The non-lucrative visa in 2026: the real income figures, the paperwork and the mistakes that sink files

Every autumn the same conversation happens at our desks in Costa Adeje and Corralejo. A couple from Manchester or Munich has done the arithmetic of the 90/180 rule and lost: the winters they want are longer than the days Schengen gives them. They do not want to work here, they have a pension or savings or a rental income at home, and they have read a dozen websites that quote a dozen different figures. The visa they are describing is the non-lucrative residence — the oldest and, for people who live on their own means, the most natural route into Spain. In 2026 it runs under a new regulation, with figures that have not moved for four years and a set of traps that has.

This piece gives the real numbers, the documents the consulate and the immigration office actually ask for, the path from the first year to permanent residence, and the mistakes we see most often in files that arrive on our desk after a refusal. It is the companion to our overview of NIE, residency and the routes that remain, and it is the route many investors are looking at now that the golden visa is closed to new applicants.

What the visa is — and what it is not

The regulation that governs it is the immigration regulation approved by Royal Decree 1155/2024, in force since 20 May 2025. Its article 61 defines the situation in one sentence: a foreign national, and his or her family, authorised to reside in Spain without carrying out labour or professional activities. Three consequences follow from that sentence and each of them decides files.

First, it is not a work permit. Not for the applicant, and not for the family members admitted with the applicant — the regulation extends the "without labour or professional activities" condition to them expressly. The consulates say it in plain words on their own pages. Second, it does not care where your money comes from, only that it exists and keeps arriving: pensions, rents, dividends, savings, the sale of a business. Third, the activity you may not carry out is defined by what you do, not by where your client sits. Working remotely from a terrace in Fuerteventura for an employer in Leeds is a labour activity, and the regulation has a different visa for that case — the digital nomad route, which we cover in its own piece later this month.

The initial authorisation lasts one year (article 61.4). It is renewed for two years, then two more, and at five years of legal residence the door to long-term residence opens. That "1 + 2 + 2" rhythm is the skeleton of everything that follows.

The money in 2026: the real figures

The regulation does not name a euro figure. Article 62 sets the requirement as a multiple of the IPREM, Spain's public income index for benefits and thresholds: monthly, 400 % of the IPREM for the applicant, and monthly, 100 % of the IPREM for each dependent family member, in addition. The figures are minimums, measured "at the moment of the visa application or of the renewal".

The IPREM is fixed each year by the State budget law. The last budget law Spain passed is the one for 2023 — Law 31/2022, whose ninetieth additional provision set the index at €20 a day, €600 a month and €7,200 a year — and, because no new budget has been approved since, that law has been extended year after year under article 134.4 of the Constitution. The Ministry of Finance publishes 2026 as a further extended budget year, and at the date of publication no new budget law has been passed. The 2026 IPREM is therefore still €600 a month, and the visa figures are:

• Applicant: €2,400 a month, which is €28,800 for the first year.
• Each family member: €600 a month more, €7,200 a year.
• A couple: €3,000 a month, €36,000 a year. A couple with two children: €4,200 a month, €50,400 a year.

Article 62.2 adds the rule that most applicants miss: the total must cover the monthly amount multiplied by the period of validity of the authorisation applied for. For the first year that is twelve months' worth. For a two-year renewal the same arithmetic gives twenty-four months' worth — €57,600 for a single applicant — unless, as the article allows, you prove a source of periodic income of at least the monthly figure instead of a lump sum. A pension of €2,400 a month satisfies the rule on its own; savings must be shown for the whole period.

How you prove it is written in article 62.3, and it is more precise than the old regulation. Any means of proof admitted in law is accepted, including property titles, certified cheques and credit cards backed by a bank certificate of the available credit. If the money sits in accounts or financial instruments abroad, the statements must show the full name and address of the bank, the complete identification of the accounts, their opening (or closing) dates, the balance at 31 December of the year before the application, and the average balance of the last year. If the means come from shares in a company based in Spain, the company certifies — and you declare — that you carry out no work in it. The consulates add their own layer: original, stamped statements, legalised or apostilled where they come from abroad, with a sworn translation into Spanish.

