The Income Requirement for Spain's Digital Nomad Visa

For 2026 the main applicant must show resources equivalent to 200% of Spain's monthly minimum wage. With the 2026 minimum wage at €1,221 a month, that is €2,442 a month. Additional amounts apply for accompanying family members.

It is expressed monthly, and that matters. There is no annual figure in the requirement to convert to — so a yearly total you may have seen is somebody's arithmetic rather than the test. Because the figure is tied to the minimum wage, it moves when the minimum wage moves, which is why it is worth checking the current position before you plan around it.

The figure, and why we state it one way

The requirement is a multiple of the statutory minimum wage rather than a fixed sum. That is a deliberate design: it indexes the threshold so it does not need re-legislating each year.

The practical consequences are two. First, the figure changes when the minimum wage changes, so any number — including this one — carries a date. Second, it is a monthly test, which is why we do not publish an annual equivalent. Converting it produces a number the rules do not state, and readers then plan against the conversion rather than the requirement.

We keep this figure in step with our digital nomad visa page, which is where the route's requirements are governed for this site. If the two ever disagree, that page is right and this one needs fixing.

The money is the part people focus on and the smaller risk

Applications on this route turn as often on structure as on income, and the regulation's conditions make that plain.

Your relationship with the company must already exist. The law requires an employment or professional relationship with a company not located in Spain for at least the three months before the application, together with documentation of the terms on which the remote work will be done.

The company must be real and established. There must be genuine and continuous activity for at least a year by the company or group you work with.

And the work must be capable of being done remotely, evidenced as such.

So a high income with a two-month-old contract is a weaker application than a modest income with a settled one. Health insurance for Spain's digital nomad visa covers the cover requirement, and the employer-side conditions are set out on the DNV and your employer.

The 20% rule, which is about where your work comes from

This is the condition most often misstated, and it is narrow.

Where you carry out a professional activity, the law permits you to work for a company located in Spain provided that work is no more than 20% of your total professional activity.

Read the scope. It attaches to professional activity — working for your own clients — not to employment. And it is a ceiling on Spanish-sourced work, not an allowance to take any Spanish job you like.

For an employee, the position is different: an employed holder of this authorisation may only work for companies located outside Spain.

Qualifying on who you are, not just what you earn

The route also asks you to be a qualified professional, and it offers two ways to show it:

Being a graduate or postgraduate of universities, professional training institutions or business schools of recognised prestige; or

Professional experience of at least three years in functions analogous to the post.

That second limb matters to self-taught and career-switched applicants, and it is a genuine alternative rather than a fallback.

How the income is evidenced

Income has to be visible month by month, which is why invoices and payslips for the months before the application, matched against bank movements, are what the processing unit works from — with the payments identified separately from the rest of the account's traffic.

Where income falls below the threshold, the position can be supplemented by evidence of savings or other liquid income covering the difference across the authorisation's validity.

And if you are a company owner rather than an employee or a straightforward freelancer, expect the structure itself to be examined — ownership, control and the company's tax position among it. The DNV for professionals and the self-employed covers the self-employed side of the route.

What this page will not tell you

An annual figure. The requirement is monthly and we are not going to invent the conversion.

The exact family-member additions. Additional amounts apply; our digital nomad visa page carries the detail and we do not duplicate money figures.

Whether your own income or structure qualifies. That is an assessment on your documents.

Any fee or processing time.

Frequently asked questions

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