Spain's digital nomad visa: €2,849 a month, remote income, and a 3-year permit if you apply the smart way.

Spain's teleworker permit (Startups Law, Ley 28/2022) is the legal route for working remotely from Spain for a US or Canadian employer — the one thing the non-lucrative visa forbids. It also unlocks a 24% flat tax that retirees can't get.

Who qualifies

The permit — formally "teletrabajador de carácter internacional" — covers two profiles:

• Remote employees of companies located outside Spain. You may work only for non-Spanish companies.
• Self-employed / freelancers with foreign clients. Spanish clients are allowed up to 20% of your total activity.

Conditions that trip people up:

• Your employer or main client company must have been operating for at least 1 year.
• Your relationship with them must be at least 3 months old when you apply.
• You need a university or business-school degree, or 3+ years of professional experience.
• You must show Spanish social-security coverage or a responsible declaration to that effect — for US employees this runs through the US–Spain totalization agreement (a certificate of coverage); get advice, because employer obligations are the messiest part of this visa.
• You need an NIE (foreigner identity number) before applying — assignment fee €9.84.

The income requirement, precisely

The threshold is 200% of Spain's minimum wage (SMI), applied to the annual SMI figure and then divided by 12 — not the monthly (14-payment) SMI figure doubled. SMI 2026 is €1,221/month × 14 payments = €17,094/year (Real Decreto 126/2026, retroactive to 1 January 2026). 200% of €17,094 is €34,188/year, which works out to €2,849/month — the figure the UGE-CE and immigration lawyers actually use.

*At €1 = $1.14 (ECB reference rate, late June 2026).

Two ways to apply — and why the in-country route is better

1. At the consulate (US or Canada): you get a visa valid for a maximum of 1 year, then convert in Spain. Fees: $190 (US) / CAD 2,140 (Canada, 2026 fee schedule).
2. Inside Spain, via UGE-CE (the large-companies immigration unit): you can apply while legally in Spain — including during a visa-free 90-day stay — and receive a 3-year residence permit directly, renewable in 2-year periods (art. 74 quinquies, Ley 14/2013, inserted by the Startups Law).

Same requirements either way. The in-country route gets you a permit three times longer and skips a consular round-trip; the trade-off is doing Spanish bureaucracy from inside Spain with the 90-day clock running.

The document checklist

• Application form and fee payment
• Passport, and NIE assigned before filing
• Employment contract or client contracts (relationship ≥3 months; company operating ≥1 year)
• Employer letter authorising remote work from Spain
• Degree certificate or evidence of 3+ years' experience
• Proof of income at the 2026 thresholds above
• Proof of Spanish social-security coverage or a certificate of coverage under the US–Spain / Canada–Spain totalization agreements
• Criminal record check (FBI/RCMP), apostilled with sworn translation
• Health cover — via social security registration or private insurance, per route

The tax angle: Beckham, 24% flat

Digital-nomad permit holders are explicitly eligible to opt into Spain's impatriate regime — the "Beckham law" (art. 93 LIRPF). If you haven't been Spanish tax resident in the previous 5 years, you can elect (Modelo 149, then file Modelo 151) to pay a flat 24% on employment income up to €600,000 (47% above) for the year of arrival plus five more. You're taxed only on Spanish-source income, wealth taxes apply to Spanish assets only, and you're exempt from the Modelo 720 foreign-asset report.

Two caveats. First, retirees and passive-income earners do not qualify — a work or entrepreneurial trigger is mandatory, so this is a DNV perk, not an NLV one. Second, US citizens still file US returns regardless; whether Beckham works out cheaper than ordinary IRPF with foreign tax credits is a case-by-case calculation. See the Tax & Finance guide and get cross-border advice before electing.

After the permit

• Renewals in 2-year periods, as long as the conditions hold.
• Time on the DNV counts toward long-term residence at 5 years and citizenship at 10 (for Americans and Canadians). Details in the residency & citizenship guide.
• Get your TIE card, register on the padrón, and mind the 183-day tax-residency line — most full-time DNV holders will be Spanish tax residents.

DNV vs NLV

Living on pensions or savings and not working at all? That's the non-lucrative visa (€2,400/month, no work of any kind). Earning a remote salary? The DNV is the designed route — consulates treat remote work as caught by the NLV's work prohibition, and Washington requires a notarised no-work affidavit. Don't try to thread that needle. Compare the routes →