Moving to Spain to Work Remotely: A Month-by-Month Paperwork Calendar

5

If you are not a European Union citizen, work remotely for companies or clients in other countries and are preparing your move to Spain, the question is not only which permit to apply for, but in what order. This calendar runs from the paperwork in your home country to your first renewal.

Three months before: criminal records, apostilles and sworn translations

The slowest part depends on foreign authorities, so start early. You need a criminal record certificate from each country where you have lived in the last two years, plus a formal statement (declaración responsable) covering the last five. If you have spent a year in Canada and lived in Australia before that, you will need both certificates.

Foreign documents must carry an apostille or, depending on the country, be legalized, and, if they are not in Spanish, come with a sworn translation. The apostille, provided for in the Hague Convention, is the certification by which an authority in the issuing country confirms that the document is authentic. A sworn translation is signed by a translator appointed by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAEC).

Check two dates: the company or clients need at least one year of real activity, and your relationship with them, three months. And your gross income as the main applicant must reach 200% of the SMI, Spain’s minimum interprofessional wage: €2,849 a month in 2026. The Large Companies and Strategic Groups Unit (UGE), which processes these permits, brings the official information together on its page for remote workers (teletrabajadores).

The application month: ten working days at the consulate or twenty before the UGE

There are two paths. From your home country, you apply for a visa at the Spanish consulate for the area where you legally reside. If you are already in Spain lawfully, for example as a tourist, you apply online to the UGE for a residence permit.

The time limits for the digital nomad visa Spain grants remote workers depend on the door you use: the consulate has ten working days to decide on the visa, and the UGE has twenty working days to decide on the residence permit. These are legal maximums, not delivery dates, and working days exclude Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays.

At the consulate, the time limit runs from the day after you apply and is extended if they ask for documents or an interview. Your foreigner identification number (NIE) is requested at the same time: a personal identification number, not a permit. If the decision is favorable, you have one month from notification to collect the visa.

With the UGE, if the time limit expires without a response, the application is deemed approved (positive administrative silence, specific to this route). If you receive a request for additional documents (cure of defects) because something is missing, you have ten working days to provide them. Each applicant pays a fee 790-038 (named after its official payment form), €73.26. The application extends your stay while it is being decided, but as a tourist you cannot work.

First month in Spain: padrón, social security and, if you have the residence permit, the TIE

The padrón is the municipal register of residents: registration with the municipal census (padrón) is done at the town hall of the place where you live, and your nationality and your NIE or passport number are mandatory details. Each town hall sets the documents and the appointment system.

Your social security is Spain’s, not your home country’s. If you are an employee, the foreign company registers as a non-resident entity without an establishment and handles your registration in the General Scheme, the one for employees. The only exemption is a certificate of coverage issued under an international social security agreement signed with Spain that expressly includes remote work in Spain. As a freelancer, you register with RETA, the scheme for self-employed workers. In both cases, your passport is enough for the first six months, even if you don’t yet have an NIE. Failing to register is a ground for terminating the permit, including for your family.

The foreigner identity card (TIE) is the physical card for the permit. With a UGE residence permit granted for more than six months, you have one month from approval to apply for it in person, at a police station in your province, with form EX-17 and fee 790-012. With the consular visa it is not mandatory while the visa is valid: the visa already proves your residence, and you already have your NIE.

First six months: the window for the inbound expatriates regime (employees only)

Six months is the maximum time limit to opt into the inbound expatriates tax regime, the so-called Beckham Law, a special tax regime for workers who relocate to Spain. Through the remote-work route, only employees qualify, not freelancers. You opt in with the Spanish Tax Agency (Agencia Tributaria) using Form 149 (modelo 149), counting from the start date of activity shown in your Spanish social security registration or, if you stay in your home country’s system, in the certificate of coverage.

Year one and beyond: from visa to residence permit, and two-year renewals

With a visa, the next milestone comes before the year is out: in the 60 calendar days before it expires, you apply to the UGE, from Spain, for the residence permit, valid for up to three years. Once it is granted, the TIE follows within a month.

After that, the residence permit is renewed for two-year periods if you keep meeting the conditions of access: your relationship with your employer or clients, income, contributions. Applying for renewal extends the permit until a decision is made; under Law 14/2013, the application is accepted even up to 90 days after the permit expires, although penalty proceedings may then be opened. Each renewal means a new TIE, and any change in those conditions must be reported to the UGE within 30 days.

Until you hold long-term (permanent) residence, you must renew your padrón registration every two years; otherwise, it lapses. The law does not, however, set a minimum number of days of presence in Spain to renew.

How to use this calendar

This calendar lays out windows and maximum legal time limits; it does not predict when you will have each document. What does depend on you is starting with time to spare and noting when each visa, permit or card expires.