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PROPERTY

How to make the most of Spain’s Golden Visa residency scheme

Spain has a Golden Visa scheme for which allows Non-Europeans to be granted a residency permit with an investment of €500K in the country.

Published: 3 February 2020 13:13 CET
Updated: 16 March 2021 13:45 CET
How to make the most of Spain's Golden Visa residency scheme
It's not hard to find properties worth €500K in the glitzy southern town of Marbella. Photo: Claudiu Danaila/Unsplash

What is the Golden Visa Scheme? 

Introduced in September 2013, the law gives foreigners who invest large sums in Spanish property, public debt and projects of general interest the right to reside in Spain.

For property investors, the mininum investment before taxes and changes is €500,000 ($551,000). Once the extra costs are factored in, however, the real cost is closer to €600,000.

While the law doesn’t give people the right to work in Spain, there is one big perk: it gives non-EU citizens access to the entire Schengen area.

READ ALSO: 


Photo: Lucas Fox

How to get a Spanish golden visa

First, you must purchase a Spanish property for €500k or more. Key points to note are:

  • The €500k must be money you bring into the country. Thus if you finance part of your purchase with a Spanish mortgage, you still have to pay the first €500k either in cash, or with a mortgage granted by a non-Spanish bank.

  • Refurbishment costs do not count towards your golden visa. 

  • When you purchase property in Spain, you need to budget an additional 15 percent to cover taxes, legal fees and notary fees. None of these closing costs count towards your golden visa.

  • You can divide the €500k across multiple properties. However, experts do not recommend this if you want to optimize your golden visa property purchase. 

You bought a property – now what?

Obtaining a Spanish golden visa is a two step process.

Step 1

First, you must go to the Spanish Consulate in your home country to obtain the visa. This is a stamp in your passport that allows you to travel to Spain, with multiple entries and exits, for one year. Within this year you must go to Spain and apply for your residency permit. 

To get the visa, you need to show your purchase agreement and your property’s deed to prove that you have made the property investment.

You will also need to show standard immigration documents such as your passport, and proof you do not have a criminal record.

If your spouse is applying for residency with you, your marriage certificate must be submitted. If your children are applying, their birth certificates must be submitted.

Under Spanish law, spouses and dependent children under the age of eighteen years are guaranteed residency permits. For all other family members you must present paperwork proving they are your legal dependents.

Step 2

Next, you must travel to Spain and apply for your residence permit. This needs to be done in person so they can take your fingerprints.

Your initial residence permit is valid for two years. You do not have to reside in Spain during this time, but you do need to return to renew your residence permit in person. Once you apply for your residence permit, it takes about 50 days. Roughly 25 days to complete the application process and 25 days to receive your ID card.

After you have been a legal resident of Spain for five years, you are eligible to apply for permanent residency. Once you have ten years of Spanish residency, you are eligible to apply for Spanish citizenship.

Are there any scenarios under which the immigration authorities will deny renewing your residence permit?

If you sell your property or transfer it into someone else’s name, the immigration authorities will not renew your residence permit.

If you have a criminal record your residence permit will not be renewed.

Finally, if you are not up to date on your Spanish tax payments, you will need to get up to date before your permit is renewed. 

These tips have been provided by Moving2Madrid, a buyer’s agent that focuses exclusively on the Madrid market.   “We help international buyers locate, negotiate and close the deal on apartments in Madrid. We work with renters, buyers and investors. We focus exclusively on an international clientele and speak multiple languages,” explained Mary Clare Bland.

If you want to learn more about how to get a Spanish golden visa for you and your family, here are some frequently asked questions about Spain’s golden visa program. 

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For members

VISAS

Does Spain accept savings for the digital nomad visa if earnings aren’t enough?

One of the main questions applicants for Spain's digital nomad visa have is whether they can provide proof of savings if they don't meet the visa's high income requirements. This is what Spanish authorities told The Local Spain.

Published: 19 April 2024 13:18 CEST
Does Spain accept savings for the digital nomad visa if earnings aren't enough?

