Spain's digital nomad visa: the 2026 requirements, the tax option and settling on the Costa del Sol

Spain’s digital nomad visa is for people from outside the European Union who work remotely for an employer or clients outside Spain and want to live here while they do it. It was created at the end of 2022 by Ley 28/2022, the law on start-ups, which wrote it into the existing entrepreneurs’ law as the residence for international teleworking (teletrabajo de carácter internacional). This guide takes it in order: who qualifies, the income test in 2026, the documents, the two ways to apply and how long each lasts, family members, the tax position and the 24% option, what it means for buying a home, and where remote workers tend to settle on the Costa del Sol. Each point is taken from the law or the consulates’ own guidance, linked where it applies. The other routes to living in Spain are in the routes still open since the golden visa closed and the non-lucrative visa, which is the route for people who are not working.

Who qualifies

The rules are articles 74 bis to 74 quinquies of Ley 14/2013. Three conditions define the applicant.

You work remotely for companies outside Spain, using only computers and telecommunications. If you are an employee, your employer must be outside Spain and you may not work for a Spanish company at all. If you are self-employed, you may take work from companies in Spain as long as it is no more than 20% of your total activity.

You are a qualified professional. The law asks for a degree or postgraduate qualification from a recognised university, college or business school, or at least three years’ professional experience in the work you do.

The work relationship is real and established. The employer or the clients must have been trading for at least a year. Your relationship with them, whether an employment contract or a services contract, must be at least three months old when you apply, and you need a document from them confirming that the work can be done remotely.

The general conditions for every residence visa under this law also apply: you are over 18, you have no criminal record in Spain or in any country you have lived in for the last two years, with a signed declaration covering the last five, you hold health insurance with an insurer authorised in Spain, you have enough income for yourself and your family, and you pay the fee.

The income test in 2026

The law itself says only that the income must be sufficient. The figure the consulates and the Unidad de Grandes Empresas apply is 200% of Spain’s monthly minimum wage (salario mínimo interprofesional), plus 75% of the minimum wage for the first family member and 25% for each further one. The London consulate’s digital nomad visa page words it as “at least 200% of the monthly Spanish national minimum wage”.

The 2026 minimum wage is 1,221 euros a month, or 17,094 euros a year over fourteen payments, set by Real Decreto 126/2026 in February 2026. Worked from the annual figure and spread over twelve months, the thresholds are as follows.

Those are working figures. The consulates publish the number they apply, and it moves each year with the minimum wage, so take the figure from the consulate or the Unidad de Grandes Empresas at the time you apply. Income is shown with the employment contract or client contracts, recent payslips or invoices, and bank statements.

The documents

The lists are on each consulate’s page, and the London consulate publishes a checklist. The items that take time to gather are these.

1. Proof of your qualification. The degree certificate, or evidence of three years’ experience such as contracts, references and tax records.
2. Proof the company exists and has traded for a year. A certificate from the companies registry in its country, showing the date it was formed and what it does.
3. The employer’s or client’s letter. It confirms the relationship, its start date, your role and pay, and that the work is done remotely from Spain.
4. A criminal record certificate from every country you have lived in during the last two years, issued within the last six months, legalised with an apostille and translated into Spanish by a sworn translator.
5. Health insurance with an insurer authorised to operate in Spain. The consulates ask for full cover with no waiting periods, no excess and no co-payments.
6. Social security cover. This is the item that catches people. As an employee you need to show that you and your employer remain covered by your home country’s social security under an agreement with Spain, by way of a certificate of coverage, or that the employer will register you in the Spanish system. If you are self-employed and no such certificate is available to you, you register as self-employed in Spain (autónomo) and pay Spanish contributions. Which of these applies depends on your country and your status, and it is worth settling with an adviser before anything else is gathered.

Documents in English or any other language need a sworn Spanish translation, and public documents need an apostille from the issuing country.

Two ways to apply, and how long each lasts

From your home country, at the consulate. The consulate issues a visa for international teleworking that lasts up to one year. The legal term for a decision is ten days, extended if the consulate asks for more documents or an interview. In the sixty days before the visa runs out, you apply from Spain for the residence authorisation, which then runs for three years.

From Spain, at the Unidad de Grandes Empresas. Anyone who is in Spain legally, which includes a visitor within their 90-day stay, can skip the consulate and apply online for the residence authorisation directly. The authorisation is granted for three years from the start. The law gives the unit twenty days to decide, and if it does not decide in that time the application is treated as approved. Filing the application extends your right to remain in Spain until the decision comes. Most applicants who are able to travel here first use this route, because it gives three years rather than one and avoids the consulate appointment.

In both cases, once the authorisation is granted you apply for the foreigner identity card (tarjeta de identidad de extranjero, or TIE) at the police station for your area, and register on the padrón at your town hall. The authorisation is renewed in two-year periods for as long as the conditions still hold, and after five years of legal residence you can apply for long-term residence, which is no longer tied to the work.

The digital nomad visa is a residence permit, so it lets you stay in Spain beyond the 90 days in 180 that a visitor is allowed. The day count and how it works are in the 90/180-day rule.