The rest of the file: insurance, records, health, passport

Article 61.2 lists the specific requirements and article 38 the general ones for any residence visa. Together they produce the documents every consulate asks for.

• Health insurance (article 61.2.b). The regulation says only "a health insurance". Consular practice is stricter and consistent: a public or private policy with an insurer authorised to operate in Spain, covering the risks the Spanish public system covers, for the whole year. Many consulates expressly exclude travel policies and policies with co-payments or waiting periods — read your consulate's list — so the safe choice is a full private policy written for the visa.
• Criminal records (articles 38.e and 61.2.d). A certificate from every country where you have lived in the last five years, for offences that exist in Spanish law, legalised or apostilled and sworn-translated; consulates want it recent — three months at some posts, six at others. In Spain the immigration office obtains the Spanish record and a police report itself, within seven days; a record is not an automatic refusal, the office weighs it case by case (article 63.3).
• Medical certificate (article 38.i). It must state that you suffer none of the diseases with serious public-health consequences under the International Health Regulations of 2005 — the consulates publish the exact sentence and want it dated within three months.
• Passport valid for at least one more year (article 38.d), the application form, the fees (the consular visa fee and the residence fee, form 790 code 052), and not being in Spain irregularly when you apply (article 38.b).

That last item is the procedural heart of the route. The application is made at the Spanish consulate of the place where you legally live, and it is the visa application that carries the residence application with it (articles 39.1 and 63.1). There is no way to apply from inside Spain on a tourist entry.

The procedure and its clocks

The file splits between two authorities. The consulate examines the money and the insurance; the immigration office of the province where you will live examines the rest — the absence of a voluntary-return commitment, the criminal and police reports, the fee (articles 39.2, 39.3 and 63.2). The office must decide within one month of receiving the consulate's communication, and silence within that month counts as a refusal (article 63.4). With a favourable decision, the consulate has one month to issue the visa, which incorporates the residence authorisation (article 39.5). The consulates state an overall legal period of two months for their decision.

Then the clocks change hands. You enter Spain with the visa and, within one month of entry, apply in person for the foreigner identity card, the TIE (article 63.5). The card is what you show for a year; the visa is what got you here.

Renewal: the 183-day rule and the 2 + 2

The renewal is where the 2025 regulation changed the most, and where most of the files we repair went wrong. Article 64 sets the rules.

When. File at the immigration office during the two months before your authorisation expires. Filing in that window extends the old authorisation until the decision. Filing up to three months after expiry still extends it and is still processed — but it opens a sanction file for the minor infringement of article 52.b of the Immigration Act, so the late window is a safety net, not a plan.

What. The same money, now measured against the two-year period being granted, or the same periodic income; the same insurance, maintained without interruption during the year that is ending; school enrolment of every child of compulsory school age, proven with a report from the regional education authority — without it the office gives one month to enrol and then refuses; the fee; and, new in the 2025 text, more than 183 days of real and effective residence in Spain during the calendar year (article 64.2.f). The office also looks, of its own motion, at tax and social-security compliance during the year and, where a requirement is missing, at an integration report from the region that can recommend renewal.

How long. The office decides within three months, and here silence works in your favour: an unanswered renewal is deemed granted (article 64.8). The renewed authorisation lasts two years (article 64.7), the TIE is applied for within a month of notification, and the second renewal repeats the cycle. Five years of legal, continuous residence — absences of no more than six consecutive months and ten months in total — open long-term residence under article 176.

The 183 days deserve one more sentence. They are the same 183 days that make you a tax resident in Spain in broad terms, with worldwide income declared here and the wealth-tax questions that follow. A non-lucrative residence is, by design, a decision to live here — and the tax side of that decision should be planned before the visa is stamped, not after the first renewal.

