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Good practice Imported

Spain's Digital Nomad Visa — Rapid Uptake Under the 2023 Startup Law, Concentrated in Barcelona

Spain · Madrid · See the Spain profile · See the Madrid profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 93% 43/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Spain's 2023 Startup Law digital-nomad visa saw granted residence permits roughly double year-on-year, from 9,537 in 2023 to 19,771 in 2024, per the Ministry of Inclusion's migration observatory — with over 30% of recipients settling in Barcelona.

9,537 -> 19,771
Digital-nomad permits granted (2023-2024)
~6,401 (30%+)
2024 permits to Barcelona area
Spain's Digital Nomad Visa — Rapid Uptake Under the 2023 Startup Law, Concentrated in Barcelona

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Spain (Observatorio Permanente de la Inmigración)
Period
2023–2024
Region (NUTS)
ES30
Keywords
migration policy, digital nomad visas, startup ecosystem

Context

Spain's Ley de Startups (Startup Law), in force from January 2023, created a dedicated visa for remote workers employed by or contracting with companies based outside Spain. Applicants must show no more than 20% of freelance income comes from Spanish clients and meet an income threshold; successful applicants receive residence authorisation valid for one to three years with Schengen-area travel rights.

Results

Granted digital-nomad residence permits roughly doubled from 9,537 in 2023 to 19,771 in 2024; more than 30% of 2024 permits (around 6,401) went to people settling in the Barcelona area, nearly double the roughly 3,514 who chose Madrid.

Conclusions

The scheme's concentration in a handful of cities has become a point of public debate: Barcelona's outsized share of arrivals has been linked in Spanish media coverage to local concern over housing costs and neighbourhood change, a cautionary reminder that fast-growing talent-attraction visas can create uneven local pressure even as national uptake figures look like a success story.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k) — No published administrative-cost figure.
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years) — In force since January 2023, permits growing year-on-year.
Staffing & skills
Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration

Conditions for success

  • income threshold and 80%-foreign-income rule set via permanent national legislation

Common failure modes

  • concentration in Barcelona linked to local housing-cost and neighbourhood-change concerns

Where it fits

Governance type
national government
Scale
national
Income level
high-income

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

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