Spain has long been a favourite destination for British people looking for sunshine, a slower pace or a new career. What has changed is the paperwork. People moving now apply under Spain’s general rules for non-EU nationals, which means choosing a residence route before booking the removal van. The good news is that the routes are well defined. The challenge is matching them to your actual plans.
Visiting is not living
The first distinction is the simplest and the most often ignored. As a visitor, a British citizen can spend up to 90 days in the Schengen area without a visa, but a visit does not allow residence or work in Spain. Spending a winter on the Costa del Sol is a visit. Moving there with a job, a lease and a school place for the children is residence, and residence needs a permit.
Four common routes, four different lives
Living on your own means. The non-lucrative residence is designed for people who will not work in Spain, typically retirees or people with pensions, savings or rental income. The financial requirement is 400 per cent of a Spanish benchmark, the IPREM, per month for the main applicant, with more for each dependant. Working is not allowed, and Spanish consulates read that strictly, remote work included.
Keeping your UK job from Spain. The international telework permit, often called the digital nomad visa, lets you live in Spain while working remotely for employers or clients outside Spain. Its income threshold is tied to Spain’s minimum wage, at twice that wage, and the employer or client company must have been operating for at least a year.
Joining a Spanish partner. The spouse, registered partner or stable partner of a Spanish citizen can obtain a five-year residence that includes the right to work. Its rules changed in 2025, so older guides are best ignored.
Studying. A student stay covers higher education and other courses. Students in higher education can work part-time alongside their studies, generally up to thirty hours a week.
Choosing between these is rarely obvious when your life does not fit one box neatly. A semi-retired consultant, for example, or a couple where only one partner works. That is the point where it pays to have a Spain visa lawyer compare the routes against your income, your family and your timeline before you commit to one.
Where and how you apply
Most routes start at the Spanish consulate in the UK with a visa application, which is followed by registration steps once you arrive. Some, such as the remote work permit, can also be requested from inside Spain during a lawful stay. Each route has its own documents, but a few appear in almost every file: a full passport, criminal record certificates and civil status documents, the latter usually apostilled and with sworn translations into Spanish.
Two practical points after arrival:
- If you fly in via another Schengen country, such as Paris, Amsterdam or Frankfurt, the border check happens there. In some cases you then have to declare your entry at a Spanish police station within three days.
- The identity card for foreigners, the TIE, has to be requested in person within one month of arriving with a long-stay visa, or of the permit being granted in Spain. There are exceptions; the one-year remote work visa, for instance, already proves residence on its own.
Staying legal year after year
Residence permits have expiry dates, and Spain’s renewal rules are precise. For most permits, the renewal is filed in the two months before expiry. Filing in that window keeps the old permit valid until the decision. Filing in the three months after expiry is still possible, but may lead to a penalty. A diary reminder set the day the first permit arrives is the simplest insurance against that.
Plans first, paperwork second
The best way to approach a move to Spain is to describe your life there in a sentence first: who works, where the money comes from, how long you plan to stay. Once that sentence is clear, the right visa usually follows, and the paperwork becomes a checklist rather than a puzzle.
