Entrepreneur Visa Spain: Requirements and How to Qualify

Spain’s entrepreneur visa lets non-EU founders live in Spain by launching a business ENISA rates as innovative or of special economic interest for Spain. The visa requires a favorable ENISA report and proof of sufficient funds, and can be filed from Spain or from a consulate abroad.

The route runs under Ley 14/2013, the Ley de Apoyo a los Emprendedores y su Internacionalizacion, and is decided by the Unidad de Grandes Empresas y Colectivos Estrategicos (UGE-CE), not by the provincial Oficina de Extranjeria that handles Spain’s general-regime work permits. Unlike the now-closed golden visa, this route sets no fixed investment minimum, according to UGE-CE’s published guidance. Advisors in Spain can coordinate the application through its immigration team.

What Is Spain’s Entrepreneur Visa?

You qualify for Spain’s entrepreneur visa if ENISA rates your business plan innovative or of special economic interest and issues a favorable report. The golden visa required a fixed investment; this route requires proof of sufficient funds and no set minimum.

The entrepreneur visa (visado de emprendedor) lets non-EU nationals live and work in Spain by starting, developing or managing a business Spain’s Unidad de Grandes Empresas y Colectivos Estrategicos (UGE-CE) rates as an “actividad emprendedora”: innovative or of special economic interest for Spain. It runs under Ley 14/2013 arts. 69-70, a separate legal track from Spain’s general work-and-residence regime, called Ley 14/2013 Titulo V in the statute. The initial authorization runs three years, renews for two-year periods, and permanent residence becomes available at five years.

This route is for founders whose business plan meets ENISA’s assessment factors. It is not the former investor route for buying property or other assets: Ley Organica 1/2025 closed the golden visa to new applicants on 3 April 2025. What’s the Difference compares the entrepreneur route with the self-employed and digital nomad visas.

Who Qualifies for the Entrepreneur Visa?

You qualify by putting forward a business plan ENISA finds innovative, while meeting a shared set of conditions every Titulo V applicant has to clear.

• A business plan ENISA rates as innovative or of special economic interest. Ley 14/2013 art. 70.2 weighs three factors: your professional profile and involvement in the project, the business plan itself (the project, product or service, its financing and funding sources), and the elements that add value to the Spanish economy, innovation or investment opportunities.
• A favorable, mandatory report from ENISA. UGE-CE requests it on your behalf once you file, and art. 70.1 gives ENISA ten business days to issue it.
• No fixed minimum investment. UGE-CE’s own published guidance on the entrepreneur route states directly, “No existen minimos de inversion ni de creacion de empleo”: there are no minimum levels of investment or job creation. This is the point most searchers arrive expecting a golden-visa-style euro threshold, and none exists on this route.
• Proof of sufficient economic resources. Ley 14/2013 art. 62.3.f requires resources sufficient for the applicant and any family members for the residence period. The lawyer handling your case can confirm what needs to be documented for your situation.
• Public or private health insurance from an insurer authorized to operate in Spain (art. 62.3.e).
• A clean criminal-record certificate. Art. 62.3.c requires no record in Spain or in any country you have lived in over the preceding two years, for conduct that is an offense under Spanish law, plus a signed responsible declaration covering the preceding five years. A certificate issued abroad needs an apostille and, where it is not already in Spanish, a sworn translation before UGE-CE will accept it (see Documents below).
• Not irregularly present in Spain, and over 18 (art. 62.3.a-b), and not on a relevant inadmissibility list (art. 62.3.d).
• Payment of the authorization or visa processing fee required by art. 62.3.g.

Should You Get Help With Your ENISA Business Plan Before You Apply?

A legal review can help when the plan does not yet address ENISA’s three named factors: the professional profile, the business plan and the project’s added value.

A plan that reads as generic, without a clear account of what makes it innovative or of special economic interest for Spain, is the kind of plan a reviewing lawyer catches before it reaches UGE-CE. That review does not guarantee ENISA’s finding either way. It means the plan and the supporting application get built against the actual statutory factors before you file, and a weak plan gets caught at that stage, before a refusal, not after one.

What Documents Do You Need for an Entrepreneur Visa Application?

Your entrepreneur visa filing needs the business plan itself, the ENISA report, and the standard Titulo V identity and eligibility documents.

