🇬🇷 Greece vs 🇪🇸 Spain: Digital Nomad Visa Compared

Greece offers Digital Nomad Visa (Type D) + Residence Permit (Type I.8) - Law 5038/2023, amended by Law 5275/2026. 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.

🇬🇷 Greece🇪🇸 Spain

Minimum income

3,500 EUR / month

Attributed to the official mfa.gr page (403 on direct fetch) and corroborated by multiple specialist sources, though at least one 2026 secondary guide states this figure as GROSS rather than NET - the net/gross distinction could not be independently re-confirmed on the official page this pass and should be treated as unresolved. Family uplift: +20% spouse, +15% per child. RE-VERIFIED 2026-09-05: multiple independent 2026 guides (remoteworkeurope.eu, globalcitizensolutions.com, lexidy.com, nomadsembassy.com) state the required bank-statement history proving this income rose from 3 to 6 consecutive months, effective 27 January 2026 - corroborated across 4 independent secondary sources but no primary decree/circular citation found, so this is added as a documentation-requirement detail, not a change to the EUR 3,500 figure itself.

source · verified 2026-09-05

2,849 EUR / month

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

Visa duration

12 months, renewable

Type D visa: up to 12 months. Then Type I.8 residence permit: 2 years, renewable for successive 2-year periods. LAW 5275/2026 (~5 Feb 2026): the in-country conversion route was ABOLISHED - you must now obtain the Type D visa at a Greek consulate abroad BEFORE entering. RE-CHECKED 2026-07-31: the same reform also closed a second loophole - applicants who entered on a Type C (Schengen) visa or a visa-waiver could previously obtain the Type I.8 permit by showing a housing lease or property-purchase contract instead of the full consulate-first D-visa route; two independent legal-advisory sources (Bernitsas Law, siopi-law.gr) now describe this route as closed, consistent with the same law's abolition of in-country conversion. Reported/corroborated via search-indexed content, not a fetched primary source (mfa.gr/migration.gov.gr still 403).

source · verified 2026-07-05

12 months, renewable

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. RE-CHECKED 2026-07-30: the awaited Royal Decree rewrite is still unpublished - a candidate BOE item from this window, Real Decreto 316/2026 (14 April 2026, BOE-A-2026-8284), was checked and ruled out as it only reforms arraigo/regularizacion-extraordinaria provisions (RD 1155/2024), not the absence-based extinction rule. Separately, secondary sources now report the UGE-CE is tightening application-stage scrutiny too, not just renewals: applicants are reportedly being asked for 3 months of payslips/invoices plus bank-ownership certificates to counter ad-hoc-contract fraud, alongside stricter health-insurance and Social Security document review - consistent with the broader 2026 enforcement tightening already flagged, not a new legal requirement. CORRECTION, RE-VERIFIED 2026-08-05: the 'applied by analogy' framing above is imprecise - STS 731/2023 (2023, predating this tracking window) is the ruling that actually voided the GENERAL temporary-residence absence-extinction rule the DNV falls under, already reflected in RD 1155/2024 (no automatic extinction for absences); STS 2130/2026 is a separate ruling limited to the EU-family-member card track. The favorable renewal picture for DNV holders is better sourced to STS 731/2023 / RD 1155/2024 directly than stretched from STS 2130/2026. RE-VERIFIED 2026-08-06: this distinction independently re-confirmed; still no Royal Decree rewrite published (most recent related BOE item, BOE-A-2026-16070 of 22 July 2026, is a purely administrative order, not a substantive change).

source · verified 2026-08-06

Tax regime

New tax residents may access a 50% income-tax exemption for up to 7 years (Art. 5C), but it is NOT automatic and generally does NOT apply to pure foreign-source remote income. Staying >183 days makes you a Greek tax resident, taxed on worldwide income at standard rates.

Art. 5C (AADE) requires 5-of-6-years prior non-residence AND historically Greek-source income; specialist tax sources flag that a nomad working purely for foreign clients may not qualify. Do NOT present the 50% cut as an automatic benefit.

source · verified 2026-07-05

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.

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

Family (spouse / children)

Spouse + children admitted (+20% spouse (approx EUR 4,200/mo total), +15% per child (approx +EUR 525/mo))

source · verified 2026-07-05

Spouse + children admitted (+75% SMI first member, +25% each additional)

source · verified 2026-07-17

Application fees

75 EUR

This EUR 75 is the Type D VISA fee (+ EUR 150 per accompanying family member). SEPARATE and much larger: the Type I.8 RESIDENCE PERMIT fee, ~EUR 1,000 (+ EUR 150/family member) pre-2026 - re-verify post-Law 5275/2026 with migration.gov.gr. Guides routinely conflate the two stages.

source · verified 2026-07-05

TBD

Health insurance

Required - Mandatory private health insurance covering care/hospitalization in Greece for applicant + family; minimum coverage amount not stated officially.

source · verified 2026-07-05

Required - Full-coverage public or private health insurance from an entity authorized to operate in Spain.

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

Processing time

~10 days consular decision target (2-6 weeks in practice; longer since the 2026 consulate-only route)

source · verified 2026-07-05

10 days from the day after submission (may extend)

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: Greece 2026-09-05, Spain 2026-09-05.