Dreaming of Moving to Spain? Here’s What You Need to Know if You’re American

Moving to a different country is a huge life change. If you’ve been fantasizing about moving abroad, you may have checked out all sorts of countries across the European Union or in other distant locales. But if your plans to move to a different country have become more concrete — like if you’ve settled on a specific country (let’s say Spain) and you’re wondering how to move to Spain — you may need to know more information. If you’ve been captivated by the thought of moving to a colorful modern apartment or a beach house by the Mediterranean, you need to know more than your favorite tapas. 

Here’s everything you need to know about how to move to Spain.

Yes! Spain offers a range of visa options. If you’re planning on visiting Spain to see if it’s the right fit, you should know you don’t need a visa if you’re staying for less than 90 days. 

If you’re ready to take the plunge, there are a number of different visas available depending on what you’re looking for, according to HousingAnywhere.com.

If you’re only planning on staying in Spain for a season, and you’re a student, there are three different types of visas available to you — a Schengen visa (that maxes out at 90 days), a short-term student visa, which is valid for up to 6 months, and a long-term student visa, which would be for any stay longer than six months. 

There are a number of visas related to work. If you finish your degree in Spain, you can apply for a job search (or job seeking) visa while you apply for a job in the country, but it’s nonrenewable and only valid for 12 months. There are also visas like work visas — if you get hired by a Spanish company — visas for highly skilled workers. There are also visas specific to entrepreneurs.

If you don’t have a job offer or if you’re past working age, there are two ways to get visas — the Golden visa and the non-lucrative visa. The Golden visa is also known as the Investor visa — to qualify to apply for it, you have to be ready to buy a property that’s worth at least 500,000 euros or invest in other ways. A non-lucrative visa is for those who want to retire in Spain or live there without a job, but you need to provide proof of funds — at least $30,000 a year. 

If you want to move to Spain permanently and apply for a permanent residency visa, you’ll have to live there first for at least five years and meet the other application requirements.

You’ll have to apply for your visa in the U.S., at the Consulate General for your home state. 

“Making a permanent move is more challenging than expected,” says Becky Pollack, a teacher from Appleton, Wisconsin, who now lives in Ronda, a historic mountaintop town in Spain’s Malaga province. “I thought everything would be easy and fall into place, so you should expect some hiccups here and there. But I’m thankful life has brought me here, and if anyone is thinking about moving abroad, even temporarily, DO IT! It’s absolutely the best thing you could ever do.”

Living in Spain comes with many advantages, being able to visit historic cities and discover remote beaches chief among them. The trade-off is the immigration paperwork.

When Sara Beyer moved to Spain from Phoenix, Arizona, in 2014, she found the visa process “long and tiring” and recommends “being patient and always going with extra copies of everything!”

Within 90 days of arrival in Spain, you’ll need to apply for your NIE, or Número de Identidad de Extranjero. This basically translates as Foreigners’ Identification Number and is needed in order to open a local bank account, for signing rental contracts, to pay taxes, and more. 

Using a local agency to help you prepare the appropriate documents and book appointments can save a lot of time and hassle, particularly if you don’t speak Spanish fluently.

“It’s a headache for people to find the correct forms,” says Lucy Logan, head consultant at the translation and consultation agency, Tus Alpujarras. “That’s where we come in, as we locate the correct paperwork, help you complete everything, and help with the translation and legalization of other documents like birth and marriage certificates.” 

You’ll need to factor in plane tickets, the cost of your visa, and the paperwork needed to support your application. Visas range from $85 to $230.

For non-lucrative visas, you need to prove you can support yourself and your family without working in Spain. In 2022, that minimum monthly income was about €2,316.08 per month plus €579.02 a month for each family member, per Global Citizen Solutions.

Spain’s cost of living is generally low compared with the U.S, and other E.U. countries. Rent is often cheaper, as are many other day-to-day living expenses, but smaller cities will be much cheaper than major ones like Barcelona and Madrid. 

You can also look forward to plenty of locally grown food. “I spend between €15 and €20 [or $16.24 and $21.65] per person when I go out to eat,” Beyer says. “But if you know the right tapas places, you can fill up for less than €10,” which is about $10.83.

“I love how life can be so good in Spain without the struggle,” says Molly Vogel, who relocated from Sonoma and Mendocino County, California, to El Gastor in Cadiz. “Not only to survive and thrive financially but to enjoy the little things.”