Country visa guide
Spain digital nomad visa: who qualifies, income, and tax
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Spain had no real remote-work route until the very end of 2022. The Startup Law (Ley 28/2022) fixed that, adding a whole new chapter to Spain’s entrepreneurs law and creating the visado de teletrabajo internacional , a residence route built for people who earn their living online while living on the Iberian peninsula. It is one of the rare European nomad visas that pairs a clear path to residence with a genuinely useful tax option, and that combination is why remote employees and freelancers keep asking about it.
Think of this page as the friend who already made the move talking you through it: the income you need to show, how long the permit lasts, where you actually file, and the tax wrinkle worth understanding before you book flights. The numbers tied to Spain’s minimum wage shift every year, so treat the table as a starting point for planning and confirm the live figures with the consulate or the UGE.
The facts, at a glance
| Official name | Visado para teletrabajo de carácter internacional (international teleworking visa) Created by the Startup Law, Ley 28/2022, which added a whole chapter on "teletrabajadores de carácter internacional" to Spain's 2013 entrepreneurs law. Aimed at remote employees and self-employed people working for companies based outside Spain. |
|---|---|
| Minimum income | ~€2,849 / month for one applicant The rule is 200% of the national minimum wage. The 2026 SMI is €1,221 a month over 14 payments (€17,094 a year), which works out at €2,849 a month. Add 75% of the SMI for a second person in the household and 25% for each one after that. The figure moves every time the SMI does, so re-check it before you file. |
| Spanish-client cap | Self-employed: max 20% of your professional activity. Employees: none at all Art. 74 bis is stricter for employees than most guides admit: on this permit you may only work for companies based outside Spain. Freelancers get the concession, and may bill a Spanish company as long as it stays inside 20% of their total professional activity. |
| Initial duration | 1 year (visa from abroad) or up to 3 years (permit from inside Spain) Consulate route: a visa valid up to a year, and you apply for the residence authorisation in the 60 days before it expires. In-country route: an authorisation valid up to three years, renewable in two-year blocks. At five years of legal residence, long-term residence opens up. |
| Where you apply | Spanish consulate abroad, or the UGE-CE inside Spain The Unidad de Grandes Empresas y Colectivos Estratégicos (UGE-CE) handles the in-country route electronically. The law gives it 20 days to decide, and if it misses that deadline the authorisation counts as granted by positive silence. |
| Social security | Spanish Social Security, unless an agreement keeps you insured at home There is no carve-out here: registration and contributions follow the ordinary rules, and the application carries a signed undertaking to comply before you start work. If a social security agreement with Spain lets you stay in your home system, you file the certificate of applicable legislation (the A1, where EU rules apply) instead. |
| When Spain taxes you | Tax resident at 183+ days, or if your economic base sits in Spain Art. 9.1 LIRPF has three limbs, not one. Short trips out of the country still count toward the 183 days unless you can prove tax residence elsewhere. You are also resident if the main base of your activities or economic interests is in Spain, whatever the day count says. And if your non-separated spouse and dependent minor children live here, Spain presumes you do too, though that one is expressly rebuttable ("salvo prueba en contrario"), not a flat rule. |
| Tax angle | Optional impatriate regime: flat 24% on employment income up to €600,000, 47% above The "Beckham" regime, art. 93 LIRPF, which expressly names international teleworking visa holders. It runs for the year you move plus the five that follow, you must not have been a Spanish tax resident in the previous five years, and modelo 149 is due within six months of your Social Security registration. Read the value carefully: AEAT treats ALL employment income earned while you are on the regime as obtained in Spain, so a foreign salary is taxed here too. The shelter is on foreign capital income. The self-employed routes in are much narrower than the employee route. |
| Key documents | Degree or 3+ years’ experience, clean criminal record, health cover, proof of remote work You also need a working relationship that has run for at least three months and a company with at least a year of real, continuous activity behind it. The health cover has to match what Spain's public system provides, with no copayments and no coverage caps. |
The income figure here is pegged to Spain’s minimum wage, and the SMI gets reset every year. Take it as an estimate rather than a fixed number: it was right when we checked, and it drifts as soon as the wage floor moves. Confirm the figures that apply to you with the consulate or the UGE before you file.
Wondering whether that bar is high or low? Our ranked index of nomad-visa income requirements puts Spain next to 28 other countries, sorted from the gentlest monthly figure upward, with every number traced back to the government that set it.
Eligibility, in one line
A strong fit if you work remotely for non-Spanish clients and can show steady income.
The visa rewards a clear, stable remote-work setup: an employer or clients based outside Spain, a contract that has run for at least three months, a company that has traded for at least a year, and income sitting comfortably above the SMI-linked floor. The tighter spots are the Spanish-client rule (freelancers get 20% of their activity, employees get none at all) and the paperwork on qualifications and criminal-record certificates. Applicants tend to underestimate exactly those.
