Spain’s Golden Visa Is Gone: What Closed, and What Is Actually Left

A programme that no longer exists

Spain’s investor residence permit, created by Law 14/2013 and universally known as the golden visa, was abolished by a mechanism that says a good deal about how the decision was made. It was not repealed by a dedicated immigration bill but by the twenty-first final provision of Organic Law 1/2025 of 2 January 2025 — a statute otherwise concerned with the efficiency of the public justice service — which left Articles 63 to 67 of Law 14/2013 without content. Published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado on 3 January 2025, the provision took effect three months later, so 3 April 2025 was the last day on which a new investor application could be filed. The routes that closed were a €500,000 purchase of Spanish real estate free of charges, €1,000,000 in shares of Spanish companies, in Spanish investment or venture capital funds, or on deposit with a Spanish bank, and €2,000,000 in Spanish government debt, alongside a discretionary business-project route.

Closure was not retroactive. Authorisations already granted remain valid for the period for which they were issued, applications filed before 3 April 2025 continued to be processed under the rules in force at the time, and renewals of existing investor permits are still handled under the legislation applicable when the permit was first granted, provided the qualifying investment is maintained and general immigration conditions are still met. In practice that means a shrinking cohort running out the clock on a framework that admits no one new. The stated rationale was housing: the government argued that investor permits were concentrated in a handful of pressured urban markets and were being used to acquire homes as assets rather than residences, and framed the repeal as part of a broader affordability agenda, also citing alignment with European Commission recommendations on transparency and screening. Critics note that investor permits were a small share of total housing transactions; supporters counter that the concentration in specific cities mattered more than the national average.

What is left for non-EU nationals

Two mainstream routes remain, and neither is an investment programme. The non-lucrative visa is for people who can support themselves without working in Spain, and its financial test is pegged to the IPREM income index: 400 per cent of the annual IPREM for the main applicant plus 100 per cent for each dependant. With the IPREM at €600 a month for 2026, that is €28,800 a year, or €2,400 a month, for a single applicant, plus €7,200 a year for each family member. The digital nomad visa is for remote workers and certain self-employed people serving predominantly non-Spanish clients, and its threshold tracks the minimum wage: 200 per cent of the SMI, which for 2026 was set at €1,221 a month across fourteen payments, or €17,094 a year — putting the requirement at roughly €34,188 a year, with smaller uplifts for a partner and for each child.

• Neither route is satisfied by buying anything. Both test income or resources, and both require private health insurance and a clean criminal record.
• The non-lucrative visa prohibits work in Spain, and because it is designed around living there, holders normally cross the 183-day threshold and become Spanish tax resident on worldwide income.
• The special expatriate regime often called the Beckham Law is generally available to qualifying digital nomad visa holders but not to non-lucrative visa holders.
• Spanish wealth tax applies to net assets above a general threshold of €700,000, with significant regional variation, and a separate state-level solidarity tax targets larger fortunes above €3,000,000.
• Spanish tax residents with more than €50,000 of assets abroad face an annual foreign-asset reporting obligation.

That tax point is the one most often lost in the comparison. The golden visa suited people who wanted Spanish residence rights without Spanish tax residence, because it carried no meaningful presence requirement. The non-lucrative and digital nomad visas do not work that way: they are built for people who actually move, which means worldwide income taxation at Spanish progressive rates, exposure to wealth and solidarity taxes on global net assets, and foreign-asset reporting. Anyone reasoning by analogy from the old scheme is comparing two quite different propositions.

Before you act on any of this

Thresholds here move: the IPREM and the SMI are reset by the government and the derived visa requirements move with them, consulates apply their own documentary standards above the statutory minimum, and regional rules materially change the wealth tax position depending on where in Spain you live. The figures above are as understood in September 2026 and should be checked against the Boletín Oficial del Estado and the relevant Spanish consulate or immigration office before any decision. This article is general information, not legal, immigration or tax advice. Eligibility, processing times and tax outcomes depend on nationality and individual circumstances, no application is guaranteed to succeed, and anyone considering a move to Spain should take advice from a licensed Spanish immigration lawyer and a qualified tax adviser and consult the official government sources directly. Plain Investor does not sell, broker or advise on residence programmes, earns no commission from any of them, and is not affiliated with any immigration advisory firm.

This article is educational and general in nature. It isn’t personalized investment, tax, or legal advice — always weigh your own circumstances, or talk to a licensed professional, before making financial decisions.

Tags: spain, golden visa, residence permits