Spain vs United Kingdom Digital Nomad Visa: Compared

Minimum income

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

TBD

The UK has no digital nomad visa and the Standard Visitor visa has no fixed income figure in the Immigration Rules. Appendix V requires only that applicants show 'sufficient funds to cover all reasonable costs in relation to their visit without working or accessing public funds' (accommodation, subsistence, and the return/onward journey). Informal guidance commonly benchmarks this around GBP 100-150/day after accommodation and travel are paid, but that is not an official figure, so it is left TBD rather than stated as fact - verify current expectations with UKVI before applying.

Visa duration

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.

source · verified 2026-07-24

6 months

Standard Visitor visa: up to 6 months per visit, not renewable/extendable in-country for this purpose - you must leave and can reapply for a new visit. Remote work must stay incidental to the visit, not its primary purpose, or the visit itself is out of category.

source · verified 2026-07-16

Tax regime

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

A visit that stays within the Standard Visitor visa's 6-month cap is not automatically outside UK tax residence: the Statutory Residence Test (SRT) can make you UK tax-resident from as few as 46 days a year if you have strong UK ties, or up to 183 days with none. Nomads working remotely from the UK should count SRT days, not just visa validity.

Figure is the Statutory Residence Test's day-count thresholds (46/91/183 depending on UK ties), not a visa rule - the visitor visa itself imposes no tax regime. Foreign income taxed only if UK tax-resident under the SRT; confirm your own tie count before relying on the automatic overseas test.

source · verified 2026-07-16

Family (spouse / children)

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

source · verified 2026-07-17

Spouse + children admitted

Spouse and children can accompany as visitors on their own Standard Visitor visas (or visa-free if from a non-visa-national country); each family member is assessed and, where required, pays separately - there is no family/dependant visa tied to remote work under this route.

source · verified 2026-07-16

Application fees

TBD

135 GBP

GBP 135 for a 6-month Standard Visitor visa, effective from the 8 April 2026 fee rise (up from GBP 127). Visa-national applicants pay this fee; non-visa-nationals (many nationalities, including most of the EU, US, Canada, Australia) do not need a visa at all for stays up to 6 months, but as of 2026 they do need a separate Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) before travel - mandatory carrier-level enforcement for all visa-exempt nationalities went live 2026-02-25, and the ETA fee rose from GBP 16 to GBP 20 on 2026-04-08. So a visa-exempt remote worker doesn't pay a visa fee but does now pay GBP 20 for a mandatory pre-travel ETA (2-year multi-entry) - not "nothing" - and the same permitted-activities rules still apply either way.

source · verified 2026-07-17

Health insurance

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

Not required

source · verified 2026-07-16

Processing time

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

Typically around 3 weeks for standard processing

source · verified 2026-07-16

🇪🇸 Spain vs 🇬🇧 United Kingdom: Digital Nomad Visa Compared