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What You Need to Know About Spain’s Non-Lucrative Visa

An American expat shares his experience acquiring and renewing the commonly called “retirement visa” in Spain.

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Updated March 1, 2020

One way for non-Europeans to stay in Spain temporarily or permanently is by obtaining a “non-lucrative” visa from the Interior Department of Spain. As the name suggests, it means that unlike other visas (such as a student visa or work visa) you will not have permission work for a Spanish employer.

That said, this visa is a great option if you are retired (like me) or if you’d like to work here remotely for an employer or clients who are not based in Spain. The process is certainly very manageable, but it takes significant planning and persistence for everything to come together as needed. Here are some pointers:

Requirements

To qualify for the non-lucrative visa, you must have sufficient income from either investments, retirement income or income from work conducted in other countries. The minimum amount you must prove to have is four times the current year’s IPREM, Indicador Público de Renta de Efectos Múltiples. (In 2018, that meant I had to prove that I had at least €25,816.12 in the bank to apply for my year-long non-lucrative visa.)

Next thing to keep in mind is that you must also register for private Spanish health insurance to make it clear that your intention is not to be a burden on the Spanish social service and health care system.The insurance your purchase must be the equivalent coverage as the CatSalud public health system for Catalunya.

The specific steps and documentation required is clearly outlined on the websites for the Spanish embassy and consulate(s) in your country, which are assigned by region based on your home residence. (For me, a New Mexico resident, this meant consulting with the Houston consulate for this portion of the process.) While the requirements are generally consistent throughout the United States, there is some slight variation for each consulate, which provides the forms and requirements online.

Timing

Applying for the visa must be done in person at your local embassy or consulate at least three months before you would like to leave for Spain. (Note that appointments can often be for many weeks or months out and your visa application can take up to two months to be processed and approved.)

At the appointment, all of your documentation must be in accordance with specific guidelines as to how recently they were completed. Your health certificate and police records (which often take a few weeks to process and be apostilled as well) must be dated no more than three months prior to your appointment date.  It can take up to two months for your visa application to be processed and approved. My recommendation is to get the appointment date and start the clock from there to complete your paperwork for the appointment.

Translations

Keep in mind that once you acquire the required visa application documents, certain ones must be translated into Spanish by a translation service that’s recognized by Spain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which will put an official stamp on your translations. (Most consulates will allow you to submit PDFs of the stamped, translated documents.)

The documents that need translation are:

Make arrangements with a translation service early on and get a good idea about the turn-around and price, which can be as much as €140. (Transferwise is a good option for making payments abroad to translators.)

Travel

At your visa application appointment, you’ll have to temporarily surrender your passport to the embassy or consulate in order for them to process the visa and put it in your passport. However, they won’t finalize your visa unless you’ve booked your travel to Spain, as this becomes your visa start date. (Remember this date because it’s when the 90-day window begins to get your residence card in Spain. More below.)

Therefore, it’s best to book your travel after you have been notified of your approval but before you go back to the embassy or consulate to pick up your visa.  If you need to travel while your passport is held by the Spanish embassy or consulate while processing your visa application, you can apply for a second passport which can be issued for situations like this. Alternatively, you can see if the embassy or consulate will choose to not take your passport while processing.

Private Medical Insurance

If you don’t mind spending a lot of money, you can get an international plan from an American healthcare provider. However, if you plan to be primarily in Spain this is really not necessary because there are numerous private health insurance companies in Spain that you can select from. Additionally, it is required that the plan you purchase be one with no deductibles nor co-pays.

One thing to watch out for is that you can be disqualified for preexisting conditions, or preexisting conditions will be exempted from coverage. It is advised that you comparison shop early for price, covered services and whether or not you qualify or have exemptions. Allow yourself enough time to wade through all the policy information, applications and waiting to see if you qualify.

WARNING

Before your visa appointment, check, check, check and quadruple check that you have all the paperwork you need (both originals and multiple copies) and everything is completely filled out.

If you don’t (OMG!) you are sent to the end of the line for a new appointment, which often takes weeks to secure and might put some of your documents out of date, not to mention your desired departure date.

Once You Have Your Visa…

Congrats! You’ve been approved, booked your flights and picked up your visa and passport… but if you look carefully at your visa, you’ll see that it’s good for only 90 days.

That’s because you now have to get your Tarjeta de Identidad de Extranjeros (TIE) also known as Permiso de Residencia (residency card) from the municipality where you are going to live and you must get started within 30 days of your arrival in Spain.

NIE & Residency Card

You must make your appointments at two agencies on-line and that might take some time. Recently, in Barcelona it is taking many weeks to get the appointment with the National Police. Here is what to do.

First, if you don’t already have one, you need to get a NIE number: Your NIE is your official foreigners’ number (Número de Identificación de Extranjero) and you’ll need it to open a bank account, rent an apartment and just about anything involving the government or a social service. This should have been automatically assigned with your non-lucrative visa, but if not, you will need go to the Directorate General of Police to get that first before anything else.

To get your NIE, get form Modelo 790 code 012 stamped: Pay the registration tax (€16) at any local Spanish bank to get form Modelo 790 code 012 stamped.

Register your domicile (empadronament): once you’ve found a place to live (rental tips here), make an appointment at your local ajuntament (municipal government) and take with you your NIE, your stamped Modelo 790 and the following documents outlined here. Be sure to have originals of your documents.

To get your the plastic ID card (Tarjeta de Identidad de Extranjeros or TIE) you have to submit your documents to the National Police in person: Make an appointment here. (Don't be alarmed if you have to make several attempts before you are able to secure an appointment.)

When you have successfully made an appointment you will receive an email with your confirmation document attached. You will need to print it out and bring it to your appointment along with the following documentation:

At the appointment you will be fingerprinted and given a temporary residency document and a date when your card will be available. It is usually about a month before you can pick up your card, though timing may vary depending on where you file. You will notice this card will expire on the one-year anniversary of the start of your non-lucrative visa.

And there you have it! But if you plan spend more than a year in Spain, it will be important to start working on the renewal process 60 days before your Permiso de Residencia (or TIE) expires.

To renew your visa...

Renewal of the non-lucrative residency is valid for two years. The required paperwork is somewhat less difficult than your original visa:

All documents must be officially translated into Spanish and duplicated and submitted to the Oficina de Extranjeria.

Once you have approval from the immigration office—your letter of resolution—you have 30 days to apply for a new TIE following the exact same procedure outlined above.

All the steps in the visa, padrón and TIE process can be accomplished on your own. But, it is extremely time consuming and requires exacting attention to detail. If you want some peace of mind or simply do not have the time to manage the process on your own, consider a law firm that specializes in immigration law there are many in Barcelona.

*On the EX-01 form there is a check box that states: Solicito/Consiento que las communicationes y notificaciones se realicen por medios electronicos. Do not check this box unless you have applied for and been accepted into the electronic notification system which is an entirely different process.

(More information is available in Spanish here.)

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