Spain · Digital nomad
International Teleworking Visa / Digital Nomad Visa (Law 28/2022)
Open
Last verified July 2026
Open. The income floor is 200% of the SMI, which is EUR 1,221/month over 14 payments (EUR 17,094/year) for 2026 — giving a threshold of roughly EUR 2,849/month.
The DNV is the one Spanish route that pairs with Beckham — Law 28/2022 created both, deliberately. For a Latin American founder it is quietly the best deal in Europe: three years of residence, Beckham tax treatment, and naturalisation after just two years of residence with no requirement to renounce (Spain permits dual nationality with Ibero-American countries by treaty).
Qualifying routes
€34.2k
Remote employee or freelancer for non-Spanish companies
EUR 2,849/month (200% of SMI). Freelancers may bill Spanish clients up to a maximum of 20% of total activity.
The facts
- Qualifying figure
- €34.2k
- Total landed cost
- EUR 2–6k in government and legal fees for a family; the visa itself is inexpensive
- Timeline
- 1–6 months — UGE-CE processing is fast by Spanish standards — the in-country route via the Unidad de Grandes Empresas has a 20-working-day statutory response with positive silence
- Physical presence
- substantive — this is a residence permit and it makes you a Spanish tax resident if you stay 183+ days
- Family
- spouse or unmarried partner (add 75% of SMI, roughly EUR 1,069/month)dependent children (add 25% of SMI each, roughly EUR 357/month)dependent ascendants
- Permanent residency
- 5 years
- Citizenship
- 10 years of legal residence for most nationalities; 2 years for nationals of Ibero-American countries, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea, Portugal, and Sephardic Jews
- Language test
- DELE A2 plus the CCSE test
- Dual citizenship
- Not permitted — you would have to renounce
- Requirements
- non-EU/EEA/Swiss nationalremote work for companies located outside Spainincome at or above 200% of SMIdegree from a reputable institution OR 3+ years of professional experience in the fieldemployment relationship of at least 3 months and employer trading for at least 1 yearclean criminal record for the last 5 yearsprivate health insurance with full coverage in Spain, or Spanish social security registrationno irregular stay in Spain at time of application
What can go wrong
- The income threshold is pegged to the SMI and ratchets every year — a renewal can fail on a threshold that did not exist at first grant.
- Beckham treatment is not automatic with the DNV; it is a separate election with its own 6-month deadline and its own conditions.
- Spanish tax residence brings Modelo 720 foreign asset reporting (unless sheltered by Beckham), wealth tax, and the Solidarity Tax on Large Fortunes — the visa is cheap, the tax consequence is not.
- Freelancers are capped at 20% of activity from Spanish clients — exceeding it can invalidate the permit.
- Naturalisation for non-Ibero-American nationals requires renouncing the original citizenship, which Spain does enforce at the oath (albeit imperfectly in practice).
- The employing company must generally have been trading for at least one year, and the applicant must have at least 3 months with that employer.