Spain digital nomad visa… here we come!
Five years ago last month, I moved to Spain to work as an English language assistant through the auxiliares de conversacion (NALCAP) program. I lived there for two years, four months of which were the initial onset and very early days of the pandemic. While I would have loved to stay in Spain for longer — and bring Matt, my then-boyfriend and now-fiancé — over with me, the craziness of 2020 and 2021 was not the right time to attempt an international move.
Although I moved back home to the U.S. in July 2020, the idea of living in Europe again never left my mind. We thought about applying for a digital nomad visa in Estonia, one of the only ones that were available at the time. But in August 2021, something caught my eye that remained in my sights ever since: a new digital nomad visa was coming to Spain.
Two years later, we’ve officially been approved to move to Spain on the digital nomad visa! Here’s exactly what you need to know if you want to apply for the Spain digital nomad visa as an American.
A History of the Spain Digital Nomad Visa, and Me
When I found out about the Spain digital nomad visa back in the summer of 2021, I couldn’t wait for more details so I could apply as soon as possible. Unfortunately, just like most other bureaucratic proceedings in Spain, the whole process took much longer than it should have. 🙃 It had clearly been too long since I’d left Spain because I shouldn’t have expected anything less.
After getting this small breadcrumb of hope (enough to tide me over in a difficult year), and then another year of hearing absolutely nothing, my Google alert that I’d set up for “spain digital nomad visa” started pinging in late 2022. First, it was that the government was working out the details. Then, Congress was expected to ratify it in December. Next, it was officially signed. And finally, it would go into effect in January 2023.
I could hardly contain my excitement. As Matt and I sat in the Barcelona airport in late January of this year, on our way home to the U.S. after our three-week trip, my dad texted me an article about the new Spain digital nomad visa. The visa was available, and it was starting to make headlines in the mainstream news.
As I read the article, something that I hadn’t known, nor expected, jumped out at me: Spain’s digital nomad visa was currently only available if you came to Spain in order to apply. In other words, you couldn’t yet apply through your home country’s consulate.
I figured it would probably take a few months for all the kinks to be worked out with the new visas, and surely the U.S. consulates would be offering them sooner rather than later. I was willing to wait. I’d been waiting for years already, so what was a little longer? Besides, I had trips already planned for the next few months that would keep me busy. I was sure by the visa would be ready in the U.S. by the end of April, at the very latest.
But February, March, and April passed with no updates at all. Several times, I contacted the Consulate of Spain in Chicago asking for updates, and several times I received the following answer:
Dear Telecommuting/Nomad Visa Applicant,
The Consulate General of Spain in Chicago informs you that although the legalization of this type of visa has already been approved, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the European Union, and Cooperation has not given authorization to publish the mandatory requirements, therefore the visa process is still on hold.
In May, I finally decided I was tired of waiting.
Step 1: Hire a Lawyer
I didn’t want to hire a lawyer.
It sounded extremely expensive, and unnecessary, too. I mean, I did all this — apply for a visa to live in Spain — all by myself a few years ago, sans lawyer, through the Chicago consulate. But it turns out that, if you’re going to apply for the visa from within Spain, you need a lawyer. They’re the only ones who can submit your application on your behalf.*
I wasn’t a fan of this news, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to have an informational consultation with a lawyer that had been recommended in one of the “Spain Digital Nomad Visa / Teleworkers Visa” groups I’d been a member of on Facebook for two years. In the middle of May, I set up a 20-minute Zoom call with David from Remote From Spain to chat about eligibility, timeline, cost, and other questions I had about the visa.
David was easy to talk to and clearly understood the nuances of the visa, which made me feel comfortable. Also, the price for hiring Remote From Spain was several thousand euros less than I was expecting — the total cost per person was €859.76. This included the 21% tax as well as the Spain digital nomad visa application fee of €73.26.
Matt and I talked it over, and we decided to move forward with hiring David and Remote From Spain, and applying from within Spain instead of the U.S. After years of thinking about it, it was time to finally do it — even if it looked a little different from what I expected.
David asked us to pay the fees up front, and then he sent us a list of documents to begin collecting before our arrival in Spain.
*In most cases. I’ve read reports of former residents of Spain having access to a portal where they can apply, or new applicants using someone else’s credentials. Try this at your own risk.
