The requirements
- Programme status
- Open, accepting applications
- Minimum monthly income
- $3,134 a month
- Required savings
- None
- Annual total
- $37,608
- Initial duration
- 1 year (consulate) or 3 years (in Spain), renewable to 5
- Family allowed
- Yes
- Apply online
- Yes
€2,849/month (200% of 2026 SMI on annual basis); consulates quote €2,442/month (200% × €1,221 monthly SMI). +75% SMI first family member, +25% each further.
How this figure is set: A formula in law, so the amount moves when its base moves. The wording on the source is: €2,849/month (200% of 2026 SMI on annual basis €17,094 x 2 = €34,188/yr) - UGE practice; consulates quote €2,442/month (200% x €1,221 monthly SMI in 14 payments)
. Formula: 200% of SMI; +75% SMI first family member, +25% SMI each additional.
Income confidence: medium · checked 2026-09-07
Legal basis: Ley 14/2013 arts. 74 bis ff. as amended by Ley 28/2022; SMI 2026 = €1,221 x 14 (Washington consulate page).
Does this lead to permanent residence?
Direct pathway. Long-term residence after 5 yrs; citizenship at 10.
Ley 14/2013 arts. 74 ff. as amended by Ley 28/2022, with the joint DG Espanoles en el Exterior / DG Migraciones instruction of 30 March 2023 on international teleworkers published by the Ministry of Inclusion's Unidad de Grandes Empresas: the teletrabajo authorisation runs three years and renews for two, reaching the five years the general residencia de larga duracion rule requires. No official text consulted carves the teletrabajo ground out of that rule, but none states that it counts either, so the grade is medium rather than high.
Pathway confidence: medium · checked 2026-09-07
Setting up a business instead
2 routes in that ask you to start something here rather than prove an income from somewhere else.
Entrepreneur Residence Permit (Autorización de residencia para emprendedores)
A business the state has to accept as innovative · decided by Unidad de Grandes Empresas y Colectivos Estratégicos
- What you must show
- No fixed amount
- How long
- 3 years, renewable for 2, with permanent residence available at 5
- Leads to permanent residence
- Yes
Where to start
- MERCURIO, on the sede electrónica ↗Where the application is actually filed. Art. 69(1) makes it electronic and sends it to the UGE-CE rather than to a consulate, so this is the first address even when you are outside Spain.
- ENISA, the state innovation lender ↗Writes the report on whether the business is innovative or of special economic interest, with ten working days to do it under art. 70(1). The report is compulsory and favourable is the only version that helps; you do not choose who writes it.
- Spanish consulates abroad ↗From outside Spain the permit is granted first and the visa second, at the mission where you live.
What you register
Limited company (Sociedad de responsabilidad limitada, SL)
A separate legal person that owns the business and answers for its debts. One euro, and it has been since Ley 18/2022 came into force on 19 October 2022 - not the EUR 3,000 that guides, and a good many lawyers, still quote. The 3,000 did not disappear, it moved: while the capital is under it, art. 4 LSC sends 20 per cent of profit to a legal reserve until reserve and capital together reach 3,000, and on liquidation the partners answer jointly for the gap between 3,000 and what was actually put in. The usual shape for anything with a client contract or an employee behind it.
Sole trader (Autónomo, empresario individual)
You trade as yourself. There is no second legal person, so the business's debts are your debts. No minimum capital, because there is no company to capitalise. Becoming one is two registrations, not a company filing: modelo 036 or 037 with the tax agency, and the self-employed social security scheme (RETA). Art. 85(5) of RD 1155/2024 makes the permit's effectiveness conditional on that social security registration within three months of arriving.
Public limited company (Sociedad anónima, SA)
The company form used for larger businesses and anything intending to raise capital publicly. EUR 60,000 minimum under art. 4(2) LSC, and unlike the SL there is no reduced-capital route. Almost never the right answer for one person arriving to work for themselves; it is here so the comparison is complete.
