Changes to entry rules to Spain, higher financial requirements for Spain’s main visas, tens of thousands to get new residency documents and Spanish citizenship – there are lots of changes in store for foreigners in Spain next year.
If you’re planning on moving to Spain next year and you’re from a non-EU country, you will most likely need a visa to do so. If this is the case, you’ll want to be aware of changes happening with various visa rules and residency.
Similarly, there are changes for those already living here and thinking of getting Spanish nationality next year.
NLV financial requirements likely to stay the same
It’s good news for those planning on getting Spain’s Non-Lucrative Visa next year because the financial requirement will more than likely stay the same as this year. NLV holders must prove they have savings or passive income equal to 400 percent of the annual IPREM for the first year, which amounts to €28,800. Spain’s General State Budget Law, which includes deciding on the IPREM, was rejected in Congress for a third year in a row, meaning the amount will most likely stay the same.
READ ALSO: What Spain’s state budget rejection means for non-lucrative visa holders in 2026
DNV earnings threshold likely to increase due to minimum wage hike
If you’re applying for Spain’s Digital Nomad Visa next year, however, the financial requirement is likely to increase. This is because the amount you must earn is not linked to the IPREM, but instead to minimum wage. The Spanish government has indicated that the minimum wage will likely increase by the end of January, and although the exact amount hasn’t been decided upon – they are looking at raising it to €1,446.66 gross per month. As DNV holders must prove they earn 200 percent of this, it will boost the requirement to €2,893.32 per month instead of the current €2,763 per month.
READ ALSO: Spain mulls raising minimum wage to €1,446 per month in 2026
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Thousands to get Spanish citizenship through Grandchildren Law
Spain’s so-called “grandchildren’s law” allows children and grandchildren of Spaniards who lost or renounced their nationality after leaving for “political, ideological or belief-related reasons” to reclaim citizenship. The deadline to apply for this was October 2025, which means in the new year many more will likely be moving to Spain with their new nationality. Argentina alone accounted for about one million applications, and large numbers also came from Brazil, Cuba, Mexico, and Venezuela.
READ ALSO: How Spain has paved the way to citizenship for descendants of Franco-era exiles
Thousands of UK nationals to continue getting permanent TIE residency cards
2025 marked five years since Spain started issuing special Withdrawal Agreement (WA) TIE residency cards for UK nationals who had been Spanish residents before Brexit came into force.
Those initially issued with temporary WA TIEs in 2020 have been updating their non-EU residency cards to permanent WA TIEs since July 2025, and we can expect even more Brits who got their first TIEs in 2021 to apply for permanent cards in 2026.
The process has been marred by difficulties getting a prior appointment (appointment) for the card exchange in cities in Spain with high volumes of foreigners.
There are still 187,813 UK nationals who are holding onto their pre-Brexit green EU certificates as their main means of proving Spanish residency, even though they’ve been strongly advised by British and Spanish authorities to make the swap to a more durable and biometric TIE.
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More foreign residents in 2026?
New migration data has shown that the number of foreigners living in Spain with residency permits grew by 4.5 percent in 2025, reaching 7.4 million foreign residents.
In fact, applications for work and residency permits in Spain have surged by almost 50 percent following immigration reforms passed last year.
Spain’s economy is growing faster than that of any other EU countryand this is largely thanks to immigration.
That hasn’t prevented immigration from becoming an increasingly polarising issue here. However, a recent report highlighted that the country will need over 2 million workers in the next decade alone to ensure pensions and economic productivity, with the vast majority forecast to be foreigners.
After all, Spain has a rock bottom birth rate and an increasingly aged population, so immigration is the easiest solution to these problems.
ETIAS visa waiver to be introduced
The ETIAS visa-waiver scheme will most likely come to effect towards the end of 2026. While this is mostly for non-EU tourists and visitors, many people hoping to move here come as a tourist first and then apply for a visa or residency, such as those wanting to get the digital nomad visa. This means that ETIAS could affect them.
It will require travellers to go online in advance of their trip to Spain to fill in a form and pay a €20 fee in order to receive an ETIAS travel authorisation. Once purchased this will last three years (or until you get a new passport) and covers multiple trips.
READ ALSO – Travel to Spain: Your questions answered about EES and ETIAS
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Price of language test for Spanish citizenship to go up in 2026
If you’re wanting to apply for Spanish citizenship in 2026 because you’ve had legal residency for 10 years (or 2 years for those from Latin American countries and the Philippines), you’ll have to shell out a little more to take your exams. There are two you need to pass to become a Spanish national – the CCSE cultural exam and the DELE language exam. Next year the price for registration for the DELE A2 Spanish Nationality will increase from €134 to €138.
Spain may begrudgingly have to adopt tougher migration measures
There has been a clear shift to tougher migration rules across EU, yet Spain has been trying to attract more migrants instead to help support its ageing population and keep its economy booming.
This may have to change next year, however, as recently EU countries gave the green light to tighten the bloc’s immigration policy.
This includes endorsing the concept of setting up “return hubs” outside the 27-nation bloc for failed asylum-seekers.
Other changes suggested harsher penalties for migrants who refuse to leave European territory, including through longer periods of detention.
Spain and its Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has been a clear outliers this year in the EU, but if early general elections were to be called in 2026 rather than in 2027 and the conservative PP opposition won, there is every chance that the Spanish government will adopt less welcoming measures vis-à-vis migration.
READ ALSO: ‘Continued crackdown’ – How immigration laws could change in Europe in 2026