A Note About Eligibility for the Spain Digital Nomad Visa
Matt and I knew that we would be eligible to apply for the visa because we are location-independent 1099 contractors for our clients. Also, we both have LLCs, which actually makes things easier for us regarding a certain Social Security contribution document we needed to sign. Apparently it’s more difficult if you’re a remote worker through a W-2 job in the U.S. and you’re planning to move to Spain.
David helped us understand all the details here — which is the perk of having a lawyer. If you’re not 100% sure whether you meet the requirements for the visa, you can take the eligibility assessment quiz on Remote From Spain’s website, or talk with a lawyer to help you understand whether you’re eligible. I’m not going to be able to tell you if you’re eligible if you ask me. 🙂
Step 2: Get Your Spain Digital Nomad Visa Documents Together
When we received the email from David with all of the application requirements, I felt a thrill run through my body. There are few things I love more than collecting information/paperwork for something extremely important. But besides that, it was the first time in two years that I’d actually seen the visa requirements plainly stated.
Here’s what you need.
>> Copy of all pages of your passport
This is something you’ll need to wait to do until you’ve actually arrived in Spain. That’s because you’ll need to show your passport stamp proving your entry into the country. I’m not 100% sure how this would work if you visited another EU country first because then you’d have a stamp for that country instead. Ask your lawyer about this, but it’s probably best to just head to Spain immediately from the U.S., or schedule your layover for a non-Schengen country like the UK.
>> Academic Degree, with Certified Translation
If you have a college/university degree, a scanned copy of your diploma is enough to meet this requirement. I submitted a copy of my bachelor’s degree, and for Matt, we submitted both his bachelor’s degree and his MBA because the MBA is more aligned with his professional activity these days.
(If you don’t have an academic degree, you can also prove that you have three years of experience in your position, though I’m not sure what kind of document you’d need to prove this.)
The academic degree is one of the items on the list that need a “certified” or “official” translation from a third-party in order to qualify. This was new to me — luckily when I applied for my first visa for Spain in 2018, no translated documents were needed at the Chicago consulate. So this time, I wasn’t sure what to do.
I asked David from Remote From Spain and he suggested several certified translation companies he’s worked with in the past. We ended up hiring a company called Zesauro to translate our degrees and the other items needing translation.
>> Apostilled Criminal Background Check Issued Within the Last 3 Months, with Certified Translation
This is for sure going to be your biggest headache. An Apostille, by the way, is a type of seal/stamp that authenticates an official document for international use.
I thought I had this handled, considering I had to do this five years ago. However, the process had changed entirely, so while it was annoying — and we ended up having to get two background checks, because we forgot to check a box saying we wanted our results notarized on the first one — everything was fine.
Or so it seemed.
A week before we left for Spain, I sent all the documents we’d collected at that point to David. This included our translated background checks and Apostilles from Missouri’s Secretary of State office. He replied:
“It is better if we can provide the Apostilled FBI police records, as it covers all states, not only Missouri. This document will need to be officially translated.”
WTF??
After going back and forth with him a bit, he said we needed a federal background check, not a state-level one. Which had been good enough for me to move to Spain and work with literal children in 2018, but I guess wasn’t good enough now? I was freaking out, because again… we were leaving in a week. I was able to find a way to get an FBI fingerprint appointment at a UPS Store location near me, with same day results. But the problem was the federal Apostille.
They need to be submitted to the Secretary of State office in Washington, D.C. And since COVID, they’ve done away with expedited service. We were really in a pinch, as it seemed that turnaround time for federal Apostilles was about 8-10 weeks — time we definitely did not have!
We ended up hiring a company that works to process and submit federal Apostilles on your behalf, with a quicker turnaround time — 4-5 weeks. Which was still longer than we were hoping for, but would still get us the documents we needed while we were still in Spain. We submitted our FBI background checks to Luis at FBI Apostille Services on July 26, and we received our Apostilled documents electronically on August 18, just over 3 weeks later. He also overnighted the originals to my parents’ house in the U.S., but since we only needed the electronic copy, I asked him to scan them and send them to us.
I would certainly recommend working with that company to get your Apostille in a timely manner.
