Spain Non-Lucrative Visa Income Requirements

A single applicant for Spain's non-lucrative visa must show 400% of the public income index known as the IPREM. In 2026 that index is still €600 a month, so the floor is €2,400 a month, or €28,800 for the first one-year residence card, plus €7,200 for the year for each dependent who comes along. The mistake that sinks an otherwise funded file is a remote job you hope to keep: the Spanish consulate in Washington says this visa is not a work permit and does not allow work online.

The rule lives in Article 62 of Royal Decree 1155/2024, the immigration regulation that took effect on 20 May 2025. You can meet it with a pension, Social Security, or other income that keeps arriving, or with savings large enough to cover the length of the card you are asking for. A couple is not two people at €28,800. The second person adds 100% of the IPREM, not another 400%.

How much income does the Spain non-lucrative visa require?

For the main applicant the legal minimum is 400% of the IPREM each month, and each dependent family member adds 100% of the IPREM each month. Spain's public employment service still lists the IPREM from the 2023 budget law at €600 a month and €7,200 a year, and the Washington consulate applies those same 2026 figures to this visa: €28,800 for one person and €7,200 more for each dependent.

Article 62 also says the global amount has to match that monthly figure for the whole life of the authorization you are requesting. The initial card lasts one year under Article 61, so a savings-only file for one person is €2,400 times 12. A renewed card lasts two years under Article 64, so the savings-only reading becomes €2,400 times 24. Periodic income is the other door: the consulate will take a pension or Social Security award that is already at the monthly floor and is documented to continue.

Household	Monthly floor	First card (12 months)	Renewal if you prove savings (24 months)
One applicant	€2,400	€28,800	€57,600
Applicant plus one dependent	€3,000	€36,000	€72,000
Applicant plus two dependents	€3,600	€43,200	€86,400

Data note: euro figures follow Article 62 of Royal Decree 1155/2024 and the €600 IPREM listed by SEPE and by the Washington consulate for 2026. The consulate also prints rough dollar equivalents of about $32,000 for the applicant and about $8,000 per dependent. Those dollar lines are the consulate's rounding, and the legal test is in euros.

Who counts as a dependent

Article 61 counts a spouse, a registered partner, or a stable partner. A stable partner needs a durable link, which the regulation treats as met by at least one continuous year of living together as a couple, unless you have children together, in which case you prove stable cohabitation instead. Minor children who are unmarried and have not formed their own household count. Adult children count only if a disability requires support, or if their health leaves them objectively unable to provide for themselves.

Washington's money paragraph mentions an ascending relative, but the people who may obtain the visa on that page match the regulation: spouse or partner, minor children, and those qualifying adult children. Do not add a parent unless that consulate has agreed to include them.

What proof of income does the consulate want?

Washington asks you to show enough money for the first year of the residence permit, or a regular source of income that does not depend on paid work in Spain. Retirees can use a life annuity. The consulate names Social Security benefits and public or private pensions as examples, as long as the letter is recent, states the current amount, and confirms the payments continue for at least the next 12 months. That letter needs a sworn Spanish translation.

The bank file is separate from the pension letter. Attach the last three months of checking, savings, and investment statements; Washington does not require those in Spanish. The bank certificate does need a sworn translation. It must name the bank and its address, identify the accounts, give opening and closing dates, show the balance on 31 December of the year before you apply, and show the average balance for the prior 12 months. Article 62 asks for that same December 31 balance and one-year average on foreign accounts. Add a copy of your latest tax return; Washington does not require a translation of the return.

A pension that clears, and a couple that does not

Say you are applying alone and a pension letter shows €2,500 a month, continuing for at least the next 12 months. That is €30,000 over a year, above the €28,800 first-year figure, and it also clears the €2,400 monthly floor. You still include the three months of statements, the translated bank certificate with the December 31 balance and the 12-month average, and the latest tax return. The pension does not replace those pages.

