Digital Nomad Visa

Since Adam was a lad, I have been hearing rumours, shibboleths, half truths, complete rubbish and worse about Spain’s much vaunted Digital Nomad Visa. The sheer volume of dross and speculation is on a par with that about Brexit benefits, Arsenal’s title chances, whether Elvis is dead and “who shot JR?” The Spanish government probably did not handle the situation very well. In 2020 it was announced that a Digital Nomad Visa would be announced and then it was announced that it would shortly be announced and then it was announced that it would be announced …. “Soon.” That is presumably a Spanish “soon” because almost three years later Arsenal had not won a cup, nobody had found a single Brexit benefit and the details of the Visa had still not been announced. Actually, maybe they announced it a few other times! Then when you could least expect it, the Spanish Government did finally announce “comprehensive” details in December 2022. Terrific …… other than the fact that the details were anything but comprehensive, there was a lot of room for doubt and there were many grey areas. Nevertheless it was a start and some enterprising solicitors and others started saying that they could help you acquire a visa. Mmm, can you not apply yourself? How much are legal professionals going to charge? Is Elvis at the fish shop?

Slowly but surely confirmations and clarifications came through from Madrid. Slowly but surely we all thought that potential nomads could start to apply and slowly but surely those who actually know what they are talking about started putting pen to paper in layman’s English. One such commentator is Daniel AKA Mr Chorizo an American writer who I have followed for 10+ years.
He is one of the few expat writers I respect and a man who really knows his cebollas. This week he wrote an excellent overview of the Digital Nomad Visa. He was kind enough to let me quote and if you want to read the whole article you can visit Expat Madrid You will also be able to read more about Spain and especially Madrid and Barcelona, two cities he knows very well. If you want more chorizo – and who doesn’t? – you can check out the Chorizo Chronicles for a view of real Spain. Enjoy!

Digital Nomad Visa – will Spain become a playground for the wealthy laptop class?

Spain’s new Digital Nomad Visa is the talk of the town.

Or at least the talk of all the Facebook groups for expats from outside the European Union.

Yes, Spain is finally going to move to attract remote workers from other countries – it’s gonna be a big laptop-class flamenco-and-sangría orgy out here soon.

The final details of the new Digital Nomad Visa haven’t been worked out yet, but they should be by the end of this month, March 2023.

So while all the young, tech-savvy wanderlusters from around the world wait with baited breath to see what kind of bizarre requirements Pedro Sanchez and his band of incompetents come up with, let’s take a deeper look at the implications of creating a digital nomad visa in Spain.

Ready? Let’s go