Family members

Your spouse or unmarried partner, children who are minors or who are adults and financially dependent on you, and parents who depend on you can apply with you or join you later. If the applications are filed together they are decided together. Each family member needs their own insurance and, if an adult, a criminal record certificate, and each one raises the income you must show, as in the table above.

Tax: the 183-day point and the 24% option

Once you spend more than 183 days in Spain in a calendar year, you are tax resident here, and by default you pay Spanish income tax on your worldwide income at the ordinary progressive rates. Holders of the teleworking visa or authorisation have a second option.

The special regime for workers posted to Spain (régimen especial de trabajadores desplazados), often called the Beckham law, is in article 93 of the income tax law. Since 2023 it has been open to people who come to Spain to work remotely for a foreign employer and hold the international teleworking visa or authorisation. The tax agency’s manual sets out the conditions. The main ones:

• You were not tax resident in Spain in the five tax years before you moved.
• Employment income is taxed at a flat 24% up to 600,000 euros a year, and 47% above that, for the year you arrive and the five years after it.
• Income from outside Spain other than employment income is left out of Spanish income tax, and the wealth tax applies only to what you own in Spain.
• Your spouse and children under 25 can join the regime if they move with you or within the first year.
• You opt in on form 149 within six months of the date you start work in Spain as recorded by social security or your certificate of coverage, and file each year on form 151.

The regime was written for employees. A self-employed teleworker does not qualify on that ground alone, and should ask a tax adviser whether another route into the regime applies before counting on it.

On wealth, Andalucía has its own advantage. The region rebates 100% of the wealth tax below 3.7 million euros of net Spanish assets, which is set out in wealth tax in Spain and why Andalucía is different.

None of this is advice on your own position. Where your income comes from, how you are paid and which country’s social security covers you all change the answer, and a tax adviser who deals with international clients should confirm it before you apply.

What it means for buying a home

Owning property is not a condition of the visa and does not shorten the process. Since the golden visa closed in April 2025, buying a home does not lead to residency on its own, and the digital nomad visa is now the main route for working-age international buyers.

The visa and the purchase are separate decisions, and the usual order is to rent first. A one-year consulate visa is a year to learn the coast before committing. Once the three-year authorisation is in hand, buying becomes straightforward: you already hold a NIE, which the visa process requires and which every purchase needs, and a Spanish tax return under the special regime is the income evidence a bank will ask for. Non-residents can buy at any point, with or without a visa, and the steps are the same. They are set out in the buying process, the costs in what it costs to buy on the Costa del Sol, and borrowing in Spanish mortgages for non-residents.

Where remote workers settle on the Costa del Sol

The coast has two things remote workers look for: a large international airport with direct flights across Europe and to North America, and fibre broadband in every town. Beyond that, the choice is about the kind of life you want.

• Málaga city is where most remote workers under forty land. It has a working city centre, a train to the airport, a technology park with several thousand people working in software, and the largest concentration of shared workspaces on the coast. Apartments in the centre and the Soho district are what people buy.
• Fuengirola and Mijas are at the end of the train line that runs from Málaga through the airport, with a long promenade, a large international community and prices below Marbella’s.
• Marbella and the Golden Mile suit people whose income allows it and who want the restaurants, the beach clubs and the schools. The old town and the area around the marina at Puerto Banús have the coast’s most established international community.
• Estepona is the quieter choice at the western end, with a restored old town and a growing number of newer apartment developments with shared pools and workspaces.
• Nerja to the east suits people who want a smaller town, cliffs and coves, and do not need to be near the airport every week.

Five things to settle before you apply

1. Which social security system covers you. It decides which documents you need and whether you register as self-employed in Spain, and it is the item most often missing from an application.
2. Whether you apply from home or from Spain. Applying in Spain gives three years from the start and a decision within twenty days, so if you can spend the time here it is usually the better route.
3. Whether the 24% regime applies to you. The six-month deadline runs from the date you start work in Spain, so the decision belongs at the beginning rather than at the first tax return.
4. Where your income is evidenced. Contracts, payslips or invoices, and bank statements need to agree with one another and to clear the threshold with room to spare.
5. Which part of the coast, and rent or buy. A year’s rental in the town you think you want is the cheapest research there is. When you are ready to buy, book a call and we can start from what you have learned.

Dated guidance, September 2026. The visa and residence authorisation are set by articles 74 bis to 74 quinquies of Ley 14/2013, as added by Ley 28/2022. The income thresholds are worked from the 2026 minimum wage in Real Decreto 126/2026 and the 200% rule as the consulates apply it. The tax regime is article 93 of Ley 35/2006. Rules, thresholds and practice change from one year to the next, and your own position should be confirmed with an immigration lawyer and a tax adviser.

Common questions

The same subject, for buyers abroad

Pages written for buyers in other countries, in their own language, covering what changes for them.

• United States: How long Americans can stay in Spain
• Netherlands: Verblijf en residentie in Spanje voor EU-burgers
• Germany: Länger bleiben: Anmeldung in Spanien und der deutsche Wohnsitz
• Poland: NIE, rejestracja i pobyt w Hiszpanii dla obywateli Polski
• Sweden: NIE-nummer och residencia för svenskar
• Norway: Opphold, NIE og registrering for nordmenn i Spania