Say the same €2,500 pension has to cover a spouse with no income. The couple's monthly floor is €3,000, so the pension is short €500 a month, or €6,000 over the first year. Article 62 lets you cover that gap with other means held for the life of the card. A savings balance that documents the €6,000 shortfall can sit beside the pension letter. Treat the figures as a hypothetical, and confirm the mix with the consulate that will read the file.

What income do you need when the card is renewed?

The monthly percentages do not drop at renewal. What changes is the length of the card, and Article 62 ties the global amount to that length. The renewed authorization lasts two years, unless you already qualify for long-term residence instead. On a savings-only file, one person therefore shows €57,600, and a couple shows €72,000. A pension that continues at €2,400 a month, or €3,000 for a couple, is still the periodic-income path; you are not automatically forced to park the two-year lump in cash if the income itself keeps arriving.

You also have to have lived in Spain for real for more than 183 days during the calendar year. That immigration condition in Article 64 is separate from the money. Children of compulsory school age must have been in school while they were in Spain, and the health policy has to have stayed in force for the whole prior card. A 90-day travel plan fails the first filing and the renewal.

When to file the renewal

File with the immigration office during the two months before the card expires. A filing in that window keeps the old authorization alive until they decide. You can also file in the three months after expiry and still get that extension, but Article 64 says the late filing can open a sanction procedure under the immigration statute. The office has three months to notify you. If it stays silent, the renewal is treated as approved, which is the opposite of the first residence request: under Article 63, silence from the immigration office on the initial authorization means denial.

Can you work remotely on a non-lucrative visa?

No. Washington says the visa does not allow any work or professional activity, including work done online. Chicago's page says the same: no gainful activity, no professional services, and no working online. The notarized affidavit includes a promise not to do lucrative work on site or remotely. If you are still of working age, Washington also wants an employer letter that the job has ended, or that a sabbatical was accepted, with a Spanish translation.

Billing US clients from Spain puts you on the wrong application. The Spain telework permit is built for remote work and uses a salary test, not this pension-style IPREM test. A pension household comparing this card with other places to live on retirement income should look through the retirement abroad guides and keep the IPREM math separate from any salary permit.

What to have ready before the appointment

You apply in person, by appointment, at the consulate that covers the state where you actually live. Washington will not take a B-1 or B-2 visitor as an applicant in the United States. The passport needs at least one year of validity, two blank pages, and an issue date within the last 10 years.

1. National visa application, Form EX-01 for the non-lucrative residence authorization, and Form 790-052 with the box for the initial temporary residence authorization checked.
2. Fee payment. From 1 January 2026 the Washington consulate lists a $140 visa fee for US citizens and a $13 residence-permit fee, both paid to BLS and non-refundable. Chicago lists the same $140 and $13 figures. The consulate says the amounts are revised quarterly with exchange rates, so recheck the page for your district in the week you pay.
3. FBI criminal record for anyone 18 or older, issued within the six months before you apply, with a Hague apostille on the FBI signature. Order the FBI Identity History Summary, not a state or local police check. If you spent more than 180 days in another country during the last five years, Washington wants a record from that country too. Do not unstaple the FBI packet; a damaged certificate is rejected.
4. Medical certificate issued within 90 days, signed by a physician with a license number. Washington will not accept a nurse practitioner or a physician assistant. Chicago's page, dated 10 February 2026, uses a three-month window and the same 2005 International Health Regulations standard.
5. Health insurance from an insurer authorized to operate in Spain, covering what the public system covers, with unlimited benefits, no copay, no deductible, and no coverage cap, valid for one year. An insurance card is not proof. Travel insurance is not accepted.
6. The money file described above, plus the Spanish affidavit with an address where you will live for at least the first three months.

Washington's decision period is three months, longer if they ask for an interview or more papers, counted from when the consular section forwards the file rather than from the day you hand it to BLS. They will not expedite it or give a status update. Article 63 gives the immigration office one month from that communication, and silence on the initial authorization counts as a denial.

