Your income stays where it is. Your family lives in Spain.

Residency without a Spanish employer, built for income that already exists elsewhere.

The Non-Lucrative Visa lets you live in Spain without working here. It is made for people whose money comes from outside Spain: savings, investments, rental income, a pension, or a business that keeps producing profit abroad while someone else runs it day to day.

It is the cleanest route for an entrepreneur who has already built the business and now wants the family settled in Europe. No Spanish company, no investment in property, no Spanish employer. What you need is proof that you can sustain your family here on what you already have.

It is not the right visa for everyone. If you plan to keep working actively for clients abroad from your laptop in Spain, the Digital Nomad Visa is built for that, and I will tell you on our first call which of the two fits your life.

What your file actually needs to contain.

The details that catch applicants off guard.

Many of my clients are entrepreneurs from Egypt and the Gulf. You are not a special case to me. You are a very common one, and that is exactly why I know where the problems appear.

• Legalisation of documents. Criminal records, company papers and civil certificates from your country often need a full legalisation chain, not just a stamp, before Spain accepts them. Then they need an official translation. Done in the wrong order, they are rejected and weeks are lost.
• Showing income a Spanish officer understands. Company records, dividends, rental contracts and bank movements have to be presented so the money is clear, regular and traceable. I tell you what to prepare before you pay for a single translation.
• Company structure. If your income comes from a business, I look at how it is set up and what your role is. A file where the owner clearly does not work in Spain is stronger than one where it is unclear.
• Family applications. Spouse and children apply with you. Marriage and birth certificates follow the same legalisation route, and I plan the whole family's documents as one project, not separate errands.
• Where you file. The consulate that handles your case depends on your legal residence. I check this first, because filing at the wrong one wastes the whole preparation.

Clients with their documents after their appointments. Faces are blurred to protect their privacy.

If you live here, expect to pay tax here.

Living in Spain for more than half the year generally makes you a Spanish tax resident, taxed on your income at ordinary progressive rates. Some special regimes you may have heard of are for employees and do not apply to someone living on business or investment income. I will never tell you that a visa means no tax.

What I do instead: on our call I take your real income and show you, in euros, roughly what you would pay under the ordinary scale, and the lawyers confirm it before anything is submitted. Your situation can also create obligations in your home country, so that is checked too. You decide with the real number in front of you.

From first call to your life in Spain.

The visa is the beginning. I stay for the rest.

This is where most advisors disappear. I do not. Residency is only useful if your first months in Spain actually work, and that is the part nobody prepares you for.

• In-person support at your appointments. NIE, fingerprints, TIE: I accompany you, in Barcelona, Madrid, Málaga and Tenerife.
• Opening your Spanish bank account. Often the first real obstacle for people from outside Europe.
• Finding a long-term rental. Landlords in Spain ask for documents you do not have yet. I help you present yourself properly.
• Accounting and taxes. Your fiscal life in Spain set up correctly from day one.
• Everything else that makes moving a country difficult. You message me, I solve it or tell you who can.

Collecting residency cards and documents, with Renata. Faces are blurred to protect their privacy.

The five mistakes I see most often.

• Funds that cannot be traced. Large deposits that appear shortly before the application, cash, or transfers that do not match any record.
• A file sitting exactly on the minimum. No room means any small question becomes a refusal.
• Documents legalised in the wrong order. Fixable, but it costs weeks and money.
• Weak health insurance. Policies with co-payments or waiting periods are refused.
• Filing without a strategy. A rejection stays on record and makes the next attempt harder. This is why I never file to see what happens.