>> Curriculum Vitae/Résumé, Simple Translation
A résumé, which is usually called a CV in Europe, is the next thing you’ll need. And while it does need to be in Spanish, David told me that a simple Google Translate version would suffice.
Since I work in a creative industry, my usual résumé is a little bit more colorful than a traditional one, so I reformatted it to follow the standard European form — which typically includes a photo somewhere at the top. Just search “European CV” on Google images to find a good example. Be sure your CV includes your education as well as any experience relevant to your current position.
>> Proof of Income: Minimum €2,200 per Month
David suggested that we provide invoices for the last 12 months that prove our monthly income. This was easy to put together and didn’t require any type of translation.
He also asked that we provide our bank statements showing the payments from our client. Since we get paid through Venmo (so official, lol) we submitted the Venmo statements as well as our bank statements.
>> Copy of Client Contract, with Official Translation
Another thing you’ll need to submit is a copy of a client contract, also with an official translation.
>> Client’s Certificate of Good Standing, with Official Translation
This may have been particular to our specific situation, but David also asked for a copy of our client’s “Certificate of Good Standing,” which is issued to LLCs. We also needed this to be translated.
Other notes about your documents
Besides the things listed above, you’ll need to provide your lawyer with additional information about yourself, including your mother’s and father’s names, your address in Spain when you’re applying for the visa, and a description of your professional activity.
Unlike other visas where you apply in person, there’s no need for hard copies of any of these documents. All of them will be submitted electronically by your lawyer.
However, some of your forms will be hard copies to begin with — like your diploma and your Apostilled background check — so you’ll need to convert those to digital. I recommend a free app called Camscanner, where you take a picture of your document and it converts it into a PDF. Then, log into Camscanner on your computer and download the PDFs.
Costs for Spain digital nomad visa document preparation
Besides the cost of the lawyer, and besides the cost of the visa itself, here’s how much we spent per person on preparing our documents to apply for the Spain digital nomad visa.
- First Missouri background check (done mistakenly): $28 USD
- Second Missouri background check (also ended up being a mistake): $30 USD
- Missouri Apostille (mistake): $10 USD
- Translation of Missouri background check and apostille, and college diploma (one invoice): $95
- FBI federal background check, expedited: $120
- Federal Apostille service: $150
- Certificate of good standing: $12
- Translation of FBI background check and federal Apostille, client contract, and certificate of good standing (one invoice): $119
- Total document acquisition: $350
- Total translations: $214
- Total: $564
Keep in mind that $68 were spent on the wrong background checks/Apostille, as well as more than half of the first $95 translation. Also, if I hadn’t made these mistakes, we wouldn’t have had to expedite the FBI federal background check, which would have also saved us $50 per person. So I’m guessing, if you do everything right and with plenty of time, you could probably save about $200 compared to what I spent. 🙃
Step 3: Book Your Flight
When you’re confident you meet all the requirements for the visa and you’re going to have all your documents together, you can book your flight to Spain. Maybe you want to do a one-way flight where you show up to Spain, submit your application, and then live happily ever after. Or, if you’re like us, you may still want to come back to the U.S. after you’re technically approved for the visa.
Just a couple days after we talked with David for the first time in mid-May, we decided to book a 2-month trip to Spain (that we just got home from) for the beginning of August to the beginning of October. We figured that would give us about 2.5 months at home to get our documents together before heading over to apply.
Also, assuming that we were going to get approved, we decided we weren’t quite ready to make the move to Spain yet. We have three weddings to attend in the next three months, so our plan is to wait until the new year to officially move over.
Our round-trip flight cost us about $500 on LEVEL Airlines, but a one-way flight might cost less.
Ready to book your flight?
Step 4: Arrive in Spain and Apply
After we arrived in Barcelona on August 3, I finally was able to work on one of the missing pieces for our application: the scanned copy of all pages of our passports. You can go to a copy shop for this, or you can just use Camscanner again to take pictures of all your pages.
Like I mentioned above, it took about 2 more weeks after we arrived before we got our federal Apostille. Before we submitted our last round of documents to be translated (so we could be sure we didn’t have any more mistakes 🙃) I sent everything to David again to make sure everything was okay. Then, I sent the rest of the documents to be translated, which took a couple more days.
