The golden visa is over: what alternatives are left

Yes. The organic law on the efficiency of the Public Justice Service, published on 3 January 2025, emptied the articles of Ley 14/2013 (the Spanish Entrepreneurs Act) that regulated the visa and residence authorisation for investors. The abolition takes effect from 3 April 2025.

From that date, there is no route to obtain Spanish residence by buying a property, public debt, shares or bank deposits. No minimum amount is valid, not even well above the € 500,000 of the old rules. The application is not denied for being insufficient: there is simply no procedure to submit it.

It is also advisable to distrust what you read out there, including some institutional pages that have not yet removed the investor information sheet. The law rules over the website, and the law abolished it.

No. The reform itself included 2 transitional rules that protect those who were already in. Investor visas and authorisations that were in force retain their validity for the entire time for which they were issued.

And if you request a renewal, it is processed and resolved according to the regulations in force on the date your initial authorisation was granted, not today's. That is: the old regime stays with you as long as you maintain the conditions that gave you the right to the authorisation.

The third rule affects applications that were up in the air: anyone who submitted their application, or that of a family member, before 3 April 2025 can receive the visa or authorisation according to the regulations in force on the day they submitted it.

If your investor authorisation expires soon, the renewal is the delicate moment of the file: you must prove that the investment has been maintained. Managora prepares and submits it for you, using the criteria of the rules that applied to you, not the current ones.

The 4 figures of Ley 14/2013 that never depended on investing money remain, plus the non-lucrative residence of the general regime. All are resolved quickly compared to the rest of immigration procedures, and those of Ley 14/2013 have a little-known advantage: if the Administration does not reply in 20 days, the authorisation is understood to be granted.

The international teleworker, known as a digital nomad, is for those who earn from companies outside Spain. If you are an employee, your employer must be outside; if you invoice as a freelancer (autónomo), you can have Spanish clients up to a maximum of 20% of your professional activity.

The highly qualified professional is for those who arrive with a job offer from a company in Spain, in a managerial or qualified position that reaches the reference salary threshold. Here the application is submitted by the hiring company, not the worker.

The entrepreneur is for those coming to set up an innovative project of economic interest to Spain. It requires a prior favourable report, which is mandatory and issued in 10 working days, on the business plan, the employment it will create and the value it adds. Researchers and training, development and innovation staff enter through a parallel route, usually hand in hand with the university or host centre.

The non-lucrative residence is the only one of the 5 that requires neither work nor a project: it requires income or savings. In exchange, it prohibits working. It is the natural route for retirees or people with independent means, and it is also the most common wrong choice for those who came looking for the golden visa. You can see the updated amount for each procedure on its specific page.

The right to work is the difference that costs the most money to get wrong. The 4 figures of Ley 14/2013 authorise you to reside and work throughout the national territory, each in its scope: the digital nomad remotely for their foreign company, the highly qualified for the company that hires them, the entrepreneur in their own project.

The non-lucrative residence does not allow any labour or professional activity. This includes remote work from Spain for a company or client abroad: even if the money comes from another country and the computer is yours, the activity is carried out here and is prohibited. Those who telework have their own route, which is the digital nomad one.

As a family, Ley 14/2013 is clearly more comfortable: the spouse or registered unmarried partner, minor children and dependent adult children who have not formed their own family unit, and dependent ascendants can apply for the visa and authorisation jointly and simultaneously with the main applicant, or later. There is no need to wait for a separate family reunification procedure or complete one previous year of residence.

In the non-lucrative route, the family can also enter the application, but each member adds their own financial means and documentation. Managora submits the entire group as a single application so that no one is left out because of a piece of paper.

Each route measures money with a different rule, and the 2 rules have moved in opposite directions this year. The digital nomad is calculated on the minimum wage, which rose in February 2026 to € 1,221 per month in 14 payments, € 17,094 gross per year. The main applicant proves 200% of that figure, the first family member 75% and each additional family member 25%.

The non-lucrative residence is calculated on the IPREM, which remains frozen at € 600 per month: 400% for the applicant, meaning € 2,400 per month, and 100% more, € 600 per month, for each family member. It is proven with periodic income, available savings or both, and you must show that this money is received without the need to work.

The highly qualified professional does not prove savings: their contract proves it. The reference threshold is not set by a ministerial order, but by the management criteria dictated by the Directorate General for Migration and applied by the Large Companies and Strategic Groups Unit: today it equals 1.4 times the average annual earnings published by the National Statistics Institute, and after the publication of the 2024 average earnings it was set at € 41,356.36 gross per year, with a reduced threshold of € 33,085.09 in the specific cases of the EU Blue Card.

The entrepreneur has no fixed threshold: the economic resources of the project and the applicant are assessed together with the business plan. That is why the application is prepared to measure.

This is the point that the golden visa hid and the remaining routes do not hide: they are requested to live in Spain. And anyone who stays in Spanish territory for more than 183 days within the calendar year is a tax resident, with the obligation to declare their worldwide income here, wherever it comes from. Not registering on the town hall census (padrón) avoids nothing: what counts are the days and the centre of interests, not the padrón.

Whether Spain can tax a specific income from your home country, and to what extent, depends on the double taxation agreement it has signed with that State, and several agreements have been modified by the multilateral convention. Before moving dividends, pensions or the sale of a property, it is advisable to look at the agreement that applies to you, not the general rule.

Those who move to Spain for a job, for an entrepreneurial activity with a favourable report or as a highly qualified professional can opt for the special regime for posted workers, which taxes as a non-resident during the year of relocation and the following 5 years, with a rate of 24% on employment income up to € 600,000. It requires not having been a tax resident in Spain in the previous 5 years and communicating the option within a maximum period of 6 months from registering with the Spanish social security system (Seguridad Social).

The non-lucrative residence does not give access to that regime, precisely because there is no relocation for work. The person with independent means who settles here pays taxes under the ordinary regime, on their worldwide income.

And a warning about the figures: personal income tax has a regional bracket that changes depending on the autonomous community where you establish your habitual residence, and the Basque Country and Navarre have their own regulations. The Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla also have their own indirect tax regime. No state figure works for the whole territory without checking it.

We start with the decision, which is the most expensive thing to get wrong: we review where your income comes from, whether you are going to work here and who is travelling with you, and we tell you which route fits your situation and which ones do not meet the requirements in your case. The Administration is the one who grants or denies, so no one can anticipate the outcome of the resolution; what we do is not submit through a route whose requirements you do not meet.

Then we put together the entire application: documentation, legalisations and translations, official fee (tasa), form and submission. We submit the authorisations of Ley 14/2013 electronically to the UGE, which resolves in 20 days with positive silence. When a visa is required, we leave the application reviewed and closed for you, and you make the appointment at the consulate in person, because the consulate requires an appearance.

We also handle what follows: the foreigner identity card (TIE), which is requested in the month following your entry into Spain, the renewal when it expires and the tax part, including the option for the posted workers regime if it applies and suits you. You can see the updated amount for each service on its specific page.

If you planned to invest in Spain and have been left without a route, say so before moving the money: the investment no longer grants residence, but setting up a company here with real activity can fit into the entrepreneur route. It is a different application, and it is prepared differently.