The Digital Nomad Visa or DNV is often referred to as visado de teletrabajador de carácter internacional on most of the official websites in Spain and became available for the first time at the beginning of 2023. 

There are a long list of requirements you need to meet in order to be eligible for the DNV, including having no more than 20 percent of your income come from Spain and having some type of social security agreement or paying it yourself.

One of the most challenging requirements, however, is the amount of income you need to earn.

The UGE (Unidad de Grandes Empresas y Colectivos Estratégicos), the body that deals with these visas and the one you apply to states that you need to prove you have monthly earnings of at least 200 percent of the minimum interprofessional salary (SMI), or minimum wage.

Currently in 2024, this means that you need to prove you have earnings of €2,646 per month or €31,752 per year. 

READ ALSO: Is the income requirement for Spain’s digital nomad visa a gross or net figure?

If your partner or children are accompanying you to Spain, you will also need to prove you have extra money in order to support them.

If you’re applying for yourself and your partner, you will need to prove you earn an extra 75 percent of the minimum wage. This currently equates to an extra €1,984.50 per month on top of the €2,646 just for you, so a total of €4,630.50 per month. 

For each additional family member after this, such as children, you will have to prove you have an extra 25 percent of the SMI, which is an extra €661.50 per month.

Many applicants don’t quite meet the threshold and often wonder if the authorities will accept savings in order to make up the shortfall.

This is asked time and time again in many social media groups associated with the DNV.

Can you provide savings for Spain’s digital nomad visa application if earnings aren’t enough?

As with many bureaucratic processes in Spain, the answer is not completely straightforward.

Several members of the Spanish Digital Nomad Visa Facebook group have said that they have successfully been granted the DNV by providing evidence of savings in bank accounts, while many others say that they’ve been rejected because they haven’t earned enough and savings were not able to be taken into account.

One member of the group wrote: “It is an income based visa and therefore savings will only be taken into account if there is a small gap between the requirement and the income. But even then, it is still up to UGE to decide whether they want to accept it or not”.

Another member confirmed this by saying that her lawyer told her that if she has a small shortfall in income, the extra can be made up of savings over £20k.

Someone else added: “I applied without the minimum income requirement covered. I complemented it with savings and got approved”.

READ ALSO: Spain clarifies which digital nomads will get lower tax rates

But others have been told something completely different and been told by their lawyers that savings can’t be used to apply for the DNV at all.

With so many different answers it can be tricky to figure out the truth.

The best option is to contact the UGE itself and find out, which is what we did. 

“The requirement is to prove that the income which will be obtained as remuneration meets the minimum requirements,” the UGE told The Local Spain regarding the €2,646 a month threshold.

“However, if the difference is not much (there is no specific amount but rather it depends on the overall analysis of the application), savings that cover the difference for at least the first two years of the (DNV) authorisation can be assessed”.

Therefore, we can conclude that DNV applicants with monthly earnings that are slightly below the digital nomad visa requirement may be able to successfully provide savings to cover the shortfall, but in the end Spanish authorities decide on a case-by-case basis.

One DNV applicant told other digital nomads on a Facebook forum that the UGE replied to them with: “Any means of evidence admitted by law may be used and an individualised analysis will be carried out”.

Again, it’s likely this will depend on the amount of shortfall you have. We don’t know exactly what the threshold is, so it’s really speculation.

Perhaps if you only need a couple of hundred euros more to meet the income requirement, you may be able to make it up with savings, but if it’s a large amount, it’s likely you’ll get denied.

There’s no one-fits-all answer unfortunately. It’s of course more risky to apply if you don’t meet the income requirement, but if you really can’t make it work, your best bet is to try to submit evidence of your savings along with your application to see if you’ll be accepted.

They may ask for extra evidence later on down the line or you may be successful first time. Of course, there’s every possibility you’ll be rejected too.

READ ALSO: What digital nomads in Spain wish they’d known before applying

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