Requirements for Spain’s Digital Nomad Visa are stable in 2026, but the way UGE applies them has tightened: income evidence, employment history and social security coverage receive far more scrutiny than in 2023. This is the full requirement set for the 2026 application cycle.
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The threshold is anchored to 200% of the Spanish minimum wage (SMI), which works out at roughly €2,850 per month for the main applicant, or about €34,200 per year. Family members raise it: add roughly 75% of the SMI for the first dependent and 25% for each additional one.
Evidence must be consistent across sources. Contracts, invoices, bank statements and tax returns should tell the same story; a contract stating an amount your bank statements never show is the single most common reason for a requerimiento.
You must work remotely for companies located outside Spain. Employees need an employment relationship of at least three months with the current employer, and the company must have existed for at least one year. Freelancers may work with Spanish clients for up to 20% of their total activity.
Qualification comes from either a degree from a recognised institution or at least three years of professional experience in your field.
The document set itself is well known: passport, MI-T (or MI-F for family), proof of the 790-038 fee, employment or service contracts, bank statements, company registration extracts, criminal record certificate, private health insurance with full coverage in Spain, and social security coverage evidence.
What changed is the standard applied. Foreign public documents require apostille, and nearly everything not originally in Spanish requires a sworn (jurado) translation by a translator registered with the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Criminal record certificates should be recent — treat 90 days as the practical shelf life.
A residence permit filed from inside Spain with UGE has a legal decision period of 20 working days and is granted for up to three years. A consular visa filed from abroad is typically decided in 10 working days to a few weeks and is issued for up to one year, after which you renew inside Spain as a three-year permit.
Plan for document preparation, not just the decision: apostille and sworn translation are usually the longest part of the calendar.
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