Spain Emprende.The Spain startup visa (entrepreneur residence permit) in 2026, step by step

It is the "entrepreneur" residence permit under articles 69 and 70 of Spain's Law 14/2013 on support for entrepreneurs, as amended by Law 28/2022, known as the Startups Law. The file is examined by the Large Companies and Strategic Groups Unit (UGE) of the migration ministry, which asks Spain's National Innovation Company (ENISA) for a report. If ENISA's report is favourable, a three-year residence permit is issued.

For the business itself, nothing: the UGE states plainly that there is no minimum investment and no minimum job creation. For your own living costs, the law only asks for "sufficient financial resources", and the criterion the immigration administration published for entrepreneurs is 100% of the IPREM index a month: €600 a month for one person in 2026. The €34,188 figure repeated everywhere belongs to the remote-work (digital nomad) permit, not to this route.

On paper it is the shortest route in Europe: ENISA must report within ten working days, the UGE decides within twenty days, and if it does not, the application counts as granted (positive silence). The consulate also has ten working days. But for nationalities subject to Schengen prior consultation, Iran among them, the ten consular days are not guaranteed; see the question on that below.

Three years, whether you apply from inside Spain or from abroad. Article 69 sets the entrepreneur permit at three years. "The consulate only gives one year" is a misreading: the visa the consulate puts in your passport is valid for one year because it is an entry document, but the residence permit the UGE granted runs for three years and continues, after you arrive, with the TIE residence card.

Not before the application. ENISA assesses your plan and your profile, not a company you do not have yet. Setting up a company (usually an SL, a limited liability company) or registering as self-employed with Social Security (RETA) comes after the permit. Since 2022, under Law 18/2022, the minimum share capital of an SL is one euro; the €3,000 figure is no longer required.

Yes, and this is one of the genuinely best parts of the route. Article 62 lets your spouse, children under 18, older children who are financially dependent, and dependent parents apply at the same time as you, in which case the applications are decided together. The one-year wait for family reunification that applies to ordinary Spanish permits does not apply here.

Not as a legal condition of the ENISA and UGE file, but the forms and portals are in Spanish and every foreign document needs a sworn translation (traducción jurada). For citizenship, passing the DELE Spanish exam at A2 and the constitutional and cultural knowledge test (CCSE) is mandatory.

The UGE's decision is reasoned and, under article 76, open to an administrative appeal (recurso de alzada). In practice most refusals come from a negative ENISA report, and the right response is usually to fix the plan and apply again rather than fight the same file.

Article 70 names three things. One, the applicant's professional profile and role in the project, and where there are several partners, each one's contribution, whether or not they need a visa. Two, the business plan: a description of the project, the product or service, and its financing, including the capital required and its possible sources. Three, the added value for the Spanish economy, innovation or investment opportunity. The activity must be "innovative and/or of special economic interest for Spain". "And/or": you do not need both.

The immigration administration's own guidance lists: a description of the project (activity, start date, location, the company's legal form, economic impact, the number and type of jobs you expect to create, the sales and marketing plan); a detailed description of the product or service and its innovative aspects; market, competitor and customer analysis; financing and the financial plan; the added value for the Spanish economy; and the applicant's role in the company's organisation. A plan whose market is your home country or its diaspora has not answered the third criterion.

Article 76 says that if the UGE does not decide within twenty days of the electronic filing, the permit is deemed granted by administrative silence. That is a genuine legal advantage that few countries offer. But two conditions are often forgotten: the file must have been filed complete, and if the UGE asks for further documents, the clock stops. Positive silence does not replace a good file; it only saves you from waiting indefinitely.

Article 75.5 of Law 14/2013 expressly excludes from the consulate's ten-working-day deadline "applicants subject to the consultation in article 22 of the Visa Code" and returns them to the Visa Code's general deadlines. Iran is on the list of countries whose nationals at least one Schengen state requires prior consultation for. So if you are from such a country and apply through a consulate, do not build your plan around ten days.