What to bring: Checked and no list published. Ley 14/2013 art. 70(2) names the three things ASSESSED - your professional profile and involvement, the business plan with the investment it needs and where the money comes from, and what the project adds to Spain - which is not the same thing as a list of papers to bring. The UGE-CE publishes hojas informativas that would carry one, and inclusion.gob.es answered 403 to every attempt on 21 September 2026. A checklist copied from a relocation guide is exactly what data rule 12 keeps out of here. · checked 2026-09-21
What you register: A business the state accepts as innovative or of special economic interest to Spain. It is judged on your own professional profile and involvement, a business plan covering the product, the investment it needs and where the money comes from, and what the project adds to the Spanish economy. ENISA, the state innovation lender, writes the report and has ten working days to do it; the report is compulsory, so the assessment is of the idea before it is of you.
Who decides: Unidad de Grandes Empresas y Colectivos Estratégicos (UGE-CE), applied to electronically. Not a consulate: from outside Spain the permit and the visa are asked for in one instance and granted one after the other.
No figure. Art. 62(3)(f) asks for economic resources sufficient for yourself and your family for the period of residence, and names no amount - the same shape as the sufficient-means rows elsewhere in this dataset. The money question the law does put a weight on is the business's, not yours: art. 70(2)(b) reads the investment the plan requires and how it is to be financed.
Where to start: Ley 14/2013 arts. 69 and 70 for the sequence and the bodies. Every portal was fetched on 21 September 2026 and MERCURIO is listed by name on the Extranjería category of the sede electrónica. The UGE-CE's own page on inclusion.gob.es refuses automated fetching and is deliberately not linked: a link nobody has read is not a step. · checked 2026-09-21
Company types: Real Decreto Legislativo 1/2010, the Ley de Sociedades de Capital, art. 4, read in the BOE consolidated text on 21 September 2026 - paragraph 1 for the SL and its reserve and clawback rules as amended by art. 2.1 of Ley 18/2022, paragraph 2 for the SA. The autónomo is not a company form and has no capital article; its two registrations are named in art. 85(5) of RD 1155/2024. · checked 2026-09-21
Business route confidence: high · checked 2026-09-21
Legal basis: Ley 14/2013 de apoyo a los emprendedores, arts. 69 and 70, read in the BOE's consolidated text as amended by Ley 28/2022. Art. 69(1) states the three-year validity, the two-year renewal, that permanent residence may be obtained at five years, and that the application is made electronically to the UGE-CE. Art. 70(1) defines the activity as innovative and/or of special economic interest to Spain and requires a compulsory favourable report from ENISA within ten working days; art. 70(2) lists the three things assessed. Art. 69(2) applies the general requirements of art. 62, whose paragraph 3(f) is the sufficient-means test and names no figure. Art. 68, the old entry-for-start-up-activity route, was suppressed by Ley 28/2022 and is not an option however many guides still list it.
Ley 14/2013, consolidated text (BOE) ↗
Self-employment Residence and Work Permit (Residencia temporal y trabajo por cuenta propia)
Working for yourself, registered here · decided by the immigration office
- What you must show
- No fixed amount
- How long
- 1 year initially, renewable; limited to one autónomous community and one sector
- Leads to permanent residence
- Yes
Where to start
- Spanish consulates abroad ↗Art. 85(1) starts this route with a residence visa application at the mission where you live, not with a permit application in Spain. Three months to decide, and art. 85(4) makes silence a refusal rather than an approval.
- Agencia Tributaria, sede electrónica ↗Modelo 036 or 037, which is the registration that puts you on the tax register and declares what you will be doing.
- Seguridad Social, sede electrónica ↗Registration in the self-employed scheme (RETA). Art. 85(5) makes the permit's effectiveness conditional on doing this within three months of legally entering Spain, so it is a deadline and not paperwork to get round to.
- CIRCE, the one-stop company formation point ↗Only if you are forming a company rather than trading as yourself: CIRCE files the incorporation, the tax registration and the social security registration from one form.
