Your Complete Guide to Spain Digital Nomad Visa 2025: Live and Work Under the Sun

This year Spain ranked first on the list of the best countries for digital nomads, winning second time in a row. Sounds like a great destination, right? If you’re considering Spain, you need to make sure you know how the programme works. That is because there are many nuances to it many don’t talk about. 

In this article, I cover eligibility and financial requirements, visa application process, tax and residency rules, and tips from a digital nomad living in Spain and today’s expert Dmitrii. 

What is the Spain digital nomad visa?

Spanish digital nomad visa also known as Telework Visa was introduced in 2023. The programme is designed specifically for those who work remotely for a company outside of Spain or are self-employed with at least 80% of clients based outside the country. 

If applying from outside Spain, the visa initially allows remote workers to stay for up to one year, which can then be converted to a 3-year residence permit. 

Those who apply from within Spain (while legally present in the country) can get a 3-year residence permit by applying for an autorización de residencia por teletrabajo internacional. The permit is renewable for an additional 2 years, so digital nomads can stay for up to five years total. 

To maintain your residence permit for renewal, you should stay in Spain for at least 6 consecutive months within any 12-month period. 

After 5 continuous years living in Spain, you can apply for permanent residency. And after another 5 years as a permanent resident, you may apply for Spanish citizenship. 

Who is eligible to apply?

As stated on the official website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation of Spain, you’re eligible if you:

• Are not a EU/EEA/Swiss citizen and aren’t covered by European Union law.
• Work using primarily computers, internet, and telecommunication.
• Have an employer based outside Spain or are a self-employed freelancer. In the case of the latter, you can also work with Spanish companies, but this cannot exceed 20% of your total professional activity.
• Hold a graduate or postgraduate degree from a recognized university, college, or business school, or can prove you have at least three years of work experience in your current occupation. 
• Earn a monthly income equivalent to 200% of the Spanish minimum wage (SMI). That is €2,763 per month as of October 2025. 
• Have no criminal record. 

Family members eligible to join the visa holder are spouses or common-law partners, minor children, financially dependent adult children who have not started their own families, and dependent parents.

My partner and I applied with a marriage certificate that was apostilled and translated into Spanish by a sworn (jurado) translator. Almost all official documents need this kind of translation because it's the highest level of document authenticity recognized by Spanish bureaucracy. The Spanish government has a special file listing all available certified translators for different languages. A translation done by a jurado translator is considered official.

{{Dmitrii M.}}

These were just some of the basics. Now, let’s take a closer look at the nuances. 

What are the required documents for a Spanish Digital nomad visa? 

Here are the papers required from applicants and their family members:  

• National visa application form — one per each applicant. You can download it here. 
• Official forms. Modelo EX-01 is used when applying from outside Spain, while Modelo EX-23 is for those already in the country applying for or renewing their residence permit.
• Photograph. Has to fulfill classic requirements — be recent and color, no reflective glasses, light background, face fully revealed.
• Passport or official travel document. Must have a validity of at least a year and two blank pages. 
• Criminal record check certificate. You need to present clean criminal record certificates, properly apostilled, from countries you have resided in for the past two years. 
• Visa fee. The amount depends on the country you’re applying from and currency fluctuations, but it’s usually around €80. 
• Modelo 790 código 012. A payment receipt of the consular fee aka TIE. 
• Valid health insurance without copayments authorized in Spain, which covers 100% of expenses. 
• Proof of family relationship or partnership, such as birth or marriage certificate, in case you’re moving with family. 
• Proof of employment: 
  
  • Employees: work contract stating the length of the contract, confirmation from your employer that you can work remotely, and salary. If the salary is not in euros, you may need to include a short explanatory note with an approximate conversion into euros for the agent reviewing your document package.
  • Self-employed: proof of your contract duration and terms for working remotely in Spain.

There are different rules for freelancers and full employees whose employer pays social security contributions in their country. If you have an employment contract with a company anywhere in the world, your tax and registration process will be a bit different: you will likely be exempt from paying social security in Spain because your employer already pays these contributions for you. However, it’s important to check your specific situation individually.

