-lucrative" visa, you can't base a DNV application on remote work done on it. That permit "no autoriza a trabajar", doesn't allow you to work, says the FAQ of Spain's immigration office for these permits, the "UGE". From here on we call it the immigration office. The visa runs on work income. In 2026, advisers reported refusals where crypto or passive income was presented as work income.

What are the steps to apply for the Spain digital nomad visa?

If you apply from inside Spain, there are 7 steps: get your papers ready at home, fly to Spain, apply online, wait for the answer, sign up for Social Security and register your address, give your fingerprints, and collect your residence card. The paperwork at the start is the slowest part, so begin there.

Each step has deadlines that depend on your route and family. Compass lays them out as a dated plan, free, with the rule, what applicants report in practice and our advice for every step.

How many times do you need to be in Spain until you get your card?

If you apply from inside Spain, plan on being in Spain at three moments: the day you file, your fingerprint appointment after approval, and the day you collect your card, which you have to do in person. You can cover all three in one stay of roughly 2 to 4 months, or in 2 or 3 trips.

If you leave Spain while your application is pending, you need a fresh legal entry to come back for fingerprints, such as visa-free days you haven't used or a new Schengen visa. Between fingerprints and collecting the card, a return permit, the "autorización de regreso", lets you travel and come back. Each family member gives their own fingerprints and collects their own card. Family decisions often come weeks after the main applicant's, so families sometimes need an extra trip.

What counts as qualifying remote work for the DNV?

The DNV counts remote work for companies outside Spain, as an employee or a freelancer, where the relationship has lasted at least 3 months and the company has been active for at least 1 year. Freelancers may also have Spanish clients, up to 20% of their professional activity.

Employees

You can work only for companies outside Spain. The immigration office expects a letter from your employer allowing you to work from Spain, with your duties and your gross salary in euros. Add your contract, recent payslips and the matching bank entries. Describe the duties as remote work: duties that read as on-site work were a refusal trigger in 2026. If your employer has a branch in Spain, the DNV is closed to you.

Check how long your contract runs. Advisers report that in 2026, if a contract ends sooner than 3 years, the permit can be granted only up to that end date. An open-ended contract, or a signed extension before you file, avoids that. The same applies to freelance service contracts.

Freelancers

Spanish clients are fine as long as that work is no more than 20% of your total professional activity: "no sea superior al 20 % del total de su actividad profesional" (art. 74 bis.1). The law doesn't say how to measure it. Our own working measure is your share of invoiced income, and we aim for 15% or less to leave a buffer. You prove the work with client contracts, invoices and the matching payments. The companies you work with need the same year of activity and 3 months of history with you.

Company owners

"Can I use my own company?" Sometimes, but it's the hardest Spain digital nomad visa file to get approved. If you're the sole owner, or you have effective control, "control efectivo", meaning you run the company in practice, the immigration office's checklist asks for four extra documents. Each one tests whether your company is a real business or a shell for your own work.

Two rules work in an owner's favour. If you own 100% and the company has more than a year of real, continuous activity, the immigration office treats the 3-month work relationship as met. And you don't need a letter allowing remote work, because you'd be signing it yourself. If you can't produce the company documents, the checklist's fallback is your own personal tax return for the previous year.

Is it realistic? For a real operating company, yes. That means one that files its own accounts and tax return, has staff on payroll, owns its equipment or premises, earns from clients rather than from you, and pays you a regular salary into your personal account. For a one-person company that exists to invoice your own clients, approval is a long shot in 2026. From February 2026, advisers reported refusals where the income came from a company the applicant solely owned. The Spanish adviser we spoke to steers owners away from filing on that basis.

What do owners do instead? The usual route is to apply as a freelancer. That means a contract between you, as an individual, and a client company you don't own, which has existed for at least a year, with at least 3 months of invoices paid into your personal account. Your company can keep running; it simply isn't the basis of the application. That's dated practice to reduce risk, and the law doesn't require it. If almost all your income sits in your own company and you can't build that track record, check whether the DNV is the right route before you spend money on documents.

The rules set no percentage threshold, so the claim that owning 25% or less is "safe" has nothing official behind it.

Home-country sole traders

A sole-trader registration in your home country with foreign clients is a different, simpler case. You invoice as yourself, so the owner documents don't apply in the same way. In one 2026 example, a sole trader with clients abroad filed in Spain on 24 April and was approved on 29 June.

Do you need a lease or proof of address for the Spain digital nomad visa?

You don't need a lease to apply for the Spain digital nomad visa from inside Spain. A hotel or holiday rental address is fine for the application. You only need a real address after you're approved, when you do your town-hall registration, the "padrón", before giving your fingerprints. Some consulates also ask for an address when you apply for the visa.

Which city should you stay in? If you won't have a rental contract soon after approval, stay in Madrid, Barcelona or Málaga. People report that the police there take fingerprints without the town-hall registration. In Madrid and Barcelona, a short-term rental has been accepted for the registration itself. Elsewhere, expect to need a longer rental contract. Sort out a stable address before your approval arrives, so the registration doesn't hold up your card.