What you register
Sole trader (Autónomo, empresario individual)
You trade as yourself. There is no second legal person, so the business's debts are your debts. No minimum capital, because there is no company to capitalise. Becoming one is two registrations, not a company filing: modelo 036 or 037 with the tax agency, and the self-employed social security scheme (RETA). Art. 85(5) of RD 1155/2024 makes the permit's effectiveness conditional on that social security registration within three months of arriving.
Limited company (Sociedad de responsabilidad limitada, SL)
A separate legal person that owns the business and answers for its debts. One euro, and it has been since Ley 18/2022 came into force on 19 October 2022 - not the EUR 3,000 that guides, and a good many lawyers, still quote. The 3,000 did not disappear, it moved: while the capital is under it, art. 4 LSC sends 20 per cent of profit to a legal reserve until reserve and capital together reach 3,000, and on liquidation the partners answer jointly for the gap between 3,000 and what was actually put in. The usual shape for anything with a client contract or an employee behind it.
Public limited company (Sociedad anónima, SA)
The company form used for larger businesses and anything intending to raise capital publicly. EUR 60,000 minimum under art. 4(2) LSC, and unlike the SL there is no reduced-capital route. Almost never the right answer for one person arriving to work for themselves; it is here so the comparison is complete.
What to bring
- The requirements Spanish nationals must meet to open and run the activity you are planning.
- The professional qualification the activity legally requires, or enough proven experience in it, plus membership of a professional body where one is required.
- Evidence that the planned investment is enough to set the project up, and what it does for employment - your own self-employment counts.
- Confirmation you are not inside a no-return commitment given when voluntarily returning to your home country.
- No threat to public order, security or health - the immigration office requests the criminal-register and police reports itself, so this one is not a paper you bring.
- Proof the processing fee has been paid.
Document list: Real Decreto 1155/2024 art. 84, the requirements for an initial self-employment residence and work authorisation, read in the BOE consolidated text on 21 September 2026 and given here in its own order. It is the law's list, not a guide's. Paragraph (e) is proved by the administration rather than by you: art. 85(2) has the immigration office request the criminal-register and police reports of its own motion, within seven days, and says an entry in the police report is not by itself a refusal. · checked 2026-09-21
What you register: Yourself as autónomo, running a real activity you are qualified to run. No innovation test: what is examined is whether you meet the same licensing rules a Spaniard would to open the activity, whether you hold the professional qualification or accredited experience it needs, and whether the investment planned is enough to get it going. The permit is tied to ONE autónomous community and ONE sector, which is the part no nomad list carries - it is not a permit to do business anywhere in Spain.
Who decides: The immigration office, after a residence visa application at the Spanish consulate where you live. Three months to decide, and silence counts as a refusal.
No figure. Art. 84(c) asks you to show that the investment planned for the project is sufficient, and what it will do for employment including your own; it sets no amount, for the business or for you. Any monthly euro figure attached to this route in a guide is that guide's recommendation, not the law's threshold.
Where to start: Real Decreto 1155/2024 art. 85, the procedure article, read in the BOE consolidated text: paragraph 1 for the consular visa application, paragraph 4 for the three months and for silence meaning refusal, paragraph 5 for the social security deadline that the permit's effectiveness hangs on. All four portals were fetched on 21 September 2026. · checked 2026-09-21
Company types: Real Decreto Legislativo 1/2010, the Ley de Sociedades de Capital, art. 4, read in the BOE consolidated text on 21 September 2026 - paragraph 1 for the SL and its reserve and clawback rules as amended by art. 2.1 of Ley 18/2022, paragraph 2 for the SA. The autónomo is not a company form and has no capital article; its two registrations are named in art. 85(5) of RD 1155/2024. · checked 2026-09-21
Business route confidence: medium · checked 2026-09-21
Legal basis: Real Decreto 1155/2024 de 19 de noviembre, the Reglamento of LO 4/2000 in force since 20 May 2025, arts. 82 to 85, read in the BOE's consolidated text. Art. 82 defines the situation, art. 83 sets the one-year initial term and the limit to one autónomous community and one sector of activity, art. 84 lists the requirements - national-equivalent licensing, professional qualification or accredited experience, and sufficiency of the planned investment - and art. 85 puts the application at the consulate under arts. 38 and 39, with three months to resolve and silence counting as refusal. Graded medium rather than high on one point only: those four articles were read directly, but the five-year long-term residence rule this route leads to sits in LO 4/2000 art. 32, which was not opened, so leads_to_pr is the ordinary route rather than a rule read in terms - unlike the entrepreneur route, where art. 69(1) says it outright.