Voymo gives general information to help you organise your move. It is not legal, tax, or immigration advice, always confirm with an official source or a qualified professional before you act.
Two routes, one outcome
You can kick things off from home at a Spanish consulate, which issues a one-year entry visa that you later convert into a residence card in Spain. Or you can fly in as a tourist and apply straight to the UGE-CE (the unit for large companies and strategic groups) for a three-year residence permit in a single step. The in-country route is the quicker one on paper, and not just by reputation: the law gives the UGE-CE twenty days to decide, and if it misses that deadline the permit counts as granted. The catch is that you are doing the paperwork while the Schengen clock ticks on your tourist entry, so sort out the timing before you fly.
Whichever path you take, the substance is identical: prove the remote-work relationship, the income, the health cover, and a clean record. The piece people forget is social security. There is no special carve-out for teleworkers, so your employer registers and contributes in Spain like any other, unless a social security agreement between Spain and your home country lets you stay insured where you are, in which case you file the certificate of applicable legislation (the A1, where EU rules apply) with the application instead. The other question that follows you around is tax residency and how the impatriate regime really works, and that is the part worth paying a local adviser to get right.
Run the numbers next
Before you commit, two of our free tools bring the picture into focus. Use the digital nomad visa checker to weigh Spain against other countries’ remote-work visas on income and eligibility, and the Schengen 90/180 calculator to be sure an application trip to Spain doesn’t quietly push you into an overstay before your permit comes through.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Spain digital nomad visa the same as the non-lucrative visa? +
No, and the difference matters. The non-lucrative visa (NLV) is for people living on passive income or savings, and it flatly bans working. The digital nomad visa is the mirror image: it exists for people who actively work remotely, whether as an employee of a company based outside Spain or as a freelancer whose Spanish clients stay inside 20% of the work. If you plan to keep earning from a job or your own business, the digital nomad visa is your track, not the NLV.
Does time on the Spanish digital nomad visa count toward Schengen days? +
Once you hold the residence permit, you are no longer a short-stay visitor, so the 90/180 Schengen limit stops capping your time in Spain. It still bites before the permit lands, though. Say, while you are sitting in Spain on a tourist entry and applying through the UGE. Keep an eye on those early days with the Schengen calculator below, so an application trip does not quietly tip you into an overstay.
Will I pay Spanish tax on my worldwide income? +
If you become a Spanish tax resident, yes: Spain taxes residents on their worldwide income. The main test is the 183-day one, and it is stricter than it sounds, because short trips out of the country still count toward the total unless you can show you were tax resident somewhere else. You are also resident if the main base of your economic activities or interests sits in Spain, whatever the day count says. And if your spouse and dependent minor children live here, Spain presumes you do too, although that last one is a presumption you can rebut with evidence, not a flat rule. Your home country runs its own test in parallel, so read the double-tax treaty and talk it through with a Spanish gestor before you move.
Does the impatriate ("Beckham") regime make my foreign salary tax-free in Spain? +
No, and this is the most expensive misunderstanding about the regime. The Agencia Tributaria is blunt about it: while the special regime applies, the whole of your employment income is treated as obtained in Spanish territory, wherever your employer sits and wherever you were sitting when you did the work. A salary paid by a company abroad is still taxed in Spain. What you actually get is the rate: a flat 24% on employment income up to €600,000 a year, and 47% on anything above that, instead of the progressive scale. The genuine shelter is on foreign capital income, so dividends, interest and gains outside Spain stay outside the Spanish net while the regime lasts. It covers the year you move plus the five that follow, you must not have been a Spanish tax resident in the previous five years, and modelo 149 is due within six months of your Social Security registration. The law names international teleworking visa holders, so employees on this visa are squarely in scope. Freelancers are not automatic: the self-employed ways in are narrow, and worth checking with a gestor before you bank on them.
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Sources
- Ley 28/2022 (Startup Law): official text, BOE
- Spain: Real Decreto 126/2026, salario mínimo interprofesional for 2026, BOE
- Spain: Ley 14/2013 de apoyo a los emprendedores, consolidated text (arts. 74 bis to 76, added by Ley 28/2022), BOE
- Spain: Ministerio de Inclusión, Seguridad Social y Migraciones, UGE-CE international teleworkers (joint instruction on income, health cover and social security)
- Spain: Agencia Tributaria, residencia habitual en territorio español (art. 9.1 LIRPF)
- Spain: Agencia Tributaria, non-resident taxation manual, special impatriate regime (art. 93 LIRPF)
- Spain: Ministry of Foreign Affairs consular network (exteriores.gob.es), international teleworking (digital nomad) visa page
Voymo gives general information to help you organise your move. It is not legal, tax, or immigration advice, always confirm with an official source or a qualified professional before you act.