On August 23, we got the last translations back, and I felt confident that we had everything we needed to apply. So we sent everything we had to David, finally. The next day, he sent us a few more documents we each needed to sign:
- A document stating we had no criminal history in the last 5 years
- A document stating we would make Social Security contributions in Spain
- Our official application form
The last thing was a document that our client needed to sign, stating that we were professionals in our field, that we had been working with him for X amount of time, and that we could perform our work remotely from Spain. The document needed our client’s letterhead, and David did ask us to get our client’s handwritten signature on this one. So we sent it to him to print, sign, and scan — it was in Spanish, but David also sent an English version so he’d know what he was signing.
Once we had that, we sent it to David, as well. On August 28, David submitted our applications for the Spain digital nomad visa on our behalf. And then it was time to wait.
Step 5: Wait
Bureaucratic processes suck, and Spain is no exception. But there’s one good thing that the Spain digital nomad visa has going for its applicants: If you haven’t heard back in 20 business days, you are considered to be automatically approved.
After submitting our Spain digital nomad visa application, it was easy to stay patient at first. Just a few days later, we set off for a trip through Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, Germany, and Portugal that kept us busy and kept me from checking my email every two hours.
By the beginning of the week of September 18, I was starting to think we were going to be approved by default. It had been 15 business days and we hadn’t heard anything at all. I thought this was probably better than the alternative — if they had reached out earlier in the process, I would expect it to be something they needed clarified from our application. But I felt confident that David and the Remote From Spain team knew what they were doing and we’d be in good hands.
And I was right!
On September 21, which was 18 days after submitting our application — I got an email from David. I didn’t even have to click into the email to see that the result was favorable because he didn’t beat around the bush with his message: “Hi Cathy, GREAT NEWS…”
He explained that I’d been approved and attached a letter stating my NIE (Spanish ID number, which is the same from when I lived there before) as well as information about next steps. My residence permit with the Spain digital nomad visa is good until September 2026.
Three whole years! That’s the benefit of applying from within Spain vs. doing it in the U.S., because the ones from the U.S. are only good for an initial one year and need renewed after that. More paperwork, boo. Also… after all this time, the Chicago consulate still isn’t offering the Spain digital nomad visa.
(Optional) Step 6: Submit More Paperwork
In the email from David, only my approval was attached. He said he expected Matt’s to arrive later that day.
But a few hours later, David told us that the immigration authorities were requesting additional information from Matt and he was not yet approved. 😳 And we only had 10 business days to provide the requested documents.
Not only did they ask for more clarity regarding his bank statements (the Venmo thing was a little confusing) but they also asked for two documents that I had not been asked to submit:
- Proof that Matt was the sole owner of his LLC
- A document called “Your Social Security Statement” from the U.S.
I asked David why they asked him for these things but not me, and he said it’s simply because different people work on the approvals and they aren’t always consistent. Which is kind of annoying.
But within a day or two, we’d obtained the necessary documents. First, we got a copy of his LLC’s “Articles of Organization,” which proved he was the sole owner of the LLC. This had to be officially translated, so we submitted it to Zesauro again and had a two-day turnaround. Then, we downloaded “Your Social Security Statement” from an online portal. It took about three business days for us to resubmit all the requested documents, including Matt trying to clarify his bank statements.
So, on September 26, we sent the new documents over. When I did, I asked David: Will it take another full 20 days to receive an answer? He said he didn’t know exactly how long it would take, but it should be faster than 20 days.
While it was hard to feel excited for myself while Matt was in limbo, luckily it didn’t last too long. On October 9 — nine business days later — we received that anticipated email from David once again: “Hi Cathy, GREAT NEWS…”
!!!!!
So, you’re officially hearing from some of Spain’s newest residents! 🎉
In the end, I’m really happy we decided to go the route that we did, with hiring Remote From Spain and coming over to Spain for our Spain digital nomad visa application. It was much more efficient than any of the other options, and when you can get efficiency with Spain, you take it. 😋
There you have it: That’s our experience and timeline of applying for the Spain digital nomad visa as Americans and getting approved!
Remember that I’m not a lawyer, so I can’t answer specific questions, but feel free to ask general questions about the Spain digital nomad visa process, etc. by leaving me a comment below.
Can’t believe I finally get to move back to Spain in 2024!