RD 1155/2024, consolidated text (BOE) ↗
Where it is
Madrid sits at 40.42° N, 3.70° W.
Open in Google Maps ↗A map of Madrid. This is the only link here that leaves the site.
Your position is worked out on this device. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Time zone
- UTC+2 Madrid (Europe/Madrid)
- UTC+1 Canary (Atlantic/Canary)
Spain spans 2 offsets. The table shows the capital's.
The country
- Region
- Europe · Southern Europe
- Capital
- Madrid
- Currency
- EUR
- Schengen area
- Yes
Next door
1 of the 2 countries Spain shares a land border with is covered here.
- PortugalOpen$4,048 / mo
All of them are in the Schengen area, as Spain is. For a visitor that is one clock, not several: the 90 days in any 180 are spent across all of it.
What it costs to live there
$1,789 per person, per month. That is what one resident of Spain spends in an average month with housing included — not what a newcomer renting at market rates will spend, which is higher, and furthest above it in the cheapest countries.
- Madrid
- $1,850 / month incl. rent
of which rent $1,096 - Valencia
- $1,416 / month incl. rent
of which rent $773
City figures are crowdsourced from livingcost.net, not official: one person's monthly spending plus the rent of a one-bedroom flat outside the centre. They are here because a national average cannot show the spread between a capital and the places people actually move to. Checked 2026-09-20.
Cost of living confidence: high · checked 2026-09-20World Bank national accounts, reference year 2025: households and NPISHs final consumption expenditure (NE.CON.PRVT.CD, current US$) divided by population (SP.POP.TOTL) and by twelve. This is what one resident spends in an average month with housing included, since national accounts count the imputed rent of owner-occupiers. It is an average over the whole population, not a visitor's budget, so a newly arrived remote worker renting at market rates will spend more - see the city figures for what that looks like.
Languages
- Spanish official
- English common in cities
- Catalan common in cities
- Galician limited
- Basque limited
Shares of the population from Unicode CLDR: official, then anything spoken by a quarter of the country, an eighth, or a fiftieth. It answers "will I be understood", not "how good is their English".
Who can apply
- Kinds of work covered
- employee, freelancer
Not open to EU citizens or anyone covered by EU law. A degree from a recognised institution or at least three years of professional experience is required, the employer must be a company rather than an individual, an international organisation, a government agency, a university, a foundation or an NGO, and no more than 20 per cent of the work may be for Spanish companies.
Eligibility confidence: high · checked 2026-09-08
Consulate General of Spain telework visa page: 'This visa does not apply to citizens of the European Union or to those to whom European Union law applies'; qualified professionals must 'accredit being graduates or postgraduates from universities of recognized prestige... or a minimum of 3 years of professional experience'.
Where you apply from
There are two routes in, and where you are decides which one you use.
Art. 76 of Ley 14/2013 requires these permits to be processed by telematic means, so the permit itself is filed electronically and anyone already legally in Spain applies to it directly. From outside Spain the visa is still a consulate matter, and its fee is set by your nationality rather than by the permit.
Spanish embassies and consulates ↗Where you apply confidence: high · checked 2026-09-19Read 2026-09-19 from the Sede electronica and Unidad de Grandes Empresas pages this row cites in apply_steps (verified 2026-09-12), together with the consular fee table the fees note quotes.
Say where you are now and this names your country.
