How to Apply for the Spain Digital Nomad Visa (UGE, MI-T Form)

The UGE digital-nomad application is filed on the sede electrónica of the Ministry of Inclusión, Seguridad Social y Migraciones, using the MI-T form. It is not filed through Mercurio. That single point is where most walkthroughs — including an earlier version of this page — send applicants to the wrong portal, so it is worth stating before anything else. Last verified: 2026-08-06 against the UGE's own filing page and its official documentation sheet for initial international-teleworker applications.

Spain offers two application paths. The in-country UGE route is faster (often 15–20 business days) and issues a direct 3-year residence permit; the consular route is slower and issues a 12-month visa first. Most recent applicants choose UGE.

Which portal — Mercurio or the sede electrónica?

Spain runs two separate immigration filing systems, and they are not interchangeable:

The digital nomad permit is a Ley 14/2013 authorization, so it goes through the second one. UGE states the rule without exception: "Las solicitudes de autorizaciones reguladas por la Ley 14/2013 y toda la documentación relacionada con dichas autorizaciones (subsanaciones, ampliaciones de documentación, recursos, comunicaciones etc.) debe realizarse por medios electrónicos, a través de la sede electrónica del Ministerio de Inclusión, Seguridad Social y Migraciones." The same applies to every follow-up filing: if UGE asks you to cure a defect (subsanación), that response goes to the same sede, not to Mercurio and not by email.

Filing link: Presentación de solicitudes de autorización de residencia de movilidad internacional. It accepts three identification methods — DNI electrónico, an electronic certificate, or Cl@ve — and for the teleworker category the applicant files in their own name (an accredited legal representative may file instead, with documentation granting that power).

If you want a shorter Schengen stay without Spain's UGE paperwork and Beckham election, compare the Croatia MUP application route first. The Croatia requirements checklist is stricter on the income floor but lighter on Spanish-side steps like employer social-security registration and TIE sequencing.

Option A — In-country via UGE (recommended)

Step 1 — Enter Spain as a visitor

Enter on a Schengen visa-free stamp (90 days for US/UK/Canada nationals, etc.) or existing Schengen visa. Plan arrival 2–4 weeks before your desired application day so you have time to gather Spanish-side documents. This visitor entry is a tourist stay used only to launch the UGE filing — it does not authorize remote work on its own, which is the core difference between a digital nomad visa and a tourist visa.

Step 2 — Skip the NIE, empadronamiento and Spanish bank account (they are not application requirements)

This is the step that costs applicants the most wasted time, so read it before booking anything. UGE's official documentation list for an initial international-teleworker application contains no NIE, no empadronamiento and no Spanish bank account. The list is reproduced in full below; none of the three appears on it. A NIE is assigned through the authorization itself, and the padrón is a municipal registration you complete once you actually live somewhere — neither gates the filing.

The bank point matters financially. Where UGE asks for a bank certificate, it asks for one from the institution that receives your income, and where savings are used to top up a shortfall it accepts certificates from "entidad/es financiera/s española/s o extranjera/s" — Spanish or foreign, explicitly. A home-country account is fine. Opening a Spanish account before filing is a convenience for living in Spain later, not evidence that strengthens the application.

Step 3 — Pay the fee (tasa 790, modelo 038) before you file

The fee is tasa 038, paid on modelo 790, and the proof of payment is a required attachment: "Justificante de haber abonado la tasa mediante el formulario (mod. 790 038) adjuntando además el justificante del pago si este no se refleja sobre el propio modelo 790." Fill and pay it electronically at the ministry's Autorizaciones de trabajo y residencia (Tasa 038) page. The form self-calculates the amount — recent international-teleworker applications have come out around €73 — so take the figure the form generates rather than a number quoted in a guide, this one included.

Step 4 — Prepare and legalize documents

Public documents issued by a foreign authority must be legalized or apostilled, and any not written in Spanish need a translation by a traductor intérprete jurado authorized by Spain's foreign ministry. Note the criminal-record rule is two-sided: a certificate from each country you have resided in over the last two years, plus a declaración responsable covering the last five. Arrange the certificate 6–8 weeks ahead (90-day validity from issue).

