The digital nomad visa accepts two profiles: the employee working remotely for a foreign company, and the freelancer providing services to clients outside Spain. In summaries online they appear as two interchangeable tick-boxes on the same form. They are not. They call for different documents from different issuers, and one of them carries a ceiling worth knowing about before you move.
At a glance
| Employed | Freelance | |
|---|---|---|
| Relationship evidenced | Employment with one company | Professional relationship with one or more |
| Minimum seniority | 3 months with the company | 3 months with those clients |
| Continuity required | The company authorises remote work | The relationship will continue at least 1 year |
| Requirement on the company | Real, continuous activity ≥ 1 year | Same for the clients |
| Ceiling on Spanish income | Not applicable | Maximum 20% of activity |
| Typical documents | Contract, employer letter, authorisation letter | Service agreements, invoices, client letters |
| Number of translations | Few and predictable | As many as the clients you evidence |
Employed: fewer documents, but not yours
The employee's file is shorter and cleaner. You need to evidence three things: that the company exists and operates, that you have worked there for a while, and that it authorises you to do so from Spain.
- Real and continuous company activity for at least one year. This is a requirement about the company, not about you, and it is evidenced with corporate records from the country where it is incorporated.
- Minimum three months' seniority with that company.
- Express authorisation to work remotely from Spain, normally a signed company letter.
This has a consequence worth accepting from day one: the documents that decide your file are not issued by you. You depend on your company's legal department understanding what you are asking for and signing it. If the company has never had anyone working remotely from abroad, it can take weeks.
Practical advice: ask for that letter early, and ask with the wording already drafted. A letter saying "we authorise X to perform their duties from Spain", on headed paper, signed and dated, does the job. One saying "X is a valued employee" does nothing at all.
Freelance: more freedom, more paperwork
The freelancer has an obvious advantage — nobody else has to sign anything — and a matching disadvantage: they must build from several documents what the employee proves with one.
You must evidence a professional relationship with one or more companies not located in Spain, at least three months old, and that the relationship will continue for at least one year. That last part matters and is often overlooked: it is not enough to show you have invoiced, you must show you will keep invoicing. A contract with a stated term, or a client letter committing to continuity, is worth far more than a history of loose invoices.
And then there is the ceiling.
The 20% that defines the whole status
You can work for Spanish companies, but that work may not exceed 20% of your total professional activity.
The logic is sound: this is an international remote work visa, not a route into the Spanish labour market. If most of your billing came from Spain, you would be applying for the wrong authorisation.
In practice it is worth tracking before you apply and keeping tracked afterwards. A freelancer who arrives, settles in and starts picking up local clients can cross that threshold without noticing and meet the problem at renewal — the worst possible moment to discover it.
What gets translated in each case
All documentation in a foreign language is filed translated into Spanish by a translator accredited by the MAEC. The difference between the two profiles is not the what, it is the how much.
Employed, you usually translate three things: the contract or employer letter, the authorisation letter, and the corporate records evidencing the company's activity. These are short documents and the cost is predictable.
Freelance, you translate as many documents as you need clients to hold the file up. Two service agreements and two client letters are four translations. Still perfectly manageable, but better planned for at the start than at the end.
One point that applies to both: foreign corporate documents — the certificate of good standing, the register extract, the articles of association — usually need an apostille before translation. And the order is not negotiable: apostille first, translate second, because the apostille is part of the document and is translated with it.
A common case: being both
Plenty of people have a main job and some work of their own on the side. You do not have to invent a life you do not have: you evidence the profile you are applying under, with its documents, and declare the rest consistently.
What does not work is building a file that tells one story and filing documents that tell another. Consistency between what you declare, what you evidence and what you actually do is what gets looked at most closely. And in the long run it is the easiest thing to sustain: it only has to be true.
This guide reflects standard practice at the date of publication; your consulate's checklist and the UGE's criteria override any summary. Once you know which documents you will be filing, you can check the price of their sworn translation before ordering.