No capital contribution

Spain Non-Lucrative Visa

€2,400 a month of passive income. No investment, no donation, nothing to finance.

Spain abolished its golden visa on 3 April 2025. This is what is left, and for most of the people who were going to buy one it is the only route still open — but it forbids you from working, and that includes remote work for an employer outside Spain.

What it asks for

The gate is income, not capital. There is no sum to transfer and nothing to hold for a qualifying period.

Main applicant

€2,400 a month

Spouse or dependent parent

€600 a month, and the same again for each additional family member

Savings. €28,800 for a single applicant over twelve months. Savings can substitute for income where the balance covers the whole period.

Set at 400% of IPREM, the Spanish public income index, plus 100% of IPREM per dependant. IPREM is €600 a month in 2026, which is where €2,400 and €600 come from. It is reset in the national budget, so treat any figure from an earlier year as out of date. At the first renewal the sums double, because the funds must cover a two-year permit rather than a one-year one.

What it actually costs

More than 183 days a year, which makes you Spanish tax resident on worldwide income.

The initial visa runs one year and renews in two-year blocks. Permanent residence comes after five years of continuous legal residence, and continuity means 183 days or more in Spain each year — the same threshold that makes you tax resident, so the two are not separable.

There is no longer an investment route to compare it against. Spain closed the golden visa to new applications on 3 April 2025, citing housing affordability.

Income that counts

Pension income, state or private
Social security payments
Dividends from shareholdings
Rental income from property
Annuities
Savings, where the balance covers the whole permit period

Income that does not

Any work at all, including remote work for an employer outside Spain — "non-lucrative" is literal
Self-employment or freelance income, from anywhere
Income that cannot be evidenced as stable and documented

Where the income comes from

The prohibition on working is the whole character of this visa and it is absolute: no employment, no self-employment, and no remote work for a company outside Spain. If you intend to keep earning, this is the wrong instrument and Spain’s digital nomad visa is the one to look at. Confirm your own position with a Spanish immigration lawyer before relying on any of it.

How long it runs

Initial visa

1 year

Issued by the consulate in your country of residence.

First renewal

2 years

Funds must cover the full two years, so the income test doubles.

Second renewal

2 years

Permanent residency. After five years of continuous legal residence, with 183 days or more in Spain each year.

Citizenship. Ten years of legal residence for most nationalities. Two years for nationals of Ibero-American countries, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea and Portugal, and for people of Sephardic origin. Spain does not generally permit dual nationality outside those countries, so citizens of others — including the United States — commonly stop at permanent residence rather than give up the passport they hold.

Tax

The 183-day residence this visa requires makes you Spanish tax resident on worldwide income, and Spain also levies wealth tax in most regions. That is the single largest variable in whether this route makes sense, and it is a question for a tax adviser in both jurisdictions rather than for an immigration page.

Not for you if

You intend to keep working in any form, including remotely for a foreign employer
You want residency without becoming tax resident — the 183 days are the point, not a formality
Spanish worldwide taxation or regional wealth tax would cost you more than the visa is worth
You hold a nationality Spain will not let you keep alongside its own
Your income is irregular or cannot be documented over a full permit period

Better than the investment route when

You were going to buy a Spanish golden visa and can no longer — this is what remains
You are retired and a pension already clears the threshold
You intend to live in Spain rather than hold a permit you rarely use
You would rather not lock up capital in a country whose rules have just changed

The same idea, in 4 other countries

Every one of these asks for income rather than capital, and none of them pays me anything to place it. What differs is how much income, how long you have to be there, and what you get at the end.

So who manages the money that qualifies you?

This visa does not ask you to invest anything. It asks you to prove €2,400 a month arriving, and to keep proving it — at every renewal, for five years, and then for five more if you want the passport. The capital behind that income has to survive a decade of markets while paying out the whole time, and it has to do it in a currency that may not be the one you are spending.

That is not an immigration question and your lawyer will not answer it. It is the question I am qualified to answer, and the one nobody in this market seems to ask before the application rather than after it.

What a million euros sustains for thirty years

S&P 500 Index€35,328 a year

Classic 60/40€35,575 a year

Fixed Income Plus€26,545 a year

The highest draw each shape sustains with under a one-in-ten chance of running out, after a 1% running cost, with the income rising 3% a year. The first two are within a rounding error of each other. The cautious one costs €9,030 a year, for life — because a portfolio you live on needs growth to replace what leaves, and safety is bought by giving up exactly that.

This route asks for €28,800 a year. On the strongest shape above, that implies capital of roughly €810,000 — comfortably inside what a million euros produces, which is why this test is rarely the binding constraint.

Simulated on returns from 2007 onward, drawing whole historical years at random. One regime, not a forecast — and two limits push the failure rate down, so read it as a floor on the risk rather than a bound.

There is nothing to finance on this route and nothing for me to sell you on the visa itself. If you are weighing it against the investment programme, or wondering whether the income behind it will still be there in year seven, that is what the assessment call is for — $100, 30 minutes, and you leave with a direction rather than a brochure.

Book an assessment call — $100

Figures checked 2026-09-22 against secondary sources and correct as published then. Thresholds indexed to a minimum wage change annually, and immigration rules change without notice — confirm against the relevant government body before you commit to anything.