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The English-language guide to Spain

Move to Spain.Know your route.Get it done.

Visas, healthcare, insurance, property and everything you need to actually get settled — in the order you'll face it.

Plan my moveExplore visa routes
  • Visa routes explained
  • Healthcare and cover
  • Property and retirement
  • Free to read, no sign-up
A sunlit Spanish street corner: pavement café tables under a white parasol, apartment balconies above, a plane tree, people at the tables and walking past.

What we cover

What can we help you with?

Three things decide whether a move to Spain works. Everything else on this site hangs off one of them.

01 A Madrid façade in warm afternoon light — wrought-iron balconies, wooden shutters, plants in pots, one shutter open. Visas & residency Find the route that fits your situation, what it asks of you, and how residency works once you have it. Explore 02 A person sitting on wide stone steps above Barcelona, looking out over the city. Moving to Spain Documents, money, where you’ll live, the move itself and the first month of Spanish admin. Explore 03 A Seville street in soft light: orange trees along a wide pavement, terrace tables outside a bar, people walking and sitting. Healthcare & insurance How the public and private systems work, what each costs, and what private cover is actually for. Explore
A dense hillside of Spanish houses filling the frame — white walls, terracotta roofs, roof terraces, washing on lines.

Moving to Spain is more than getting a visa.

The visa is one decision inside a much longer sequence, and it is rarely the one that goes wrong. Get the order right and most of the rest is paperwork.

  • Choosing where to live, and what that changes
  • What you have to be able to prove, and when
  • Healthcare, and the condition most routes attach to it
  • The first month of Spanish admin, in dependency order

How it works

Four stages, in the order they actually depend on each other.

  1. Choose your routeWork out which visa or residency route is realistic for you before committing to anything else.
  2. Prepare the moveDocuments, money, where you’ll live, and the steps that block other steps.
  3. Sort healthcare and coverHow the public and private systems work, and the condition most routes attach.
  4. Get established in SpainThe NIE, the padrón, the TIE, and the first month of admin.

Visa routes

Already know you need a visa?

Start from the route, or start from your situation — both land in the same place.

Non-lucrativeRetiring or living on your income Digital nomadWorking remotely from Spain StudentComing to study FamilyJoining or bringing family EU residencyEU, EEA or Swiss citizens RenewalsAlready here, and what follows

All visa and residency guides →

Practical guides

The guides people open first

Not a blog feed. These are the questions that decide whether the move happens, and what it costs you if you take them in the wrong order.

moving Moving to Spain from the UK Every route from the UK to Spain — which visa fits your situation, the UK-only admin… visas NLV vs DNV: The Honest Comparison Two routes answering different questions. healthcare Public vs Private Healthcare in Spain Spain's public system is genuinely good, and most settled expats still end up using both. property Should You Rent or Buy in Spain? The honest answer for most people moving to Spain: rent first — and here's the framework that… retirement Retiring to Spain from the UK The NLV, your pension income, the S1 and the UK exit list, in order. visas Your NIE Number, Explained Your NIE is the number Spanish administration knows you by — not a residence right, not a card… moving The Real Cost of Moving to Spain Four wallets, and the one people forget. moving How Long Does It Take to Move to Spain? What actually controls how long a move takes. moving Every Document You Need to Move to Spain The document names are the easy part. moving Moving to Spain with Pets The sequence, and why the order is not negotiable. visas Which Spanish Visa Do You Need? The routes that are realistic for your situation. visas The Non-Lucrative Visa, Explained What Spain's Non-Lucrative Visa really is, who it suits and the current income requirement… visas The Digital Nomad Visa, Explained What Spain's digital nomad visa really is, who it's designed for, employee vs freelancer — and… property What Does Buying Property in Spain Really Cost? What buying in Spain really costs on top of the price — taxes, notary, registry, legal fees and… property Do You Really Need a Lawyer to Buy in Spain? Legally required? No. Sensible to skip? Almost never. retirement How Much Money Do You Need to Retire in Spain? Two different questions hide in this one: enough to qualify, and enough to live.

How this site works

We tell you when we're recommending our own companies

247 Expat is part of a group that also runs specialist services for people moving to Spain. Where we route you to one of them, we say so on the page — every time.

Changeable figures carry the date they were checked

Thresholds, costs and timescales move. Where a number appears on a guide, it is dated, and it is the number we last verified rather than the one that reads best.

Nothing here is invented

No invented customer stories, no borrowed statistics, no manufactured expertise. Where we cannot yet stand a claim up, the guide says less rather than more.

How we review services

Start where you actually are.

Most people arrive with one of two questions. Both are answered in full, for free, and neither needs an email address.

  • The whole journey, in order
  • Or the visa decision on its own

Plan my moveExplore visa routes