-Cathy
P.S. Want to have a virtual chat about the Spain digital nomad visa? Buy me a coffee or two, and I’d love to schedule a call to discuss our experience regarding the application process and the aftermath of making our move. 🙂
Other Digital Nomad Visas to Consider
Not sure if the Spain digital nomad visa is right for you? Check out this list of countries with digital nomad visas.
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Originally Published on October 12, 2023.
i would just give up.
This is very helpful! Thanks! Did you have to be there in person in Spain to pick up your visa, or you were already out of country when you received both decisions? Also, do you know if it is 3 years residence permit starting the date you received it or the date you enter country on that visa again? Thanks!
Hey there! Thanks for your questions.
We did not have to be in Spain to pick anything up — we were in Germany when I received my approval, and we were back in the U.S. when Matt’s came through. The approval is in the form of a letter that was sent to our lawyer, which he forwarded to us.
The three years starts on the date you receive your approval letter.
I hope this helps!
-Cathy
Thank you! In order get visa did you have to have a Spanish registered address -at least 6 month rental lease or buy an apt in order to get “Padrón Municipal. Solicitud de certificado de empadronamiento”
I heard that was a requirement from other who applied for digital nomad visa. Maybe I am mixing up something? Thank you!
Hey there! I can confirm that we did NOT need a rental contract or anything to apply. That’s one of the benefits of the digital nomad visa over other visa types, like the Non-Lucrative visa, for example.
Before 2023 when the official digital nomad visa began, many foreign workers with remote jobs used the Non-Lucrative visa to live in Spain while working remotely (technically illegally).
I hope this helps!
-Cathy
Hi Cathy, thank you very much for sharing your story. Considering that you’ve travelled while waiting for visa, do I understand correctly, that you at no point hand in your passport? If so, how does final visa look – just in the form of letter? Do you use it to cross the border? Od did you receive some residency card or something else?
We are applying in two weeks from within Spain & also want to travel while waiting for visa, so I want to make sure our passports will be with us.
Thank you in advance
Hi Elena,
Thanks for stopping by and for your question!
Right, we never handed in our passport. The final approval is a letter stating that you now have residency until a certain date.
Once you have your entry stamp into Spain, you just scan every page of your passport and submit it digitally. That’s all you do with your passport!
I hope this helps.
-Cathy
Hi Cathy, first of all this is so helpful to be clearly summarized. There are so many conflicting recommendations and suggestions on this and not clarified for W-2 versus 1099.
My wife and I our independent contractor, owning our own businesses and moving to Barcelona for a year with our children in June 2024!
After reading this, I actually reached out to David myself for help and I just had my initial consultation with him this morning and he is sending me the list of documents to start preparing. Thank you for the recommendation. He was great so far.
Since you are Contractor as well, I’m hoping you can help. He mentioned the Social Security tax, which I was a little bit confused on. I know US and Spain have a tax treaty which basically means you only get taxed once, but I don’t understand the Social Security payments He said €80/mo is the contribution for the entire family of 5 and we get access to all the government services like health insurance, etc. we are working with a relocation consultant and she said we needed to buy private health insurance but that might have been because she got the W-2 versus 1099 confused and we actually are required to pay Social Security in Spain. Does that sound right to you??
Anyways, thanks so much again really do appreciate this.
Hi Clay,
Thanks so much for stopping by, and I’m so glad you found my blog post helpful! I worked on it for months throughout the very long process, and it’s always nice to know it actually provided value to someone. 🙂
While I haven’t dug too deep into the whole taxes thing — since we don’t move until 2024 officially, I’ve been told that we won’t be liable to pay Spanish taxes until 2025 for the year 2024, so I’m trying to take things as they come. To my understanding, and what David has told us from the very beginning when we first talked in May, 1099 contractors who are paying Social Security in Spain do NOT need private health care. And since we will be paying Social Security, that includes us!
I hope this helps! Once we get to Alicante in January I’m really going to hit the ground running looking for the best tax lawyer/gestor who really understands all the tax nuances. One more thing I would add is that there is a lot of conflicting information about this visa regarding taxes, especially for employees (W2) vs self-employed (1099). Some of the original “promises” that were made with the visa, regarding tax rates and the “Beckham Law” technically only apply to “employees” according to the current law’s wording.