Step 5 — Purchase private health insurance

Check first whether you need one at all: this document is not required where you will affiliate to Spanish Social Security once the authorization is granted. If you do need it, UGE names four disqualifying policy types outright — travel insurance, reimbursement-only cover, policies with co-payments, and policies with waiting periods — and requires coverage comparable to the Sistema Nacional de Salud. A full-coverage policy from an authorized insurer in Spain (Sanitas, Adeslas, DKV, Mapfre, Cigna Spain) usually costs €50–120/month depending on age and coverage.

Step 6 — Submit the MI-T form to UGE on the sede electrónica

The application form is the MI-T (Formulario MIT), the common model UGE uses for Ley 14/2013 authorizations, signed by the teleworker. Upload it with the documents below at sede.inclusion.gob.es, identifying yourself with a DNI electrónico, an electronic certificate or Cl@ve. UGE issues an acknowledgment of receipt immediately.

Two practical notes from UGE's own instructions. It asks you to "adjuntar un escrito explicativo de la documentación presentada, especialmente cuando no se ajuste exactamente a lo solicitado" — a short cover note mapping each file to the requirement it satisfies, which is free to write and speeds up review. And it warns that additional documents can be demanded at any point if what you filed is not considered sufficient.

The official document list

This is UGE's published list for an initial international-teleworker application, not a compiled best-guess:

• MI-T application form, signed and completed.
• Full passport copy — every page, of a valid passport or travel document.
• Proof of paid tasa 790/038.
• At least three months of work or professional relationship with the foreign company as of the application date, proved by the employment or professional contract. Waived if you already hold a teleworker visa or a prior initial authorization.
• At least one year of real, continuous activity by the foreign company, from its commercial-register certificate or the equivalent in its home country.
• Income evidence — payslips or invoices for the three months before the application, plus a bank certificate in the applicant's name, stamped or signed by the bank, covering the same three months, with the movements that correspond to those payslips or invoices marked separately.
• Letter from the foreign company authorizing the work from Spain (contents below).
• Curriculum vitae, with a simple translation if it is not in Spanish.
• Degree or three years' equivalent experience related to the role. Regulated professions require homologation, or a notarized declaration that you will not practise the profession in Spain.
• Social Security documentation (see below).
• Criminal-record certificate from each country of residence over the last two years, and a declaración responsable stating you have no record in countries of residence over the last five.
• Health insurance, public or private — unless you will join Spanish Social Security (see below).

Employer letter — what UGE actually requires it to say

The company letter is the document most often rewritten after a defect notice, because applicants send a generic employment-verification letter that omits the specific elements the law names. UGE requires it to authorize remote work from Spain and establish the role, and it lists the components: the profile of the post, its main functions, an express declaration that the work can be performed by telematic means, the salary to be received in euros, and the remaining conditions of the remote arrangement. A usable skeleton:

[Company letterhead — date, city]

To the Unidad de Grandes Empresas y Colectivos Estratégicos (UGE-CE), Ministerio de Inclusión, Seguridad Social y Migraciones.

[Company legal name], registered in [country] under [registry number] and trading continuously since [date], certifies that [full name, passport number] has been engaged with this company since [start date, at least three months before the application] as [job title].

Main functions: [3–6 concrete duties].

Telematic performance: the company expressly declares that these functions can be carried out entirely by computer, telematic and telecommunications means, and authorizes [name] to perform them remotely from Spain, with no work centre of this company in Spain.

Remuneration: [gross amount] euros per [month/year], paid [frequency] to the account held by the employee.

Other conditions: [contract duration, working hours, place-of-work clause].

Signed, [name, position, contact details].

If you are a autónomo societario — the sole owner of your company, or holding effective control of it — remote-work authorization is implicit and you do not need to write yourself permission, but the letter must still carry the other elements. That route also adds four documents: proof of ownership or effective control, the company's most recent corporate tax return, evidence of investment in productive assets, and a social-security report from the home country listing the company's registered employees.

The Social Security step most guides omit

The regime follows the relationship you proved: an employee joins the Régimen General, a freelancer joins RETA. Employees face an easily-missed prerequisite — the foreign employer must itself be registered with Spanish Social Security as a company with no work centres in Spain, filed alongside a commitment to register the teleworker under the Régimen General once the permit is granted and before work in Spain begins. That is an action for your employer, not for you, so raise it early.

