You may have missed it as there was something happening yesterday in the USA but the Spanish government has finally announced the method they will be using to end the Golden Visa and it will be January 2025 when it ends. After your election yesterday I know we are going to be busy here in Valencia in the next two months. We are already the number one realtor in Valencia for Americans and the number of people who have already visited to get their ducks in a row in case the worst happens is huge. And believe me the worst has just happened.
So those of you who know that you will be leaving behind the USA for a better more progressive place, whether that is Spain, Italy, France or even Afghanistan, which looks a bit more progressive than Project 2025 in the States, well, you have two months to get here and get a deposit down on a place and we can get you that Golden Visa. For those of you coming here without the Golden Visa on the other available visas then it's not so urgent but we know there are plenty of you waiting to make the move who will now be triggered to get here as soon as possible. To start with though for the most urgent cases, your route to the Golden Visa in Valencia is as follows. Below that we talk about other visa routes.
What You Need to Do
You need to get here because we need to do a few things with you. You'll need to open a bank account, get funds into it, apply for a NIE number, register with a currency company, find a property and place a deposit on it. We can do the first things on this list with you in one morning, though your funds may take a bit of time. Then we find you a property.
If you want a chat to talk about your options before coming over then feel free to apply for one of our initial client consultations.
How To Arrange Your Initial Meeting with Valencia Property
Simply put, contact us and ask for a chat. You can contact via mail, via whatsapp (0034 657994311), on any of our socials or even through smoke signals if directed in the right way. What we need is the following information:
- Your Full Name
- How you want the call, Whatsapp, Skype, Zoom, in person
- What you would like to discuss
- Best times and days for the chat (Timezone etc...)
Once we have the information we will contact you with details of the meeting and let's chat. It will likely be me, Graham, who contacts initially but depending on the information given then you may be put in contact with David, Paul, Gavin or Jess for the chat itself, especially if you are already in contact with one of them for your eventual property search.
The Process of Finding a Property
It's almost impossible now to find a property and complete before the cut off date for the Golden Visa so we have a method of making sure you get your application in with all required paperwork beforehand.
You need to place a deposit on a property and sign that deposit in front of a notary here in Spain. You will also need a certificate from your bank stating that you have the remaining funds in the account to to complete on the property. These two things along with the required documents for the Golden Visa application, you can see those here, can then be submitted for your application. You then have six months maximum to complete the purchase.
There's a quicker way of course but you need more money. One million Euros deposited in a Spanish Financial Institution (Bank) but it needs to remain there for the life of your Golden Visa and not many people have that much cash lying around when you still have to find a place to live.
Golden Visa Application In Resumen
- Come to Valencia now
- Hop on a plane and get here. We will fit you in
- Get a bank account opened
- We will take you to a bank to open an account where you can deposit your funds once transferred
- Sign up with a currency company
- You'll need to move your funds from the States to Spain and have them in a Spanish account (You can sign up here and get this bit ready even before coming over)
- Find a property
- You need to find a property of 500k or more
- Place a deposit
- You place a 10% deposit on the property in front of a notary. You will also require a certifcate from your bank showing that you have the remaining funds for completion in the account including for all costs associated with the purchase
- Go back to the States and pack.
For Those of You Leaving on Other Visas
If you want to live in Spain but don't have the funds for the Golden Visa or perhaps don't need it then there are plenty of other options. We have a detailed post about them here.
The two most popular are the Digital Nomad Visa and the Non-Lucrative visa. The former is for those needing to work, the latter for those in the lucky position of not having to work. There are others as detailed in the post above but we'll concentrate on these two here.
The Remote Worker or Digital Nomad Visa
Our podcast about the Digital Nomad Visa is below
The Remote Worker visa or Digital Nomad Visa is designed for people who can effectively work from any location in the World in their current employment. It requires those applying for it to satisfy the following requirements:
- You need to be a freelancer or a remote worker for an employer or employers.
- Less than 20% of your income should come from Spanish based companies (And it is important that it stays that way while you are here so keep pitching to companies outside Spain)
- You need to have been working for your current employer or for your clients for over three months.
- If you work for a company it must have been in existence for more than one year (Thus avoiding you setting up a shell company, paying yourself for three months then applying).
- You cannot have lived in Spain in the last five years before your application (Although you can apply for the visa from Spain during the 90 days you are allowed on a tourist visa or visit.
- You must have at least three years experience working at what you do or you must have a qualification that shows you can do the job you say you do from a recognised school or course (For example if you are an accountant you will need to show degree certificates or professional association memberships whereas a games developer is more likely to have to show experience)
- Obviously you must have a clean criminal record and not be living illegally in Spain when you apply. You will need to prove you haven't got a criminal record with a recent certificate from your home country.
It is important to note that you are not eligible for the Remote Worker Visa if you are a family member of an EU citizen, if spouses of EU citizens cannot apply in their own right as the EU citizen benefits from free movement and there is another easier route to follow.
The Non-Lucrative Visa
The non-lucrative visa, often referred to incorrectly as the retirement visa, is for those people who want to come and live in Spain and already have the means to live here through savings or monthly income without working. Of course this usually means that they have income from sources that are often pensions, thus it gets called the retirement visa, but it might also include investment income, dividends on shares and company ownership or other income from property ownership or passive income sources and also savings.
Most people do it with pensions or savings meaning they deposit a certain amount into a Spanish bank to show they have independent means to live in Spain or show their monthly income statements of their pensions. We have written about the requirements for the NLV previously so click through to this article to see what you need to provide (The article is specifically about Brits but is relevant to other non EU countries). The amount required has risen slightly since that article but is still around 2400 Euros per month for a single person and 600 euros for each family member extra (Numbers deliberately vague as by the time you read this they may change. This was checked in November 2024 but maybe think of adding 5% per year to those numbers if you are reading this in future years)
Valencia Property Will Help You
At Valencia Property we can help you find your perfect place here and we have all of the information, contacts and experience to make this move seamless. Our fully experienced team is ready to help you escape the situation in the United States and start a new, better life here in Valencia. Contact us by filling in the form below and make sure to put as much information as possible in the comments and we will get back to you as soon as possible and do our bit to get you out of that absolute madhouse. And look, I managed to get through the whole of this without mentioning the name of the Orange Sh*tgibbon.
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