Spain residency after the golden visa: the routes that remain.
Spain abolished residency by property investment in April 2025. Buying a home no longer confers the right to live here. Three routes remain open, and each one carries a tax consequence that the immigration coverage almost never mentions.
Is the Spain golden visa still available?
No. The investor residence permit — commonly called the golden visa — was abolished by Organic Law 1/2025 with effect from 3 April 2025. Property purchase, however large, no longer confers any right to residence in Spain. Permits granted before that date remain valid for their term and can be renewed under the original rules.
The route had existed since 2013 and granted residence to non-EU nationals investing, most commonly, 500,000 euro in Spanish residential property. It was ended on housing affordability grounds: the government's position was that investment-driven purchases were contributing to price pressure in the cities where they concentrated.
For anyone who was planning around it, the practical question is not what was lost but what is left — and here the picture is better than the headlines suggested, provided you are willing to change the shape of the plan.
The three routes that remain.
| Route | Who it suits | Can you work in Spain? | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Non-lucrative visa | Retirees and those living on passive income | No — no economic activity in Spain | Requires proving sufficient means; you cannot earn locally |
| Digital nomad / teleworking | Remote workers for non-Spanish companies | Only for foreign employers or clients | Income origin and client-mix conditions; third-country nationals only |
| Entrepreneur / business | Founders building something in Spain | Yes | Requires a genuine project, not a shell |
| Family reunification | Relatives of residents | Varies | Depends on the sponsor's status |
| Work permit through employment | Those with a Spanish job offer | Yes | Requires an employer willing to sponsor |
The golden visa bought passivity. Nothing replaces that.
Its appeal was that it demanded nothing of you: buy, hold, reside if you wish. Every remaining route asks for something ongoing — either that you do not work in Spain at all, or that you do specific work under specific conditions. Anyone looking for a like-for-like replacement will not find one in Spain. What they will find is a route that fits what they actually intend to do.
Route one: the non-lucrative visa.
The closest thing to the old proposition, and the furthest from it in one crucial respect. It is designed for people who will live in Spain on income generated elsewhere and who will not work here.
Retirees and the genuinely passive
Pension income, investment income, rental income from outside Spain. If your money arrives without you doing anything, this route was written for you.
Anyone who works, including remotely
The prohibition on economic activity is the defining feature. Remote work for a foreign employer sits in a grey area that the digital nomad route was created specifically to resolve — which is a strong indication of how the non-lucrative route treats it.
You become a Spanish tax resident, on worldwide income, with no special regime.
Living in Spain on this route means residence, and residence means the ordinary progressive scale on everything you receive worldwide, plus wealth tax exposure and foreign asset reporting. The impatriate regime is generally not available, because it attaches to employment or qualifying activity that this route forbids. For someone with substantial passive income, this is the most expensive of the three positions.
Route two: the digital nomad authorisation.
Created by the 2022 Startups Law for people working remotely for companies outside Spain. It permits the work the non-lucrative visa forbids, within conditions on where your income comes from.
The flat regime requires you to become a Spanish tax resident.
People obtain this authorisation and then structure their year to stay under 183 days, believing that keeps them outside Spanish tax. It forfeits the impatriate regime entirely — a regime cannot apply to someone claiming not to be resident — and it strains the authorisation itself, which is premised on residing here and tolerates only limited absence. Employment status matters too: self-employed people with commercial client relationships are generally outside the regime.
Route three: the entrepreneur route.
The one that receives the least coverage and, for a meaningful share of displaced golden visa applicants, the one that fits best. It grants residence to those establishing a business project in Spain, and unlike the other two it permits you to work here without restriction.
- A real project — a business plan assessed on its merits, not a company registration certificate
- Economic substance — investment, activity, and usually a path to employment creation
- A Spanish entity or a clear plan for one, with the corporate work done properly
- Personal viability — means to support yourself while the project develops
- Genuine intent — the assessment looks for a business, and a dormant company does not read as one
It asks for something
A plan, a project, an intention to operate. Compared with buying an apartment it feels like work — which it is, and which is precisely why it survived when the investment route did not.
Many applicants had a business already
A large share of golden visa applicants were not passive investors but business owners who used property as the simplest qualifying route. For them the entrepreneur route is closer to their actual life, and it permits working in Spain, which the alternatives restrict.
Choosing, with tax in the frame.
This is the comparison the immigration coverage leaves out, and it is usually the one that decides.
| Route | Tax residence | Impatriate regime | Typical outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Non-lucrative | Yes, worldwide income | Generally not available | Ordinary progressive scale, wealth tax exposure, foreign asset reporting |
| Digital nomad, as employee | Yes, if you actually reside | Potentially available | Flat rate on employment income for several years, if elected in time |
| Digital nomad, as self-employed | Yes, if you actually reside | Generally excluded | Ordinary scale plus self-employed contributions |
| Entrepreneur | Yes | Depends on how you are engaged by your own company | Corporate rate on retained profit, personal tax on what you draw |
Decide the tax position before you choose the visa, not after.
The immigration route determines what tax treatment is available to you, and some of those doors close on a short deadline once you arrive. Choosing a permit on immigration grounds alone and asking about tax afterwards is how people discover, in their second spring in Spain, that a six-year benefit expired in their first month.
What about buying property?
You still can. Non-EU nationals face no general prohibition on owning Spanish real estate, and the purchase process is unchanged. What changed is that the purchase now buys you a property and nothing else — no residence right, no visa, no path to permanence.
- The asset itself, with the usual rights of ownership
- Visa-free short stays if your nationality permits them, within Schengen limits
- Nothing toward residence — ownership is not a qualifying basis
- Non-resident tax obligations — owning Spanish property creates Spanish filing duties even if you never live here
- Wealth tax exposure on the Spanish asset, depending on value and region
That fourth point catches people who assume that not living in Spain means no Spanish tax. Owning property here creates non-resident obligations whether or not the property is let, and they are annual.
The company is the part we build.
Incorporation, tax activation, banking and the corporate substance a business route needs to be credible — established remotely, at a fixed price, alongside your immigration counsel.
- Golden visa
- The investor residence permit, abolished with effect from 3 April 2025.
- Ley Organica 1/2025
- The organic law that removed the investor route.
- Visado no lucrativo
- Non-lucrative visa, for residence without economic activity in Spain.
- Teletrabajo internacional
- The international teleworking authorisation, known as the digital nomad visa.
- Emprendedor
- The entrepreneur route, for those establishing a business project in Spain.
- UGE
- The large companies and strategic collectives unit, which handles several of these applications.
- Arraigo
- Rootedness routes for those already in Spain, outside the scope of this guide.
- Residencia fiscal
- Tax residence — determined separately from immigration status, and not the same thing.
Can I still get Spanish residency by buying property?
What happens to golden visas already granted?
What replaced the golden visa in Spain?
Which route is best for a business owner?
Does any route give me a lower tax rate?
Can EU citizens use the digital nomad visa?
Do I pay Spanish tax if I own property but do not live here?
Before you choose.
The passive route is closed. The others were always better anyway.
Book a consultation ↗Alexander Baranov
Seventeen years designing and delivering cross-border corporate structures — incorporation, tax, holding, banking and market entry — for founders and companies expanding into Spain and the EU. Author of professional books on entering the Spanish market.
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