How do you prove you were in Spain on the day you filed your DNV?

For an in-Spain DNV filing, keep proof that you entered Spain and were there on filing day. Since about March 2026, applicants and advisers report refusals where the only proof was a police entry declaration made after arriving through another Schengen country. Practice is moving, so recheck before you fly.

The EU's Entry/Exit System (EES) went live on 10 April 2026, and passports are no longer stamped at the EU's external border. That removed the simplest proof people had. Entry-stamp practice changed again around late October 2026, and the immigration office hasn't published any instruction on what evidence it now expects.

If you arrive from another Schengen country there's usually no border check. So you may need to make a declaration of entry, a "declaración de entrada", at a police station, within 3 days where the rule applies. In 2026 practice, that declaration alone hasn't always been enough, and some refusals came without a request for more documents first.

The office has also asked people to prove they left their home country. The sole-trader case filed on 24 April 2026 got exactly that request on 25 May. The applicant had flown from an airport that no longer stamps biometric passports. The answer explained this and included the travel records.

What advisers recommend in 2026:

• Fly direct to Spain where you can.
• Keep boarding passes, e-tickets and any entry record for the whole trip from your home country.
• Make the entry declaration within 3 days if you arrive from another Schengen country and the rule applies to you.
• Consider a notary's record of your presence, an "acta de presencia". That's a record in which a Spanish notary certifies that you appeared before them on a given date. Many advisers add one shortly before filing.
• Don't leave the Schengen area between arriving and filing.

There's no official checklist for any of this. It's what advisers use while the rules are unclear.

Can your family come with you on the Spain digital nomad visa?

Yes. The Spain digital nomad visa covers your spouse or partner, dependent children and dependent parents, who can apply with you or later. The first adds 75% of the minimum wage to your income figure (€915.75 a month at a consulate, plan for €1,068.38 in Spain) and each further one 25% (€305.25, or plan for €356.13).

The law lets family apply "conjunta y simultánea o sucesivamente", together with you or later (BOE). That covers your spouse or a partner in an equivalent relationship (the immigration office's guidance includes stable partners as well as registered ones), children who depend on you and haven't set up their own household, and parents who depend on you.

Each person has a separate file linked to yours, with their own MI-F form, fee and proof of relationship and dependency. Their permits allow them to work. For a family of four, the table gives €3,968.25 a month at a consulate and €4,629.63 a month (€55,555.50 a year) to plan for in Spain.

Expect decisions to arrive at different times. Joint filings are meant to be decided together, but in 2026 family decisions often came 4–8 weeks after the main applicant's. If your family follows later, advisers report that in practice they join after the main applicant has registered as self-employed.

A child who turns 18 before joining you, or before a renewal, can still come as family while they depend on you, for example as a full-time student with no work history. Advisers report that the file then needs evidence of that dependency.

How are digital nomads taxed in Spain, and does the Beckham law apply to the DNV?

Holding the Spain digital nomad visa doesn't decide where you pay tax. You're a Spanish tax resident if you spend more than 183 days a year in Spain, if your main economic interests are in Spain, or if your spouse and minor children live there. Under the Beckham law, employees on the DNV qualify expressly and pay 24% on employment-type income up to €600,000; freelancers don't qualify simply by holding the visa.

Tax treaties have rules to settle which country you belong to when both claim you as a tax resident. US citizens keep filing US returns wherever they live.

The Beckham law is a special tax scheme for people who move to Spain. It sits in article 93 of the income tax law (Ley 35/2006). Since Ley 28/2022 it names this visa: remote employees meet the move-to-Spain condition "con el visado para teletrabajo de carácter internacional", with the international telework visa.

Source: Ley 35/2006, art. 93; guidance from the Spanish tax agency (AEAT) on who qualifies. Checked 29 October 2026.

"Is Beckham for me?" Three things decide it. The 24% applies to general income such as salary, up to €600,000 ("hasta 600.000 euros: 24"). Interest, dividends and gains have their own scale. The deadline is short: Modelo 149, the opt-in form, is due within 6 months of your Social Security start date (or the date on a valid home-country certificate), and it doesn't wait for your residence card. And it doesn't pay off for everyone. Advisers told us in October 2026 that for employees it tends to pay off from about €60,000 a year. That's an adviser's opinion, and your own figures decide it.

Have a Spanish tax adviser run your numbers before you file Modelo 149 or decide against it.

When can you get permanent residence or Spanish citizenship on the DNV?

On the Spain digital nomad visa, long-term (permanent) residence comes after 5 years of continuous legal residence. Citizenship comes after 10 years in general, or 2 years for nationals of Ibero-American countries (the legal term for Latin America's Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries), Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea and Portugal. The 1-year consular visa is expected to count toward the 5 years, but that isn't officially confirmed.

