Free guide
Live in Spain on the income you already have.
That is what Spain's Non-Lucrative Visa is for: a pension, investments, savings or rental income, rather than a job. You cannot work on it, in Spain or remotely, and that single rule decides whether it is your route. The 2026 guide for Americans, written by a Spanish law firm.
Download the free guide- The income test: €2,400 a month for one person, €600 more for each family member — where that money is allowed to come from, and what Spain accepts as proof
- Why Miami and Houston don't ask for the same documents, and how to find out what yours wants
- What changes for your taxes once you spend more than 183 days a year in Spain
- The order to prepare everything in, so nothing expires before your appointment
Get the guide
Enter your details and we'll send it straight to your inbox.
Is this your route?
The Non-Lucrative Visa has one defining rule, and it decides almost everything else.
Income that doesn’t come from working
A pension, investments, savings or property you rent out. Spain looks at where the money comes from and how steady it is, not only at the amount.
No work from Spain, not even remote
Not for a Spanish company, and not for your employer back home over a laptop. That is what makes the visa non-lucrative, and it is where most applications go wrong.
Still working? There’s another door
Remote employees and freelancers have their own route into Spain. Tell us your situation and we’ll point you to the one that fits, even if it isn’t this one.
How it works
Three steps, no commitment at any point.
You get the guide
Straight to your inbox, free. What a Spanish consulate actually looks at, in plain English.
We look at your case
If you want, we go through your situation and tell you honestly whether the Non-Lucrative Visa is your route, or whether another one fits you better.
You decide
No pressure and no obligation. If you'd rather do it yourself with the guide, that's fine too.
Hi, I'm María Luisa
I've been a lawyer in Spain since 1998 and I founded CostaLuz Lawyers in 2006, working with foreign families moving here. Some of them trusted us twenty years ago and they're still with us.
What we see over and over is that the visa isn't really a paperwork problem. It's a planning problem: which consulate reads your file, how your income is proved, and what happens to your taxes once you live here. That's what this guide is about. If your case isn't clear-cut after reading it, tell us and we'll give you a straight answer — our immigration lawyer, Andrés, works with the US consulates every week.
María Luisa de Castro · CostaLuz Lawyers · Algeciras, Cádiz
Ready to see where your case stands?
Download the free 2026 Spain Non-Lucrative Visa Guide and find out what your consulate will be looking at.
Get the guideGet the free guide before you go
See what your consulate will ask for. We'll send the full guide now.