Spain digital nomad visa requirements & income thresholds

The Spain digital nomad visa is a residence authorisation for foreigners who live outside Spain and work remotely for one or more companies located abroad. It lets you bring that remote working life to Spain legally, with the option to be joined by close family. Approval is not discretionary in the vague sense — it turns on a defined checklist of conditions, and the two that trip people up most are the income threshold and the way professional background is evidenced. This guide walks through every requirement in turn: where and how to apply, the minimum income you must show for yourself and each family member, the qualification-or-experience test, the criminal record certificate, health insurance, and social security. The company-side conditions are covered only briefly here, with a link to the dedicated guide, so this page stays focused on the applicant's own requirements.

"The income threshold is not a suggestion — it is a line the authorities check precisely, and it rises with each family member you bring. Document your earnings clearly and to the current figures, and a requirement that worries many applicants becomes one of the simplest parts of the file."

What the digital nomad visa is for

The purpose of the visa is narrow and specific: it is designed for people who are living outside Spain and working remotely for companies based abroad. The work must be tied to employers or clients outside Spain — that is the defining feature of the route and the reason the income and company conditions are structured the way they are. It suits remote employees on a foreign payroll and freelancers whose client base sits outside Spain. What it is not designed for is someone who intends to build a mainly Spanish client base or take up local employment; those situations point toward a different permit. If your working life genuinely happens across a screen for organisations abroad, this is the route that fits, and everything below flows from that premise.

Where and how to apply

There are two ways in, and choosing the right one for your circumstances matters. The first is to apply from the Spanish consulate in your country of residence, before you travel. This is the classic visa route: you assemble the file abroad, the consulate issues the visa, and you arrive in Spain already authorised. The second is to apply telematically from within Spain, provided you are legally present in the country at the time — for example, if you have entered as a tourist and are still within your permitted stay. In that case the application is made to the immigration authorities rather than a consulate, and if granted it produces a residence authorisation directly.

Both paths lead to the same substantive requirements; what differs is procedure, timing and, sometimes, the strategic advantages of being in Spain while the file is processed. The in-country telematic route is often attractive to people already visiting Spain who decide to stay, but it depends on being legally present and applying before that presence lapses. The right choice is case-specific, and it is one of the first things to settle before assembling documents. The broader mechanics of the application are covered in our digital nomad visa guide.

The income thresholds

The financial requirement is the heart of the file. The applicant must demonstrate sufficient and stable economic means to support themselves — and any accompanying family members — during their residence in Spain. The thresholds are expressed as minimum monthly amounts, and they scale with the size of the family unit. The figures are derived from multiples of the IPREM (the Spanish public income indicator), which is revised periodically, so the exact euro amounts move over time and must be confirmed for the year in which you apply.

As a working reference, the minimum monthly amounts are approximately as follows: the main applicant must show 2,850 € per month; the first additional family member — typically a spouse or registered partner — adds a further 1,070 € per month; and each further dependant, such as a child, adds 360 € per month. These stack, so a couple with children needs the main figure plus the spouse add-on plus one child add-on per child.

Income by family size

The table below builds up the monthly requirement family member by family member, and converts each level to an approximate annual figure (monthly × 12) so you can see the yearly income the file needs to evidence. The amounts are illustrative and derived from the reference figures above; they must be confirmed for your application year.

Two points are worth stressing. First, the authorities look for means that are stable and recurring, not a single strong month — payslips or invoices across a run of months, bank statements, and a contract or client agreements that show the income is durable. Second, because the underlying IPREM figure is updated periodically, the euro amounts above are a guide rather than a fixed rule; we confirm the exact monthly and annual thresholds that apply in your application year. If you plan to bring relatives, our guide to including family members explains how the add-ons and documentation work in practice.

Professional qualification or experience

You must show a genuine professional basis for the work you do remotely. This condition can be met by either of two routes. The first is a university or postgraduate qualification related to the role you perform — a degree or higher qualification that connects logically to your remote work. The second is professional experience: at least three years of work in functions analogous to the activity you will carry out from Spain. You do not need both. Someone without a formal degree who has three or more years in the relevant field can qualify on experience; equally, a recent graduate with a directly related degree can qualify on qualification.

In practice, the evidence differs by route. The qualification path relies on the degree certificate (often apostilled and translated), while the experience path relies on employment references, contracts and other proof that the three years were spent in comparable functions. Choosing which route to lead with — and assembling clean evidence for it — is one of the quieter judgement calls in a strong file.

Criminal record certificate

You must provide a certificate of no criminal record covering the countries where you have resided during the last two years. The certificate must be properly apostilled or legalised and, where required, officially translated. This is a document that regularly causes delay, because issuing authorities in different countries work to their own timetables and the apostille step adds time on top. If you have lived in more than one country in the past two years, you may need a certificate from each. Starting this early — before the rest of the file is ready — is the simplest way to avoid it becoming the bottleneck.

Health insurance

Full health coverage in Spain is mandatory. The cover can be public or private, but it must provide complete coverage in Spain equivalent to that of the Spanish National Health System. In practice this usually means a private policy with no co-payments and no exclusions or waiting periods that would leave you effectively uninsured for part of the year, unless you are entitled to public cover. A policy that is capped, partial, or travel-style is not sufficient — the standard is equivalence to the national system, and a shortfall here is an avoidable reason for a file to stumble.

Social security

Social security is where remote workers most often need tailored advice, because the right answer depends on the agreements between Spain and your home country. If a bilateral or multilateral totalization agreement applies, you may be able to keep your home-country social security coverage while resident in Spain, typically evidenced by a certificate of coverage. If no such agreement applies to your situation, you must register with the Spanish Social Security system. Which of these applies has real consequences for cost and paperwork, and it interacts with whether you work as a remote employee or as a freelancer — a distinction that, for US applicants especially, splits the answer in two. Our dedicated guide on the digital nomad visa and US Social Security certificate of coverage explains when an employee can keep US coverage and why a freelancer usually registers as autónomo. It is worth resolving early, alongside the tax question, because the two are related — our guide to taxes and the Beckham regime explains how the tax side fits together.

The company-side conditions (in brief)

Alongside the applicant's own requirements, there are conditions attaching to the company or companies you work for. In outline, the company you work for remotely should generally have been constituted and actually operating for at least one year, and your working relationship should predate the application by at least three months. These company-facing conditions have their own evidence and nuances — particularly for freelancers with multiple clients — and they are covered in depth in our dedicated foreign-company requirements guide, which is the place to go if the company side is where your uncertainty lies. Here we simply flag them so the picture is complete.

After approval: renewal and the longer view

The conditions on this page are not a one-time hurdle. When the authorisation comes up for renewal, the authorities re-check that the same pillars still hold — ongoing remote work for companies abroad, income above the applicable threshold, and valid health cover. Meeting the requirements cleanly at the outset, and keeping them met, is what turns the first authorisation into a durable base and, over time, a path toward long-term residency. Our guide on renewing the digital nomad visa explains how continuity is assessed and how the years accumulate.

If any of these conditions is weak, it usually shows up as a requirement notice or a refusal. For how income sits alongside the company, Social Security, qualification and document risks — and how to respond to a refusal — see why Spain refuses digital nomad visa applications.