The A1 Certificate and Healthcare on the Digital Nomad Visa

An A1 is not something you apply to Spain for, and it is not health insurance. It is a certificate issued by the competent social security institution, certifying which country's legislation applies to you under the EU coordination rules. That is the whole function, and almost every misunderstanding about it comes from expecting it to do one of the other two jobs.

It matters on this route because the digital nomad regulation accepts public cover as well as private — so whether you are in a public system at all, and which one, becomes a live question instead of an academic one.

What it actually evidences

When someone works across borders inside the European coordination area, the rules decide which single system they belong to — the point being that you contribute to one, not several and not none. The A1 is the certificate that records that decision.

So on this route its job is narrow and specific: it is how you show that your social security position sits in another member state rather than in Spain, which in turn is how the public-cover side of the requirement can be satisfied without you being in the Spanish system.

Three consequences worth having straight:

It is retrospective in character, not permissive. It does not grant you the right to stay in your home system. It evidences that, under that system's rules, you do.

It comes from the issuing authority, on their forms and their timetable. Which is a planning fact: you cannot produce one at short notice because a Spanish office has asked for it.

It is not insurance, and — the part that matters most on this page — it is not proof of healthcare entitlement either.

The EU's own description of the two forms draws the line cleanly. The A1 is a statement of applicable legislation: evidence of which country's social security rules apply to you. The S1 is a certificate of entitlement to healthcare if you do not live in the country where you are insured. Two forms, two different jobs.

So "I have an A1, therefore my health cover requirement is handled" does not follow. An A1 can establish that you remain in another country's system; whether that produces healthcare entitlement in Spain, and how you evidence it, is the separate question — and depending on the applicable system the answer may involve an S1 or another entitlement document. How the S1 works in Spain covers that side.

If your position turns out to be that you are in no public system you can evidence, you need a private policy from an insurer authorised to operate in Spain — a third document again.

Who can actually have one

The honest answer sits between the two things you will read.

It is not limited to EU citizens. The coordination rules were expressly extended to third-country nationals by a regulation whose whole purpose was to stop nationality alone being the reason for exclusion. So "I'm not an EU citizen, so there's no A1 for me" is wrong.

But two conditions do the real work, and both must be met:

You must be legally resident in the territory of a Member State. Not intending to be, not applying to be — resident.

Your situation must not be confined in all respects within a single Member State. There has to be a genuine cross-border element between Member States.

But that regulation is not the only route in, and a simple rule here would mislead you. Other coordination arrangements exist and apply on their own terms. The UK–EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement is the one that matters most to this site's readers: it carries its own social security coordination provisions, and A1 certificates are issued under it by HMRC. So a British applicant living in the UK — not legally resident in any EU Member State, and therefore outside the regulation above — can still be in an A1 position, through a different instrument entirely.

Which is why the question is not about your nationality. Whether an A1 can be issued depends on the countries involved and the applicable coordination instrument — the EU regulations, their extension to certain third-country nationals, the UK–EU agreement, or something else again. Nationality alone decides nothing.

Where no coordination instrument applies, a bilateral social security agreement between Spain and the other country may be relevant instead. Agreements differ in scope — including whether healthcare is covered at all, and Spanish Social Security distinguishes those that include it — so the specific agreement has to be checked. The existence of an agreement tells you nothing by itself.

What none of this settles is whether your particular working arrangement qualifies. These instruments are generally built around temporary or cross-border working patterns, so somebody relocating to Spain indefinitely is not automatically inside one because a route exists in principle. That is for the issuing authority.

Social Security or private insurance on the DNV sets out where the cover question goes next.

What this page will not tell you

Whether you qualify for an A1. That is a determination by the issuing authority about your working pattern and your contribution history. No guide can make it, and one that implies it can is misleading you about something consequential.

Whether a particular bilateral agreement covers healthcare. They differ. The agreement itself, read by someone who reads them, is the answer.

Any contribution rate, period or threshold. None appears here.

What a Spanish office will accept as evidence. Documentary practice varies, and it is worth confirming for your own case rather than assuming.

Before you buy anything

Three things, in order, and the first two may mean you need nothing from us.

The route accepts public cover as well as private. Its own provision asks for a public or private health insurance policy, so private insurance is one way of satisfying it rather than the only way.

If you will be joining Spanish Social Security once the authorisation is granted, UGE's published documentation for this route states that the insurance documents are not required at all. Settle that question first.

If you are staying in another country's system, then the certificate that matters for healthcare is the entitlement certificate, not the A1 — and where the applicable rules do not give you public healthcare in Spain, that is the point at which a policy is actually needed. An A1 on its own is not treated as proof of healthcare cover.

Health insurance is provided through our specialist health-insurance service, Spanish Health Insurance. Spanish Health Insurance specialises in private health insurance for people moving to and living in Spain.

Frequently asked questions

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