However, with the number of people who have come to Spain on the visa during 2023 and will be investigating these topics for themselves in 2024 as they pay 2023 taxes, I’m guessing/hoping things will be a lot more clear and officially clarified by April 2025 when our first round of Spanish taxes are due. Turns out that waiting a year — while not something I wanted to do intentionally — is actually going to be really beneficial, I think, as we won’t be the guinea pigs.
Again, hope you found all this helpful! I love knowing that you reached out to David — he really is great.
Un saludo!
-Cathy
Cathy and Klay! I have a great recommendation for a tax expert! I have lived in Barcelona for 5+ years but had to return to the USA due to my father passing and might have to go the DNV now because I lost my permanent residency due to this tragedy..
nonetheless, my tax/consultant told me on a call recently that if you are 1099 you just have to provide a letter in spanish stating that when you arrive to spain you will enroll in the healthcare and social security system… with that you don’t need to pay for insurance for the visa.
Also employers from the usa are not normally ok with registering their companies in spain, nor paying the social security contributions and that is why we are not seeing a lot of american companies allowing employees to do this… The company would have to show registration with the UGE ….
hope this helps
shawna
Yep, this was the case for us — after we applied, our lawyer sent us a form we had to sign stating that we would pay Social Security in Spain.
Thank you!! This is so so so helpful! We are from Texas and looking to move to Spain on DNV as well. Your post helps us a ton!
Quick question – have you found a local tax person to file your tax in Spain? Is it a complicated process to comply to local tax laws/do all necessary filings?
Thanks in advance!
Hi Eva,
I’m so glad you found the blog post helpful!
I have not yet found a local tax person for Spain, especially as I won’t need to file here until 2025 for 2024’s taxes, and I’m trying to just take things as they come. If you check my response to another commenter, hopefully I explain it pretty well, but there’s also so much about the digital nomad visa/law that is still changing/being decided so it’s hard to know exactly what I’m up against at this point. 😂 I’m expecting that once the first round of DNVs file this April in Spain, a lot of the kinks get worked out.
I will say, I have filed taxes once in Spain before when I was a language assistant, and their system seemed much simpler than it is in the U.S… big surprise, right? 😉
Thanks for stopping by and for your comment! We officially moved over about 10 days ago and we’re loving it so far.
-Cathy
Hi Eva- my immigration attorney (David from Remote From Spain) who was recommended by Cathy has been great. He just referred me to a Spanish tax/accounting firm (Entre Tramites) and I have my consult set up in a few weeks. From what David told me they help 1099s get set up with tax payments (24% of gross) and provide tax credit forms to show the US we paid taxes since US and Spain have a tax treaty.
Laura has been helpful so far and very communicative.
laura.rojas@entretramites.com
Clay — I’m so glad you’re having a great experience with David as well!
And funny you mention that you’re using EntreTramites. We’ve also hired them as our gestor to help us with all the fun Spanish bureaucracy now that we’re settled. If you haven’t seen it yet, be sure to check out my newest post, which talks about them as well as 10 steps for digital nomads after arriving in Spain: https://www.thegirlwhogoes.com/spain-digital-nomad-checklist-10-things-to-do-after-arriving-in-spain/
Keep me posted on how it’s going!
-Cathy
Hey! I hadn’t seen this and super helpful and insightful. I learned a lot from you on the Gestor and what that means. I’m glad you have found them helpful.
We’ll be moving to BCN 5/31 so getting close eeeeekkk
Hey! Shawna here! So did you have no issue applying for the DNV as a single member LLC? I have been told by countless people that Spain wants people to make their company an “S Corp” because they don’t want to see the person’s name as owner…
Is this not true?
Hi Shawna! I can confirm that my partner and I had no problems applying for the Spain digital nomad visa as single-member LLCs. In fact, when they asked Matt for additional documentation, they wanted to see proof that he was the only member of his LLC.
Of course, there’s a chance things have changed in the 6 months since we were approved, but it’s not something I have heard personally. (Though admittedly I am not paying as close attention to the requirements now.)
I hope this helps!
-Cathy
Same with me here as a single member LLC. I just needed to show my Articles of Organization as a single member and get this apostiled and officially translated.