{{Dmitrii M.}}

• Proof of income. Work contract, a job offer, etc. If you’re bringing your family, you have to earn at least 75% of Spanish minimum wage for the first family member, plus 25% of the minimum wage for each additional person. That is on top of the 200% of SMW mentioned above. 
• Proof that your company was established at least a year ago — a certificate from the Mercantile Registry or similar body.
• A declaration from your company or yourself confirming you’ll follow Spanish social security rules before starting work.
• Employees need proof that the company is registered with Spanish Social Security and that they themselves are affiliated.
• Self-employed applicants must show registration in Spain’s RETA (social security system for freelancers).
• Empadronamiento. Once your residence permit is approved, you need to register your address in Spain. 

If there’s a social security agreement between Spain and your home country, sometimes you can keep your coverage there and submit a certificate that confirms it instead. 

When you first apply, your contract must either be open-ended or not have a set end date. For example, if you have a one-year contract and apply with that, your visa or residence permit will only be valid for the duration of that contract — so, one year. This is very important to keep in mind.

{{Dmitrii M.}}

Keep in mind all documents need to be legalized or apostilled and most of the time translated into Spanish with a sworn translator. 

How do you apply outside Spain? 

If you’re currently outside Spain, the procedure is pretty straightforward. 

• Book your appointment online. You can do that on Mercurio — an electronic version of an immigration office. Register on the website, fill in the form, and make sure you have a digital certificate to authenticate your identity. Then schedule your appointment. 
• Gather all the documents you need to apply (check the previous chapter). 
• Attend your appointment. Visit the embassy or consulate in person for an interview with all your documents. 
• Wait for your application to be approved. The wait time for processing depends on the location. It can be anywhere from 10 to 45+ days. This type of visa validity is 1 year. If you’re only planning on staying for a year, the visa in your passport will be enough to accredit your legal stay. 

Important note: if you don’t need a visa to enter Spain, you don’t have to apply for a digital nomad visa from home. You may simply fly in on a tourist visa and apply while already in the country. 

To operate in Spain, you’ll need a Foreign Identification Number (NIE). You can apply for it both back home at your local embassy or consulate and upon arrival at the Foreigner's Office or police station. There’s more to it though so stay tuned.

How do you apply from Spain? 

If you’re planning on getting a residence permit in Spain, here’s the process you need to follow: 

• Enter Spain on legal terms — even a tourist visa will do. Make sure you apply before your legal stay expires. 
• Gather the required documents. 
• Book your appointment online via Mercurio — the process is described in the chapter above.  
• Wait for the interview. It takes around 20 days and might extend to another 10 if it turns out you need to submit additional documents. 

If you don’t get a reply within the legal deadline, there is usually a special “auto-approval” process. This procedure basically guarantees your application will receive a green light. But only if your document package is 100% complete and correct. 

• When your application is approved, it’s time to book an appointment for fingerprint submission at a police station. Visit this website, sign in with your digital signature, and schedule — all online. Keep in mind there’s a high demand for such appointments so you might end up spending a lot of time refreshing the page. 

• Receive your residence permit and official documents confirming your NIE (Foreign Identification Number). The NIE is assigned to you automatically during your application processing.

• Once you receive your residence permit, it is mandatory to register all family members with social security under the primary applicant. 

The toughest part for us was booking an appointment to submit fingerprints at the police station after the approval. That was seriously the hardest step once we found out our visa was approved — so tough, in fact, that we had to fly to a different region to give our fingerprints there and also get our residence cards there a few weeks later. I don’t know how it is nowadays for first-time pickups, but I hope they’ve sorted it out.

{{Dmitrii M.}}

Taxes for digital nomads in Spain

Taxes are one of the trickiest topics. Dmitrii generously shared his experience navigating the Spanish tax system. Here are the major takeaways and tips.

Spain has a progressive tax system. So the more you earn annually, the higher your tax rate will be. 

Freelancers use the Modelo 130 form to make quarterly advance payments, which are usually 20% of net income due in January, April, July, and October. 