Check the validity line before you buy flights. Washington says the visa sticker is good for one year and that you enter during that year. Chicago, on a page dated 10 February 2026, says the sticker is good for 90 days. Both require the TIE, the foreigner identity card, within one month of entry. The residence authorization itself is one year. Follow the consulate that prints your sticker. A refusal can be reconsidered, in Spanish, within one month of the day after the notice, and judicial review at the High Court of Justice of Madrid runs two months.

Do you still owe US tax after the visa is granted?

Yes. The Internal Revenue Service taxes US citizens on worldwide income whether they live in the United States or abroad, and benefits such as the foreign earned income exclusion or the foreign tax credit exist only if you file. This visa does not switch that off.

The exclusion is also a poor fit for the income that usually qualifies you. The IRS defines foreign earned income as wages, salaries, professional fees, and other pay for personal services, and it says pension or annuity payments, including Social Security benefits, are not foreign earned income. A retiree who stopped working in order to satisfy the consulate should not expect that exclusion to shelter the pension that got the visa approved. How the United States taxes Social Security while you live abroad is its own calculation, separate from the consulate accepting the award letter as proof of means.

Spain can tax you once you are habitually resident. The tax agency treats a stay of more than 183 days in the calendar year as residence, and sporadic absences still count unless you prove tax residence somewhere else. The center of your economic interests can also make you resident, and a spouse or minor children living in Spain create a presumption. A residence card is not tax residence by itself. The renewal rule that you actually live in Spain more than 183 days and the tax rule that more than 183 days makes you resident point the same way, so plan on a Spanish return and a US return, with the foreign tax credit where the same income is taxed twice.

Later paid work is a different regime. The Beckham law flat tax is aimed at people who take work in Spain, not at a household that promised the consulate it would not work. Do not assume a non-lucrative card can be quietly converted into that employment regime.

What to do before you spend the fee

Pick the consulate for your state and download its non-working residence page the week you apply. Confirm that your pension or savings clears €2,400 a month for you and €600 a month for each person Article 61 actually lets you bring. Order the FBI check early enough that the apostilled certificate is still inside six months on appointment day, and buy insurance that a Spanish public hospital would recognize, not a travel policy.

A short sequence

1. Write the monthly household floor from the table and match it to award letters, not to a single high month in a brokerage account.
2. Ask each bank for the certificate format Article 62 describes, including the 31 December balance and the 12-month average, then send it for a sworn translation.
3. If any of the income is pay for work you intend to continue, stop and look at the telework permit instead of notarizing a promise you cannot keep.

The non-lucrative visa is a funded stay without a job. It is a clean fit when the pension already clears the IPREM math, and a poor fit when the household still needs earned income to live.

Data notes and sources checked

Figures were checked in October 2026. IPREM, consular fees, and the dollar approximations on the consulate page can change. The regulation, not a blog calculator, is the test.

• Royal Decree 1155/2024 (BOE), Articles 61 to 64, on who qualifies, the 400% and 100% IPREM tests, the one-year initial card, the two-year renewal, and the 183-day stay.
• Consulate of Spain in Washington, non-working residence visa: 2026 IPREM amounts, the no-remote-work rule, fees from 1 January 2026, insurance, FBI and medical timing, and a one-year visa validity.
• Consulate of Spain in Chicago, page dated 10 February 2026: the same $140 and $13 fees, no online work, and a 90-day visa validity.
• SEPE, IPREM of €600 a month and €7,200 a year, citing Law 31/2022.
• Agencia Tributaria, the 183-day habitual-residence test and the point that a residence permit is not tax residence by itself.
• IRS, worldwide taxation of US citizens abroad.
• IRS foreign earned income exclusion, which excludes pension and Social Security benefits from the definition of foreign earned income.

Disclaimer: This is not legal, tax, or immigration advice. Consulates apply one regulation with different document habits, and fees are revised quarterly. Confirm the page for the consulate that covers your state, and use a qualified professional before you file or book the move.