Both start with the UGE. If you are lawfully in Spain, for example on a Schengen visa, you or your legal representative file electronically with the UGE and, once approved, apply directly for the residence card. If you are outside, article 69 provides for a single application that moves the residence permit through the UGE first and then the visa through the consulate. One important difference: someone in Spain on a short stay gives their criminal record certificate to the UGE; someone applying from abroad gives it to the consulate.

The law (article 62) asks for certificates from the countries you lived in over the past two years, plus a written declaration that you have had no criminal record in the past five. But consulates can be stricter: the Spanish Consulate in London's official page asks for certificates covering the past five years and says a certificate must not be more than six months old. Go by your own consulate's list. The certificate must be apostilled or legalised and carry an official Spanish translation.

The law only says public or private health insurance with an insurer authorised to operate in Spain. The phrase "sin copago" (without co-payment) is not in Law 14/2013. But because that condition is common in Spain's other visas and caseworkers are used to it, a comprehensive policy with no co-payments and no waiting period is the safer choice, and its extra cost is small compared with the risk of refusal.

The law says "for the period of residence in Spain". The administration's criterion is monthly, so the question is how many months to multiply by. When the permit was two years, the common practice was 24 months. Now that the first permit is three years, covering the whole period means about €21,600 for one person, €32,400 for a couple and €43,200 for a family of three. That multiplication is ours, not a published UGE figure, but a file that covers the whole period leaves nothing to argue about. The money must be your own, and you may be asked for a year of bank statements.

A permit for more than six months needs a residence card (article 76). In practice: register your address with the town hall (empadronamiento), book a fingerprinting appointment with the police, complete form EX-17 and pay the fee with form 790 code 012, then collect your TIE card a few weeks later. If you entered the Schengen area through another country and have no Spanish entry stamp, you must also file a declaration of entry (declaración de entrada). A practical point: under the same article, for the first six months your passport is enough to register with Social Security, so do not wait for the card to start working.

After three years, renewal in two-year periods, provided the conditions that created the permit still hold: the business must genuinely be active. Filing the renewal extends your permit until the decision, and even an application filed up to 90 days after expiry keeps it valid, though it may carry a fine. Permanent residence after five years. Citizenship by residence, under the Spanish Civil Code, needs ten years of legal, continuous residence; the reduction to two years is only for nationals of Latin American countries, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea and Portugal, and for Sephardic Jews.

Only if your country is covered by an exception. Spain has no dual-nationality agreement with Iran, for example, and Iran is not among the exceptions in article 23 of the Spanish Civil Code, so an Iranian applicant must formally declare that they renounce their previous nationality when taking Spanish citizenship. If that applies to you, put it in your calculation today, not in year nine.

They are two separate things and often confused. The special tax regime for newcomers (known as the Beckham Law) has, since the 2022 Startups Law, also covered people who come to Spain for an article 70 entrepreneurial activity: Spanish income up to €600,000 taxed at a flat 24%, provided you were not tax-resident in Spain in the five years before you came. The 15% corporate tax rate, however, belongs to the "emerging company" (empresa emergente), which needs a separate certificate from ENISA; a favourable ENISA report for residence is not automatically that certificate.

The ordinary self-employed permit falls under the general immigration regulation, not Law 14/2013: it goes through a consulate, is assessed by the provincial labour office, has no twenty-day deadline or positive silence, and does not let your family come at the same time. For a traditional business (a café, a shop, local services) that is the route, because ENISA will not approve a plan that is neither innovative nor of special economic interest. If your plan is genuinely scalable, the Law 14/2013 route is better in every respect.

Spanish law sets no cap on the number of founders. ENISA assesses each partner's contribution separately, and each one has their own residence file. The "maximum of five co-founders" figure that appears in some presentations is the Italian startup visa's rule, not Spain's.