These quarterly payments of 20% are not a fixed rate though. They are there to spread out your income tax burden over the year instead of paying it all at once. The actual annual tax rate can range from 19% to 47%.

When you file an annual income tax return at the end of the fiscal year, your income, expenses, deductions, and advance payments are reconciled. Any overpayments are refunded and any underpayments must be paid.. 

Additionally, you need to make social security contributions. As part of the nomad program, you must register as an autónomo, or self-employed. During your first year of being self-employed, you pay a reduced monthly social security contribution rate, which is around 86 euros. After that, your contributions are tied to your monthly income. 

Now, what about VAT (IVA) and residency-dependent taxation? VAT depends on where your clients are based and your tax status varies depending on how long you stay in the country. Here’s a breakdown: 

As you can see, VAT and tax status rules are dramatically different. 

If you move in the second half of the year, there’s a chance you’ll end up paying taxes for the entire tax year because the 183-day rule isn’t strictly prioritized in Spain. If you’re planning to relocate, it’s better to do it in late November or December. While you wait for your documents, you can’t open a self-employed status (autónomo) yet. So, if you register as autónomo in January, you’ll be fully exempt from Spain’s tax reports for the previous year.
My personal effective tax rates in Asturias ended up like this:
2023: ~9.5%
2024: ~21%
2025:~23%
2026: I expect something between 25% and 30%

{{Dmitrii M.}}

Dmitrii also recommends researching at least the basic conditions of each autonomous community before moving. Important exceptions are Biscay and the Canary Islands — they have very unique tax systems, so keep in mind that their rules and laws are different. 

If you want to study conditions specifically for these two regions, it’s best to consult local tax advisors (“gestores”) there. Other regions in Spain generally follow the common legal framework.

Deduction rules differ from region to region, so checking out the specifics of your destination before moving is important.

Beckham Law

Another lucrative thing about the Spanish digital nomad visa is the Beckham tax law. Some advisors promise you’ll pay a flat 24% tax on your worldwide income if you earn less than 600,000 euros per year. But in reality, Dmitrii shared, while this law really exists, it’s not granted to everyone. There are strict criteria that can be hard to meet: 

• Not having been a Spanish tax resident in the past 5 years.
• Relocating for work purposes — whether working for a Spanish company or a remote worker. 
• Applying for a tax residency and Beckham regime in the first 6 months upon arrival. 
• Having at least 85% of your work activities performed in the country. 

Many newcomers seem to believe they will automatically get it. But that’s not true. Plus, the law only makes sense if your income is very high or if you have a lot of passive income earned outside Spain that won’t be taxed in Spain.

Cost of living in Spain

The cost of living depends on many factors including where you live, your spending habits, your healthcare needs, whether you have children, etc. To give you a broader idea, here’s a country-by-country comparison:

Let’s compare the cost of living in different cities (data from Numbeo as of October 2025). 

I remember the times Spain was considered an affordable destination. After doing some research online, it looks like it’s shifting. 

Common challenges digital nomads might face 

The biggest challenge for Dmitrii was opening a bank account. Basically, for almost any process, you need a local tax ID number, the NIE. You have to wait to get your residence card (TIE), and only then will the bank open your account. In fact, the account can be opened remotely without leaving your home. 

Dmitrii also commented that housing was the second issue for the same reason. You need to pay rent from a Spanish bank account, but you can’t open one yet while waiting for your documents. The real difficulty is that landlords or agents often require a permanent Spanish employment contract, which gives them some assurance of your ability to pay and legal protection against non-payment.

For nomads, this is impossible and runs contrary to nomad legal conditions, since having contracts in Spain is prohibited. I mentioned it before — no more than 20% of your total income can come from local companies.

To wrap up, here’s how you get a Spanish digital nomad visa: 

• Check if you match eligibility criteria. 
• Get your documents apostilled and translated. 
• Consult a lawyer or advisor if necessary. 
• Apply for a visa at a local embassy if you’re outside of Spain. 
• Apply for a residency if you’re in Spain legally. 
• Wait for your documents to be approved. 
• Get your visa/residency. 
• Follow residence rules and pay taxes on time. 
• Enjoy your time in beautiful Spain.