🇩🇪 Germany vs 🇪🇸 Spain: Digital Nomad Visa Compared
Germany has no visa officially called a "digital nomad visa". Spain offers Residence Visa for Teleworking (Digital Nomad) - Ley 28/2022. Every figure below comes from each country's own sourced, dated fiche - compare income, duration, tax, family rules, fees and processing time before you decide.
- Minimum income
- TBD
- 2,849 EUR / month
- Visa duration
- 24 months, renewable
- 12 months, renewable
- Tax regime
- Living in Germany more than 183 days generally makes you a German tax resident, taxed on worldwide income. Freelancers register with the Finanzamt and receive a Steuernummer.
- Optional special expat regime (Beckham Law): 24% flat on Spanish-source income up to EUR 600k (47% above that threshold from the same payer); foreign-source income generally untaxed under the regime.
- Family (spouse / children)
- Application fees
- 100 EUR
- TBD
- Health insurance
- Required - Comprehensive private expat health insurance required; travel or basic 'nomad' insurance is routinely rejected by the Auslanderbehorde.
- Required - Full-coverage public or private health insurance from an entity authorized to operate in Spain.
- Processing time
- Varies by city; reported 8 weeks to 7 months in 2026 sources (Berlin moved fully online from March 2026)
- 10 days from the day after submission (may extend)
Germany has no digital nomad visa and the Freelance permit has NO fixed income minimum - you must show financial viability. IMPORTANT: it requires German/EU clients (economic integration); it is NOT open to people working full-time for a foreign employer. Not a pure remote-employee route.
RULE is official (200% of monthly SMI, per consulate). Euro figure is DERIVED from the 2026 SMI: Real Decreto 126/2026 fixed it at EUR 1,221/month (14 payments) / EUR 17,094/year. The commonly-cited ~2,442 figure is 2x the nominal monthly SMI; the fiche's EUR 2,849 is 200% of the SMI annualized then reprorated over 12 months (EUR 17,094 / 12 x 2) - the basis Extranjeria/UGE is reported to actually apply. Family uplift (official): +75% SMI first member, +25% each additional. RE-VERIFIED 2026-07-25: this arithmetic (200% x EUR 1,424.50 reprorated monthly = EUR 2,849) independently checks out against the official SMI decree, strengthening confidence without changing the figure.
source · verified 2026-07-25
Issued 1-3 years (typically 2 for first-timers), renewable; permanent settlement possible after 5 years with B1 German and pension contributions.
source · verified 2026-07-08
Consular visa/permit valid up to 1 year. In-country UGE route reportedly grants up to 3 years, renewable for 2 more years (5-year max) - re-checked 2026-07-17, now well-corroborated across independent legal sources, still not read on an official page directly. RENEWAL, re-checked 2026-07-18: the Supreme Court (STS 2130/2026, 2026-05-05) voided the rule letting a residence card lapse solely for 6+ months of annual absence - that ruling is about the EU-family-member card, but is reported by several 2026 sources to reinforce the same protection for DNV renewals by analogy (not an official DNV-specific ruling). Separately, a TSJ Madrid ruling (Sentencia 26/2026, Rec. 305/2025) upheld terminating a remote-worker permit for not registering with Spanish Social Security from day one - the UGE's reorganized Digital Nomad Office is reported to be enforcing requirements like this more strictly in 2026 (also flagging fraudulent documents and reused agent paperwork), so renewal risk has shifted, not disappeared. RE-VERIFIED 2026-07-24: exact citation resolved to Judgment 564/2026, ECLI:ES:TS:2026:2130 (5 May 2026). New: the Interior Ministry has reportedly issued an interim circular telling Extranjeria/police to suspend open absence-based extinction procedures pending a formal Royal Decree rewrite - a concrete favorable step, still on secondary legal-news sourcing rather than a fetchable official circular.
source · verified 2026-07-24
source · verified 2026-07-08
Beckham eligibility differs for employees vs self-employed. Re-checked 2026-07-17: the 24% rate (47% above EUR 600k from the same payer) is now independently corroborated by search-indexed content across several distinct pages on AEAT's own domain (sede.agenciatributaria.gob.es), including the exact URL above - not just the single secondary blog originally cited. sourceUrl updated to AEAT directly; confidence stays "reported" rather than "official" because the page still 403s on a literal direct fetch (proxy policy denial affecting all .gob.es domains this pass), so this rests on a search-engine read of AEAT's indexed content, not a page fetch.
source · verified 2026-07-17
Residence-permit fee reported around EUR 100; confirm with the local Auslanderbehorde.
source · verified 2026-07-08
source · verified 2026-07-08
Re-checked 2026-07-17: multiple 2026 sources report the UGE-CE has tightened enforcement this year, rejecting policies with high copays, coverage gaps, exclusions, or waiting periods - full, unrestricted coverage matters more than it used to.
source · verified 2026-07-17
source · verified 2026-07-12
This 10-day figure is for the consular visa route specifically. The separate in-country UGE residence-authorization route is reported to run on its own clock: up to 20 business days for a decision, plus up to 10 business days to correct an incomplete application if requested.
source · verified 2026-07-17
Figures marked TBD are not yet verified and are never shown as facts. Last full review: Germany 2026-07-12, Spain 2026-07-25.