Spain
Digital Nomad Visa (Visado para teletrabajadores de carácter internacional): health insurance requirements
Yes: health insurance is required
Yes. Spain's Digital Nomad Visa requires private health insurance with no co-payment, issued by an insurer authorised to operate in Spain. International travel insurance is rejected. Spain does not publish a numerical minimum coverage amount; consulates instead require comprehensive cover equivalent to Spain's public Seguridad Social.
The requirements at a glance
| Repatriation required | Not required |
|---|---|
| COVID-19 cover required | Not required |
| Minimum policy duration | Full duration of authorised stay (1 year initial visa, renewable) |
| Local-licensed insurer required | Yes: international IPMI alone is usually rejected |
| Accepted proof | Policy certificate from an insurer authorised to operate in Spain, comprehensive cover, no co-payment (sin copagos), valid for full residency period |
No published numerical minimum coverage amount in Ley 28/2022 (Startup Law) or BOE. Consulates require comprehensive cover equivalent to Seguridad Social. Insurer authorisation is non-negotiable. Spanish-authorised domestic policies are typically accepted; pure international IPMI from non-Spanish carriers is routinely rejected. Primary consulate URL returned HTTP 404 at time of verification (2026-05-28); cross-referenced across SpainGuru, GetGoldenVisa, CitizenRemote, and movingtospain.com.
Who qualifies for the Spain nomad visa
The income bar is what decides most applications, and it is the number people look for first. Here is the current one, with the conditions that come attached to it.
- Income required
- €2,849/mo (≈ $3,250)
- Length of permit
- 12 monthsrenewable
- Who can apply
- Employed remotely, Freelancer, Business owner
The bar is 200% of Spain's minimum wage (SMI), so it shifts each year. Dependants add to it.
Tax
Optional Beckham-style regime: flat 24% on Spanish-source income; foreign income generally exempt.
That is a summary of the rule, not tax advice. Residence for immigration and residence for tax are decided separately, and the second one tends to arrive quietly, usually after you have been in the country long enough to stop thinking about it. Take proper advice before the year you need it.
What the income bar really means
Two things get people rejected on income even when they earn enough. The first is proving it: consulates want a documented, repeating history, usually bank statements and contracts covering several months, not a screenshot of a good quarter. Irregular freelance income clears the bar on average and fails on paper. The second is dependants, who almost always raise the threshold, and by a percentage of the base figure rather than a flat amount.
Treat the number above as the floor for the paperwork, not as a comfortable income for living there. It is set by the country’s own cost of living or minimum wage, which means it moves, and in several countries it is re-set every year.
Spain's Digital Nomad Visa requires comprehensive private health insurance with no co-payment from an insurer authorised to operate in Spain. International IPMI from non-Spanish carriers is routinely rejected.
Our take
Spain is the strictest of the major EU nomad-visa countries on insurance authorisation. The single biggest application rejection cause is submitting an international IPMI policy from a non-Spanish entity. Even if the cover is objectively more comprehensive than a Spanish-authorised policy, the consulate will reject it.
Our take: if you're applying for the Spanish DNV, plan for two policies. A Spanish-authorised primary for the visa, and a separate international plan if you also travel widely outside Spain. The Spanish primary will run roughly €60–€150/month depending on age and tier.
What happens if you get it wrong
Visa rejection: the most common Spanish DNV rejection cited by immigration lawyers in 2025–2026.
Application restart: you can re-submit with a compliant policy, but the consulate appointment queue means weeks to months of delay.
If you arrive in Spain on a Schengen visa expecting to switch in-country with non-compliant insurance, you may be forced to leave and re-apply from your home country.
Interactive
Verified pricesWhat would it cost in Spain without insurance?
The textbook traveller emergency. It cannot wait, it cannot be treated at a pharmacy, and it ends in an operating theatre.
| Emergency room, on arrival | $170–$345 |
| A scan to confirm it | $111 |
| The operation | $5,700–$11,400 |
| Three nights recovering | $1,380–$3,000 |
| You pay, out of pocket | $7,361–$14,856 |
Priced as one lump instead of itemised, a serious admission in Spain runs $4,500 to $9,000.
