Spanish Residency: Every Permit Type in One Place
A mini-encyclopedia of Spanish residence permits. Each permit type has its own page: requirements, process, timeline and common mistakes.
Not sure where to start? Open the step-by-step moving route: the whole path from choosing a status to citizenship, split into four phases.
Permit types
Permits under Law 14/2013 (international mobility)
The fast-track UGE-CE regime: roughly a 20-day decision, positive administrative silence, often filed without leaving Spain.
- Digital nomad visa — legal remote work from Spain. Fill out the application →
- Entrepreneur visa (startup visa) — for an innovative business project.
- Highly qualified professional (PAC) — for applicants who already have a job offer in Spain, including the EU Blue Card.
- Intra-company transfer (ICT) — temporarily assigning an employee to a Spanish office of the same corporate group.
- Researcher residency — research, technical or teaching activity under a hosting agreement.
- Golden Visa: programme discontinued — what happens to issued cards and the current alternatives.
General-regime permits
Processed through a consulate or the standard immigration offices under the general Foreigners’ Regulation (RD 1155/2024).
- Non-lucrative visa (NLV) — for financially independent people, retirees and families.
- Arraigo: all rooting-based routes — legalising from inside Spain (social, sociolaboral, familiar, socioformativo, segunda oportunidad).
- Work visa — employed (cuenta ajena) and self-employed (cuenta propia).
- Family reunification — for family members of a resident.
- Family member of a Spanish citizen — under the EU citizen family regime.
- EU citizens’ residence — the EU regime (RD 240/2007) for EU/EEA/Swiss citizens and their family members.
- Residence for children — born in Spain (no visa, art. 159) and not born in Spain.
- Long-term residence in Spain — Spanish long-term residence and EU long-term residence (larga duración-UE), requirements and differences.
- Spanish nationality — residence periods and the naturalisation process.
2026 extraordinary regularization
Filing closed on 30 June 2026. Relevant if you already applied: requerimientos, decision deadlines, work and healthcare rights, and renewal after a year.
- 2026 extraordinary regularization: what happens after filing — requerimientos, deadlines, work and healthcare, switching to ordinary residency after a year.
Temporary protection for Ukrainians
An EU emergency mechanism under Directive 2001/55/EC, not a residence permit under the general regime or Law 14/2013 - a separate legal basis handled through the National Police.
- Temporary protection for Ukrainians — status, renewal and switching to a regular permit.
Stay permits
Estancia - lawful stay, not residencia: authorised under the same Foreigners’ Regulation (RD 1155/2024), but a different legal category.
- Student visa — studies with the option to work part-time.
Renewals and status changes
- Residency renewal — deadlines, rules and pitfalls.
- Change of residence permit type — switching from one permit category to another.
- Switching from digital nomad, entrepreneur (startup) or highly qualified professional status to a work permit (Ley 14/2013)
- TIE and NIE — the difference and how to get them.
Requirements shared by most permits
- Income requirement and IPREM
- SMI: Spain’s minimum wage — the digital nomad visa threshold and employment contract floors.
- Health insurance for residency
- Criminal record certificate and apostille
- Medical certificate