How to apply
- Check you clear the requirements above — $3,134 a month is the figure this row records.
- Gather what the official page asks for:
- One National Visa Application form, completed and signed
- One passport-size colour photo, recent (within 6 months)
- Valid, unexpired passport: original and photocopy of the biometric data pages
- Proof of legal residence in the consular country: valid long-term visa or notarised copy of the residence card
- Proof of residence or study in the consular district (driver's licence, State ID or university student ID)
- Foreign Identification Number (N.I.E.): certificate of assignment
- Certificate from the state Division of Corporations showing the company's constitution date and type of activity, apostilled and with a Spanish translation
- Company certificate reflecting seniority, income and permission to work remotely; for self-employed applicants, the details of the professional relationship
- Proof of financial means
- Criminal background check certificate, issued within the last 6 months, apostilled and with a Spanish translation
- Responsible Declaration of the absence of criminal records in the countries of residence for the previous 5 years
- Health insurance: public or private cover authorised to operate in Spain
- Proof of coverage in the Spanish Social Security system
- Responsible declaration by the worker or the company committing to comply with Spanish Social Security obligations
- Copy of the university or business school degree, or documentation of three or more years of professional experience
- Proof of the representative's identity and capacity, if applying through a representative
- Disclaimer form
- Payment of the visa fee
Consulate General of Spain in Washington DC (exteriores.gob.es), telework visa page. This is one consulate's checklist and it carries US-specific items - the FBI certificate, the Green Card, the N.I.E. from a US assignment - so another consulate's list will differ. Graded medium for that reason and because several items are condensed from the page's longer wording. Family members need items 1-6, 12 and 18 plus proof of relationship and financial dependence. - Apply in this order — the ministry page above describes the permit, these are where it is submitted:
- Unidad de Grandes Empresas: international teleworkers ↗Read this first, because it decides which of the two routes you are on. The teleworker permit under art. 74 bis of Ley 14/2013 is granted by the Unit for Large Companies and Strategic Groups — not by a consulate — and anyone already legally in Spain applies to it directly, with no telework visa at all.
- Sede electrónica: Alta Solicitud, Ley 14/2013 ↗The application itself, filed electronically. Art. 76 of the law requires these permits to be processed by telematic means, so there is no paper route — the same screen also handles corrections, extra documents and status checks.
- Tasa 038: fill in and pay online ↗The filing fee, completed and paid on the same electronic office. The page names the Unit for Large Companies explicitly, so this is the right tasa for this permit rather than the general immigration one.
Checked 2026-09-12. Spain is two different applications wearing one name and the row previously carried only the consulate page. From outside Spain you apply for a telework visa at a consulate, which in many countries means an outsourced visa centre rather than a government office and a fee set by your nationality. From inside Spain, legally present, you skip the visa entirely and apply to the UGE-CE for the residence authorisation under Ley 14/2013 art. 74 bis, electronically, because art. 76 of that law requires telematic processing. The steps here are that second route, because it is the one with a government portal behind it. - Pay the filing fee. Set by your nationality, not by the permit. The Washington consulate's published table runs from USD 106 for most nationalities to USD 190 for US citizens, USD 963 for British and USD 1,566 for Canadian, on the reciprocity principle Spain applies — so check the table at the mission that would take your file rather than assuming this one. The in-Spain residence route pays tasa 038 instead, filled in and paid on the ministry's electronic office.MAEC consulate fee table, and tasa 038 for the in-Spain route ↗ · checked 2026-09-12
- Sort out where you will stay for the first stretch. Airlines check this at the desk and will not board you without it, whatever your visa says —what counts as proof of accommodation.
- Verify every figure on the official page before you spend money. Thresholds are set in local currency and move every year.
Max 20% Spanish-source income; Beckham 24% flat tax optional.
A starting point, not advice. Figures are converted to US dollars at open-market rates; official thresholds are set in local currency. Sources: official source ↗. Data checked . Compiled by Junaid Qadir.