The family

Article 61.3 defines who comes with you: the spouse, the registered partner, or a stable partner with at least a year of proven cohabitation (less if there are children in common); unmarried minor children of either of you; and adult children with a disability or a health condition that makes them dependent. Each adds €600 a month to the file, each needs the same insurance, records and medical certificate, and each receives an authorisation on the same terms — which means the same prohibition on working. Family members who might want to work in Spain are often better placed through family reunification later, where the regulation (article 65.2) lets the reunified spouse and children work without any further procedure.

The mistakes that sink files

1. Counting the money per year, not per month and per person. €28,800 in the account is not the test if it is shared with a spouse who also needs €7,200; and €2,400 a month of income is not the test if it is the family's total.
2. Savings that appeared last month. Article 62.3 asks for the balance at 31 December of the previous year and the average of the last year. A transfer made to dress the file is visible in both figures.
3. The wrong policy. A travel policy, an EU health card, or a policy with co-payments is the most common single reason for a consular refusal.
4. A stale or naked criminal certificate. Older than six months, without apostille, or without a sworn translation — each is a refusal or a suspension of the file.
5. Applying from Spain. A tourist entry is not a legal residence from which this visa can be requested. The consulate of your residence is the only door.
6. Working "quietly". Remote work for a foreign client is a labour activity. It puts the renewal at risk and the record in the file. The digital nomad visa exists for exactly this case.
7. Living mostly abroad. Fewer than 184 days in Spain in the calendar year is now, in itself, a ground to refuse the renewal.
8. Forgetting the month. One month to apply for the TIE after entry; one month after the renewal is notified.
9. Missing the renewal window. Two months before expiry. The three months after are a sanction file with a safety net attached.
10. Ignoring the tax consequence. The residence you are asking for makes you a Spanish tax resident. Plan it with your accountant before the consulate appointment.

The non-lucrative visa is not a visa for people who are rich. It is a visa for people whose money arrives without them working — and the file has to show that, month by month, before and after the stamp.

Our residency and immigration team prepares the file with your consulate's list, plans the renewal calendar from the first day and coordinates the tax side with your adviser — tell us where you live and when you want to move.

Common questions

How much money do I need for the non-lucrative visa in 2026?

Four hundred per cent of the IPREM a month for the applicant and one hundred per cent for each family member. With the IPREM still at €600 a month under the extended 2023 budget law, that is €2,400 a month — €28,800 for the first year — plus €600 a month for each dependant. The amounts are minimums and are checked again at each renewal, against the period being granted.

Can I work remotely for a company outside Spain on this visa?

No. The authorisation is defined as residence without labour or professional activities, and that covers work done from Spain for a foreign employer or foreign clients. The route for remote workers is the digital nomad visa, which has its own income test and its own tax regime.

Can I apply from Spain while I am here as a tourist?

No. The visa is requested at the Spanish consulate of the place where you legally reside, and the visa application carries the residence application with it. Being in Spain irregularly, or on a short stay, is not a basis for this procedure.

How long does the visa last and how is it renewed?

The initial authorisation lasts one year. It is renewed for two years, then for two more, by filing at the immigration office in the two months before each expiry, with the same means and insurance, school enrolment for the children and more than 183 days of real residence in Spain in the calendar year. After five years of continuous legal residence you can apply for long-term residence.

Does the non-lucrative visa make me a tax resident in Spain?

Living in Spain for more than 183 days in a calendar year — which is what the renewal now requires — makes you a tax resident in broad terms, with worldwide income taxed here. The visa itself does not decide that; your days and your ties do. It should be planned with a tax adviser before you apply.

This article is general information about Spanish immigration law as it stands at the date of publication, not legal advice for your specific situation. The IPREM changes when a new budget law is passed and consular document lists vary from post to post — have your file reviewed against your consulate's current list before it is submitted.