Long-term residence is in RD 1155/2024, in force since 20 May 2025. It's for people who "hayan residido legalmente y de forma continuada … durante los cinco años previos", who've lived in Spain legally and continuously for the previous five years. You may be away for up to 6 months at a time and 10 months in total, or 18 months in total for work.

The consular visa is a title to live in Spain in its own right, which is why its year is expected to count. We've found no official DNV-specific confirmation. On the in-Spain route the question doesn't arise.

Citizenship is in the Civil Code: 10 years of legal residence in general; 2 years for nationals by origin of Ibero-American countries, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea and Portugal, and for Sephardic Jews ("dos años cuando se trate de nacionales de origen de países iberoamericanos … o Portugal"); and 1 year in special cases, such as a child born in Spain or a year of marriage to a Spaniard.

For Brazilians, Mexicans, Colombians and other Latin Americans, citizenship can come before long-term residence. Most other applicants must give up their old nationality. The groups above don't have to under Spanish law, and French citizens are covered by a separate treaty.

Earliest points to check your position, assuming continuous legal residence within the absence limits. The years are minimums, each application has its own conditions, and no date is promised.

Why do DNV applications get refused, and what can you do?

In 2026, the Spain digital nomad visa refusal triggers advisers report include weak proof of presence, income that doesn't match bank statements, and owner files missing company evidence. If the immigration office refuses you, you appeal to the authority above it, a "recurso de alzada". If a consulate refuses you, use the remedy on the notice: usually asking the consulate to reconsider, a "reposición", within 1 month, or going to the High Court of Justice of Madrid within 2 months.

The rest of the 2026 list: duties that read as on-site work, crypto or passive money presented as work income, insurance that doesn't meet the rules, apostille QR codes that can't be verified, and gaps in self-employed contributions or tax at renewal. Almost all of them can be fixed before you file.

A request for more documents means the office wants more before it decides. Answer every point within the deadline printed on it. Requests add weeks, and the April 2026 case above was approved after one.

If you're refused, your route decides the remedy. A recurso de alzada is an appeal to the higher authority inside the government. A recurso de reposición asks the consulate to reconsider. The court appeal goes to the High Court of Justice of Madrid, the "TSJ". Deadlines are short, so take the notice to a qualified immigration professional the same day. For an in-Spain refusal, advisers report that some applicants fix the file and apply again instead of appealing, as long as they're still legally in Spain or can return legally. Which is better depends on the reason for the refusal.

How can you build your own Spain digital nomad visa plan?

Compass Spain, our free planning tool, turns this DNV guide into your own dated plan: your route, your household's income figure (€2,442 at a consulate, €2,849 to plan for in Spain), your documents and your deadlines.

It asks where you live, which passport you hold, how you work and who's moving with you. Then it builds a step-by-step plan for your route, with document checklists and dates such as the 60-day window, the 1-month residence card deadline and the 6-month Modelo 149 clock. Each step has three parts, like this guide: the rule, what applicants report in practice, and our advice.

Compass gives you a plan and a checklist. The decision on your application stays with the Spanish office.

Build your Spain plan in Compass, free.

Where do these Spain digital nomad visa facts come from, and how did we check them?

Every legal fact on this Spain digital nomad visa page was checked against official Spanish sources on 29 October 2026: the BOE (Spain's official gazette), the immigration office's checklists and FAQ, the tax agency (AEAT) and the Civil Code.

Our team wrote this page from those sources and from 2026 practice reports by applicants and advisers; no lawyer has reviewed it. Practice points are labelled and dated. Where the sources conflict or say nothing (freelancer Social Security, how to measure the 20%, the in-Spain income basis, the consular visa year) we've said so. Check your own file with a qualified adviser before you send it.

The consular figures (€2,442, +€916, +€306) come from indexed excerpts of consular pages that blocked a full fetch; they match the arithmetic on the official minimum wage. The grant statistics come from the OPI's own dashboard of permits granted under Ley 14/2013, published on 7 July 2026, which we read on 29 October 2026.

Spain holds a snap general election in late November 2026. We'll recheck this page afterwards and update it if the rules change.

• Ley 14/2013, consolidated text (arts. 61, 62, 74 bis–76; additional provision 7)
• Ley 39/2015, art. 30 (working days)
• Royal Decree 126/2026 (2026 minimum wage) and Royal Decree 87/2025 (2025 minimum wage)
• 2023 Joint Instruction on international teleworkers
• Immigration office teleworkers page, main applicant checklist, family checklist and FAQ
• Immigration office general renewal guide, February 2018
• Plataforma ONE: residence application for digital nomads and digital nomad visa application
• Spanish Consulate in Washington, telework visa page
• Ley 35/2006, art. 93, tax agency (AEAT) guidance on who the Beckham scheme covers and Modelo 149 instructions
• RD 1155/2024 (art. 183, long-term residence)
• Código Civil (arts. 22–24, nationality)
• Ley Orgánica 1/2025 (golden visa abolition)