• The business plan. Written to the three factors ENISA assesses: your role and profile, the project, product or service and its financing, and its added value to the Spanish economy.
• The ENISA report. UGE-CE requests this on your behalf once your application is filed; you do not submit it separately.
• A valid passport.
• Proof of sufficient economic resources for yourself and any dependents.
• A private or public health insurance certificate from an insurer authorized to operate in Spain.
• An apostilled, sworn-translated criminal-record certificate covering everywhere you have lived in the preceding two years, plus the signed five-year declaration. See getting a document apostilled and finding a sworn translator for those two steps.
• CV and qualifications evidence supporting your professional profile, since that is one of ENISA’s three named assessment factors.

How Do You Apply for the Entrepreneur Visa?

You apply by requesting the ENISA report, filing your business plan and supporting documents with UGE-CE, and completing registration once you are approved.

1. File your application electronically with UGE-CE, personally or through a legal representative. This is the whole filing if you already hold a valid stay or residence authorization in Spain.
2. The authorization and the visa are requested together where you are outside Spain, through a single filing that UGE-CE and the relevant consulate then process consecutively, according to Ley 14/2013 art. 69.1. You do not file two separate applications one after the other.
3. UGE-CE requests your ENISA report on your behalf and reviews your file against the art. 70.2 factors.
4. UGE-CE resolves the authorization; where a visa is also needed, the consulate resolves that stage separately.
5. Once approved, you complete post-approval registration in Spain: an NIE, a TIE, and empadronamiento at your local town hall.

The two filing channels, from inside Spain and from a consulate abroad, are not the same transaction with a different address. The authorization and visa move through one combined instance under art. 69.1 when you file from abroad, and they do not move as two separate sequential filings. See How Long Does the Entrepreneur Visa Take for the statutory decision periods.

What Disqualifies an Entrepreneur Visa Application?

A handful of gaps come up against the same standards the requirements above set out.

• A business plan ENISA does not rate as innovative or of special economic interest. This is the core test the whole application turns on.
• Insufficient or undocumented proof of funds. Art. 62.3.f requires resources sufficient for you and any dependents; unsupported or vague figures do not meet it.
• An incomplete application, missing one of the required supporting documents.
• A missing or unapostilled criminal-record certificate, where a certificate issued abroad has not gone through the apostille and translation steps UGE-CE requires.

How Long Does the Entrepreneur Visa Take?

It takes a maximum of 20 days for UGE-CE to resolve the authorization once you file electronically, according to Ley 14/2013 art. 76.1, and if UGE-CE misses that deadline the authorization is deemed granted by administrative silence, not denied.

That 20-day period is separate from ENISA’s own report, which art. 70.1 gives ENISA up to ten business days to issue, and from the visa stage where one is needed: art. 75.5 sets a separate ten-business-day maximum for the consulate to resolve the visa once the authorization is granted, unless the case is referred for a security consultation first. Appointment availability varies by consulate and caseload.

What’s the Difference Between the Entrepreneur Visa and Spain’s Other Visas?

The entrepreneur visa requires an ENISA-approved business plan and no fixed investment; Spain’s other routes into the country run on different tests and different authorities.

Unlike the now-closed golden visa, which set investment thresholds under Ley 14/2013 arts. 63-67 before Ley Organica 1/2025 emptied those articles of content on 3 April 2025, the entrepreneur visa asks for an innovation finding, not a minimum sum. The self-employed (autonomo) visa sits in a different legal track entirely, the general regime under Ley Organica 4/2000 and Real Decreto 1155/2024. The Oficina de Extranjeria decides that route, not UGE-CE, and it needs no ENISA finding. The digital nomad visa sits under Ley 14/2013’s separate teleworker chapter (arts. 74 bis to quinquies), a different set of articles from the entrepreneur route’s arts. 69-70, and it covers remote work. It does not require building a new Spain-based business. The non-lucrative visa runs in the general regime and grants residence without a work authorization at all.

Each route is decided under its own test. None of these routes’ eligibility standards transfer to another: qualifying for one does not qualify you for a different one.

How Much Does It Cost to Get Legal Help With an Entrepreneur Visa Application?

Legal fees vary by the work included. Ley 14/2013 art. 62.3.g also requires payment of the authorization or visa processing fee. Get a written quote that separates the legal work from the government fee.

Talk to an Immigration Lawyer About Your Entrepreneur Visa

Advisors in Spain handles your entrepreneur visa case, whether you are still drafting your business plan or ready to file with an ENISA report in hand.