Spain · Business & founder
Entrepreneur Residence Visa (Article 70, Law 14/2013)
Open
Last verified July 2026
Open and unaffected by the Golden Visa abolition. It sits in a different part of Law 14/2013 and was strengthened by the Startups Law (Law 28/2022). This is the route Spain wants investors to use.
With the Golden Visa gone, this is the only Spanish route that still accepts capital as its premise. But it inverts the deal. Spain no longer sells residency for money. It grants residency for a business it judges innovative. The absence of a capital minimum is not generosity. It means the discretion sits entirely with ENISA and cannot be bought.
Qualifying routes
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Innovative and scalable business project
No statutory minimum capital. Eligibility turns entirely on a favourable ENISA report assessing innovation and scalability.
The facts
- Total landed cost
- EUR 10–40k in legal, business-plan and structuring costs, plus whatever the business genuinely requires. The ENISA report is the gate, not the cheque.
- Route type
- Business & founder
- Timeline
- 3–9 months (ENISA evaluation typically takes 4–8 weeks. The UGE-CE decision follows within 20 working days, with positive administrative silence.)
- Physical presence
- Substantive. You are expected to run the business from Spain.
- Family
- Spouse or unmarried partnerDependent childrenDependent ascendants
- Permanent residency
- 5 years
- Citizenship
- 10 years (2 for Ibero-American, Andorran, Filipino, Equatorial Guinean, Portuguese nationals and Sephardic Jews)
- Language test
- DELE A2 plus the CCSE test
- Dual citizenship
- Not permitted. You would have to renounce.
- Requirements
- favourable ENISA report certifying innovative and scalable entrepreneurial activitydetailed business plan with financial projections and job creationsufficient funds to support the applicant and familyclean criminal record for the last 5 yearshealth insuranceprofessional profile relevant to the project
What can go wrong
- The ENISA favourable report is an absolute prerequisite. No report, no visa, no exceptions. It is a substantive assessment of innovation and scalability, not a formality, and rejections are common.
- A serious ENISA submission is a 20–40 page business plan with financials, market analysis and team. Recycled templates fail.
- There is no capital minimum, which means there is no way to compensate for a weak project with a bigger cheque. This route cannot be bought.
- A holding company, property vehicle or passive investment structure will not pass. The requirement that the project be innovative and scalable is enforced in practice.
- Full Spanish tax residency follows, with wealth tax and Solidarity Tax exposure unless Beckham applies.