The alternative is to stay in your home country's system where a bilateral or international social-security instrument allows it. That requires a certificate of applicable legislation from the home authority, expressly stating that it covers remote work performed from Spain — UGE does not accept a mere application for that certificate. This route also has a money consequence in both directions: it exempts you from Spanish Social Security registration, but if the instrument does not carry a right to Spanish public healthcare you must then produce qualifying private insurance. Conversely, applicants who will join Spanish Social Security do not need to buy a private policy at all — worth checking before paying for one.

Step 7 — Wait for the decision, then claim positive silence if it lapses

UGE's clock is 20 working days. If no decision is notified within the legal deadline the outcome is positive, but it is not automatic paperwork: the sede states that the interested party "podrá solicitar resolución de la concesión por silencio" — you may request the resolution granting it by silence. Diarize the deadline and file that request; nobody will send it to you. In practice most decisions arrive in 10–20 business days; some go up to 35 in peak periods.

Step 8 — Obtain the TIE card

After approval, schedule a biometrics appointment at the foreigner's office to receive the Tarjeta de Identidad de Extranjero (TIE) — the physical residence-permit card. Expect 30–60 days to receive the card after biometrics.

Step 9 — Register with social security and file Beckham Law election

Register with Seguridad Social (or present an A1 certificate from your home country within EU). If electing the Beckham Law regime, file Form 149 within 6 months of social-security registration.

Option B — From abroad via consulate

• Book an appointment at the Spanish consulate covering your country of legal residence.
• Submit the same documents as the UGE route, adapted to consular format.
• Receive a 12-month national visa (single-entry); travel to Spain within its validity.
• Within 30 days of arrival, schedule TIE biometrics at the foreigner's office.
• After roughly 12 months, convert to the 3-year residence permit from Spain.

The consular route is preferred by applicants who want to travel to Spain already holding a visa, or whose home-country consulate is particularly fast (Miami, New York, and some UK offices process in 30–45 days).

Realistic timelines

Common reasons for rejection

• Employer operational history under 1 year. Recurring failure mode for freelancers who registered a business recently to qualify.
• Spanish-client share over 20%. Easier to hit than it seems if you relocate mid-year and Spanish clients grow unnoticed.
• Insurance policy with co-pays or exclusions. Travel policies and US expat-style insurance typically fail the "full coverage" test.
• Generic employer letter. The commonest curable defect: a standard employment-verification letter that omits the express telematic-work declaration or states salary in a currency other than euros.
• Bank certificate that does not tie to the payslips. UGE wants the specific movements matching each payslip or invoice marked separately, not a plain balance statement.
• Employer not registered with Spanish Social Security. An employee-route application filed before the foreign company completes its own registration as a company without work centres in Spain.
• Foreign degree lacking homologation. For applicants relying on academic qualification rather than 3+ years of professional experience — and, for regulated professions, without the notarized declaration of non-practice.

Sources

• UGE-CE — Solicitudes iniciales de autorización para teletrabajadores de carácter internacional (Secretaría de Estado de Migraciones, D. G. de Gestión Migratoria) — the MI-T form, tasa 790/038, the full document list, the Art. 74ter company-letter elements, the 200%/75%/25% SMI income scale, the Régimen General / RETA and certificate-of-applicable-legislation rules, the insurance exclusions, and the two-year/five-year criminal-record split; retrieved 2026-08-06.
• UGE-CE — Solicitudes — the rule that all Ley 14/2013 applications and follow-up filings go through the Ministry of Inclusión's sede electrónica; retrieved 2026-08-06.
• Sede electrónica — Presentación de solicitudes de autorización de residencia de movilidad internacional — the filing portal, the DNIe / electronic certificate / Cl@ve identification methods, who files for the teleworker category, and the request-for-positive-silence wording; retrieved 2026-08-06.
• Sede electrónica — Autorizaciones de trabajo y residencia (Tasa 038) — electronic completion and payment of modelo 790; retrieved 2026-08-06.
• Real Decreto 126/2026, de 18 de febrero (BOE) — the 2026 SMI the income floor is indexed to; retrieved 2026-08-06.

Last verified: 2026-08-06 against UGE-CE's own filing rules and its official documentation sheet for initial international-teleworker applications.