The Spanish Golden Visa is an excellent tool for non EU residents to get automatic residency and free movement rights around the Schengen area of Europe. There are many countries that offer this type of visa for non EU nationals but the Spanish Golden Visa has many advantages over others and is well worth a look.
What Is Required to Get the Spanish Golden Visa?
The easiest and most normal way to get the Spanish Golden Visa is through the purchase of a property or properties over the minimum limit of 500,000 Euros. As stated you don’t have to do this in one fell swoop, you can buy various properties and spread your investment.
What Advantages Does The Spanish Golden Visa Have?
- It can be for one or various properties
- It can be anywhere in the country; it isn’t limited to one geographic area.
- There is no time limit of getting it. You can buy one property now and add that into your 500k investment further down the line.
- Previously bought properties can be included in the package. If you already have a property in Spain that can be used as a part of the investment.
- It allows the whole family unit to have free movement in the Schengen area of Europe. This is a big deal. Free movement throughout Europe allows you to enjoy living and working in Spain to its fullest extent.
- You have no obligation to be in the country at all, never mind half a year. Even if you don’t spend half the year in Spain, a requirement of a normal residency visa, you will not lose your Spanish Golden Visa
- You are allowed to live and more importantly, work in Spain.
- You can apply for all dependents to join you in the country. This includes children of course but also parents if you can prove they are dependent.
- You get to live in a place considered to have one of the best climates in the World and one of the most socially cohesive places.
- Politically the country is pretty solid.
- There is little or no chance of a Spanish Brexit. Support for membership of the EU has always been high in Spain, the developing disaster of the UK’s Brexit has solidified that support in Spain and throughout the rest of Europe.
Anyway, other countries also have the Golden Visa and some of them have better deals; lower amount of investment, the investment can include reform costs etc… One of Spain’s competitors in this field are our neighbors in Portugal.
Portugal has had over 8000 investors paying into the country to get the Golden Visa over the last few years. Over half of them came from China, with Brazilians being in second place but well behind, the language helps with this nationality of course. However, this week the rug was pulled out from under them. The Portuguese government has proposed that you will no longer be granted the Golden Visa for purchases in the Greater Lisbon, Porto and Algarve areas, the most popular with Golden Visa investors. They are trying to force the investment into interior areas of the country and the islands of the Azores and Madeira.
We have been working with clients for the Golden Visa since the project started in Spain. It got off to a slow start with just 81 people taking advantage of it in the first year. This was a time remember when it was 500k for each member of the family, nobody could work here still, children were an issue and a whole lot more problems. All of those issues were resolved after a few years of the scheme. It is now immensely popular with our North American, Eastern European, Asian, Australasian, South African and Middle Eastern clients.
We have a team of people working on your Golden Visa application through our associated lawyers, tax advisors, investment consultants and property finders. We have our first tour party looking for the Golden Visa coming to the Costa del Sol next weekend to explore the city and look for their own investments in the city.
If you are looking for your own Golden Visa for you and your family contact us and see how we can help you take the steps towards living and working in Spain and having free movement around the Schengen area.