Non-lucrative visa or digital nomad visa in Spain: which one fits you

The core difference

Non-lucrative residence is for living in Spain without carrying out any employment or professional activity. You fund it with savings, investment income or passive income. The international teleworking residence, which everyone calls the digital nomad visa, is the opposite: living in Spain while working remotely for companies based outside the country.

The non-lucrative regulation makes no exception for remote work for foreign clients or employers. If you plan to keep working from Spain, the route designed for you is the digital nomad one. Choosing the other to avoid some requirements can cause problems at renewal.

• BOE · Reglamento de Extranjería (Real Decreto 1155/2024) ↗
• BOE · Ley 14/2013 ↗

How much money you need to show

For the non-lucrative route you need 400% of IPREM per month for the main applicant and 100% for each dependent family member, calculated over the length of the authorisation. With the current IPREM of €600 a month, unchanged because the 2023 budget has been extended, that is €2,400 a month for the applicant. For a one-year authorisation, that comes to €28,800, plus €7,200 for each family member. You can prove it with bank balances, property deeds or regular income. If you submit foreign accounts, they ask for the bank's details, the account identification, the balance on 31 December and the average balance over the last year.

For the digital nomad route you need 200% of the minimum interprofessional wage, plus 75% for the first family member and 25% for each additional one. With the 2026 minimum wage that is about €2,442 a month using the monthly amount, or €2,849 if the annual total is spread over 12 months. Here what counts is income from your remote work, not your savings.

• BOE · Reglamento de Extranjería (Real Decreto 1155/2024) ↗
• Migraciones · Hoja informativa 6 ↗
• BOE · Ley 31/2022 de Presupuestos Generales del Estado para 2023 ↗
• UGE · Documentación del titular (teletrabajadores) ↗
• BOE · Real Decreto 126/2026 (SMI 2026) ↗

Where to apply and how long it lasts

The non-lucrative visa is applied for at the Spanish consulate where you live. You cannot start it from inside Spain as a tourist. The authority has one month to decide and, if it does not reply, the application is treated as refused. The initial authorisation lasts one year from your entry into Spain. After that it is renewed for two years, applying in the two months before it expires.

The digital nomad route has two paths. From your home country, you apply for a visa of up to one year. If you are already in Spain legally, you can apply directly to the UGE for an authorisation of up to three years. Later renewals are for two years.

In both cases, once you arrive or receive the decision, you apply for the TIE (foreigner identity card) within the deadline you are given.

• BOE · Reglamento de Extranjería (Real Decreto 1155/2024) ↗
• Migraciones · Hoja informativa 6 ↗
• BOE · Ley 14/2013 ↗

Health insurance and documents

For the non-lucrative route you need public or private health insurance with an insurer authorised to operate in Spain. You also need criminal record certificates from the countries you lived in over the last five years, a medical certificate and the fee (form 790, code 052). Foreign documents must be legalised or apostilled and, if not in Spanish, come with a sworn translation.

For the digital nomad route from inside Spain, cover depends on your affiliation. If you register with Spanish Social Security, you do not need separate insurance. If you keep your home system under an agreement, you need insurance equivalent to the National Health System. Besides criminal records, you must show your employment or professional relationship, how long the company has been operating, and your qualifications or experience. Travel and residence insurance explains what to compare in a policy.

• Migraciones · Hoja informativa 6 ↗
• UGE · Documentación del titular (teletrabajadores) ↗
• Exteriores · Legalización y apostilla ↗

Renewal: the 183 days

To renew the non-lucrative authorisation you must show that you actually lived in Spain for more than 183 days during the calendar year. You must also still have the funds and the insurance, have any children in your care enrolled in school, and be up to date with tax and Social Security. It is a residence for staying, not for spending long periods away.

For the digital nomad route, the authority checks that you still meet the conditions you were granted the permit on: your relationship with the company or clients, your income, and your tax and Social Security registration.

• BOE · Reglamento de Extranjería (Real Decreto 1155/2024) ↗
• BOE · Ley 14/2013 ↗
• UGE · Preguntas frecuentes de teletrabajadores ↗

Tax: both make you tax resident

If you spend more than 183 days a year in Spain, you are tax resident and taxed on your worldwide income. That happens on both routes, and the non-lucrative route requires it for renewal. The difference is the Beckham Law. The inbound-worker regime requires that you moved for work, and it expressly names teleworking employees on the digital nomad visa. On the non-lucrative route there is no move for work, so you are taxed on the ordinary IRPF scale.

If you are an employee on the digital nomad visa, read the Beckham Law for digital nomads before the six-month deadline runs out.

• AEAT · Residencia fiscal ↗
• BOE · Ley 35/2006 del IRPF ↗

Which one to choose

• You live on savings, a pension or investment income and will not work: non-lucrative residence.
• You work remotely for a company or clients outside Spain: the digital nomad visa, even if you have enough savings for the other one.
• You want to start the process while already in Spain: only the digital nomad route allows it.
• You are moving with family: both accept family members, with different additional amounts. Run the numbers for your case.

For requirements, deadlines and sources on the nomad route, see the Spain digital nomad visa guide. To understand why a visa, residence and a stay are different things, read visa, residence and stay.