Golden Visa Spain Alternatives: Which Visa Replaces It

Spain closed its Golden Visa real-estate route in April 2025, ending residency through property purchase. The same reform repealed every other investment route in the same legal chapter, so no non-property route survived it either. This guide sets out what closed and when, what an existing holder’s permit still allows, and which live routes, the Non-Lucrative Visa, the Digital Nomad Visa and several others, now carry the applicants who would have used it.

What Happened to Spain’s Golden Visa?

Spain closed its Golden Visa real-estate route in April 2025, ending residency through property purchase. Articles 63 to 67 of Ley 14/2013 were left without content from 3 April 2025, by disposicion final vigesimoprimera.1 of Ley Organica 1/2025, de 2 de enero.

Those five articles were the entire investor residence-visa chapter under Ley 14/2013’s Titulo V: the visa itself, how the investment was evidenced, the visa’s effects, the resulting residence authorization and its duration. Titulo V routes, including the Golden Visa, ran under a different administrator than most residence permits, the Unidad de Grandes Empresas y Colectivos Estrategicos (UGE-CE), not the ordinary Oficina de Extranjeria that decides general-regime cases. That distinction matters for the routes still open, covered below.

The closure targeted the whole chapter, not the property route alone. The next section covers what that means for every other investment type the chapter used to allow.

Which Visa Route Replaces the Golden Visa for You?

No single visa replaces the Golden Visa. The route that fits depends on your income source, your work plans and your timeline; a lawyer weighs those against your own paperwork, and a general guide cannot.

As a starting point for that conversation: an applicant living on income earned outside Spain, with no plan to work locally, typically looks first at the Non-Lucrative Visa. An applicant who works remotely for a foreign employer or foreign clients typically looks at the Digital Nomad Visa. An applicant bringing an active business plan to Spain typically looks at the Entrepreneur Visa. None of those is a rule; each route has its own eligibility conditions, and the right fit turns on the details of your case.

Are Any Investment-Based Visa Routes Still Open?

No. Before the 2025 repeal, Article 63 of Ley 14/2013, as rewritten by Ley 25/2015, defined “significant capital investment” as one of six options in that single article: the €500,000 real-estate purchase most applicants used, four further options from €1,000,000 to €2,000,000 in public debt, company shares, investment funds or bank deposits, and a general-interest business project. Those are historical, pre-2025 figures with no current legal effect: Ley Organica 1/2025 repealed Article 63 and the four articles implementing it together, and no investment type in that chapter kept a legal basis to grant residency after 3 April 2025.

Investing in Spain covers what an active investment can still do through a different residency route.

How Does the Non-Lucrative Visa Compare to the Former Golden Visa?

The Non-Lucrative Visa sits outside the chapter the 2025 reform repealed, so the closure did not touch it. Where the Golden Visa asked for a one-time capital investment, most commonly the €500,000 property purchase, the Non-Lucrative Visa asks for none: it is a different residence route that is built around the applicant’s own income, and it carries no stake in a Spanish asset. It was never part of Ley 14/2013’s investor chapter, so nothing in the 2025 reform changed its own rules.

The Non-Lucrative Visa page has the route’s income threshold and documentation list. A lawyer can confirm whether your own income sources meet the test before you apply.

How Does the Digital Nomad Visa Compare to the Former Golden Visa?

The Digital Nomad Visa sits in Articles 74 bis to 74 quinquies of Ley 14/2013, added by Ley 28/2022, which the repeal did not touch. It grants no residency for a capital stake of any size. It is built entirely around remote work for a business based outside Spain.

An employee-track applicant may work only for a foreign-based employer. A self-employed or professional-track applicant can take on Spain-based clients too, capped at 20% of total activity, so at least 80% still has to come from outside Spain. Every applicant must be a qualified professional: a university or vocational graduate, or someone with at least three years of relevant experience. The Digital Nomad Visa page carries the current income threshold and tax treatment.

What Other Visa Routes Should You Consider?

Beyond the Non-Lucrative and Digital Nomad visas, several other live routes can carry an applicant who no longer has the Golden Visa available. This guide names each one and links to where its current eligibility criteria are published.

• Entrepreneur Visa. A residence route for a founder bringing a business project to Spain. See the Entrepreneur Visa guide for the current qualifying criteria.
• Self-Employed (Autonomo) Visa. A residence route built around a freelance or independent professional activity carried out in Spain. See the Self-Employed Visa guide.
• Highly Qualified Professional Visa and EU Blue Card. Residence routes tied to a confirmed skilled job offer in Spain. See the Highly Qualified Professional Visa guide.
• Family Visa. A residence route for the family member of someone who already holds Spanish residency. See the Family Visa guide.
• Spain Work Visa. The standard employer-sponsored residence route. See the Spain Work Visa guide.

Each linked page covers that route’s income thresholds, timelines and work rights.

Which Visa Route Should You Choose?

No single route is universally “the” Golden Visa replacement. The right one turns on your income source, whether you plan to work in Spain, and how much of a timeline your case can carry, and a lawyer weighing your actual paperwork answers that better than a general comparison can.

The linked page for each route carries its own income, timeline and permanent-residency terms.

Talk to a Lawyer Who Can Assess Your Best Route

That is the normal outcome for a Golden Visa applicant if the table above did not put you cleanly in one row. Six live routes, each with its own conditions, rarely map onto one person’s situation without a professional read.

An immigration lawyer works through your income source, your work plans and your timeline against the current rules for each route, including whether you filed for or held a Golden Visa before the 3 April 2025 closure, since the transitional rules covered later on this page change which rules apply to you.

What Happens to Golden Visa Holders Who Already Have One?

It depends on when your visa or authorization was granted, and Spain’s transitional rules split existing holders into two cases. Both come from the same disposicion final that closed the chapter, disposicion final vigesimoprimera of Ley Organica 1/2025.

An applicant who had filed before the provision took effect may still receive the visa or authorization, decided under the rules in force on the date they filed. A holder whose visa or authorization was already valid on 3 April 2025 keeps that validity for the full term it was issued for, and a renewal filed after that date is decided under the rules in force on the date the original authorization was granted, not the rules in force at renewal time.

Ready to Find the Right Visa for Your Case?

We read your income source, your work plans and, where it applies, your Golden Visa filing or grant date, and tell you which of the live routes actually fits.