That is the bill you carry alone. Insurance exists for exactly this.
See what cover costsTypical private-care estimates for illustration, not a quote. Actual bills vary by hospital, city and severity.
FAQ
No, almost never. Spanish consulates require the insurer to be authorised to operate within Spain. International IPMI policies issued by non-Spanish entities are routinely rejected, even when their coverage is objectively stronger. Use a Spanish-authorised insurer for the application.
No published number. The €30 000 figure circulating in many guides is the Schengen short-stay visa minimum, not a Spain DNV requirement. Spain's DNV requires comprehensive cover equivalent to Seguridad Social, with no co-payment, for the full residency period.
No. Spanish consulates require sin copagos (zero co-payment) for the DNV. Standard Spanish private plans often include co-pays, so verify your policy explicitly states no co-payment before submission.
For the full duration of your residency. The policy is checked at renewal. Cancelling mid-permit and switching to an international plan can put your renewal at risk.
How to apply
- Processing time
- Consulate: the legal decision term is 10 working days, in practice 15 to 45 business days. In-country UGE route: about 20 working days.
- Government fee
- Consulate visa fee roughly EUR 80 for most nationalities, higher for some by reciprocity (about US$190 for US citizens). In-country route: form 790-038 residence fee about EUR 73, plus roughly EUR 16 to 21 for the TIE card.
- Where to apply
- Both routes exist. A Spanish consulate in your country of residence gives a one-year visa; entering as a tourist and applying online to the UGE from inside Spain gives a three-year residence permit. The in-country application must be filed before your 90 tourist days run out.
- 1
Decide your route first, because it changes what you get: apply at a Spanish consulate abroad for a one-year visa, or enter Spain visa-free as a tourist and apply from inside the country to the UGE (Unidad de Grandes Empresas) for a three-year residence permit. The in-country route gives the longer permit.
- 2
Gather the documents that actually sink applications: proof you have worked remotely for clients or an employer for more than three months, income of at least 200% of the minimum wage (around EUR 2,760 a month for one person), an apostilled and sworn-translated criminal-record certificate, private health insurance valid across all of Spain with no copays, and a Social Security coverage certificate or registration.
- 3
Consulate route: book the appointment early, since slots run weeks out, then attend in person to submit everything and pay the visa fee.
- 4
In-country route: submit through the UGE electronic portal and pay the 790-038 fee; approval usually comes within 20 working days, and silence counts as approval.
- 5
After a consulate approval, collect the visa within the stated window and travel to Spain; you have one month from entry to begin the residence-card step if you took a route that grants a permit.
- 6
In Spain, register on the padron at the town hall, book a police appointment for fingerprints, and collect the TIE residence card.
Fees and processing times move, sometimes without announcement, and a consulate can add a document the published checklist does not mention. Treat the above as the shape of the process rather than a guarantee, and check the current requirement with the mission handling your application before you book anything.
What policy actually satisfies this visa
Spain does not publish a minimum figure, which sounds permissive and is not. It means you are judged against somebody's unwritten idea of adequate, and the safe reading of adequate is enough to cover a serious hospital admission in Spain, not the cheapest policy that technically exists.
The hard constraint here is the insurer. This visa is only satisfied by a policy from an insurer licensed in Spain, which disqualifies international plans outright, however comprehensive they are. Check this before you buy rather than after, because it invalidates the whole purchase rather than requiring a top-up.
Repatriation is not named as a condition, though it is the benefit you would most want to have if the worst happened, and it costs very little to add.
The dates are the other thing that gets applications rejected: full duration of authorised stay (1 year initial visa, renewable)
Ask your insurer for a certificate of cover that states your full name as it appears on your passport, the exact policy period, the territory covered, and the benefit amounts. That is a normal request and any decent insurer issues it without fuss. The insurance being real and the paperwork still failing is a more common way to lose an application than being uninsured.
The visa tells you the minimum. It does not tell you what to actually carry. Those are different questions, and the paperwork minimum is nearly always the smaller of the two answers.
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