Budgets by household typeArticle 11 of 13 · 2 min read
Budgeting for the PhD and researcher visa
Researchers and PhD students prove their means with a hosting agreement that states their funding, not with personal savings. This page is for non-EU doctoral candidates and researchers, so they don't apply student savings rules to themselves.
Key rules
- Means: You prove means through funding in your hosting agreement, not through savings.
- Student rules: Student savings rules do not apply to you as a researcher.
- Hosting centre: The centre that hosts you must be approved.
- Family: Researchers can bring family members.
Your funding is proved by a hosting agreement, not savings
If you come to Spain as a researcher or doctoral candidate, you do not show a savings balance. You show the funding that comes with your post. Student savings rules do not apply to you, so do not budget or prepare documents as if they did.
What proves your means
The key document is the convenio de acogida. You sign it with the hosting centre in Spain. It states the funding, grant or salary you will receive during your stay.
Any one of these can stand in for the savings requirement:
- an employment contract with the centre
- a scholarship or grant award
- a letter from your employer confirming your pay
Conditions to meet
- Approved centre. The hosting centre must be officially approved to host researchers. Ask the centre to confirm this before you sign.
- Right qualification. You need the qualification that fits the post. For a doctoral candidate this usually means the academic background the programme asks for.
- Non-EU applicants. This route is for non-EU researchers and doctoral candidates.
Family members
Researchers can bring family members. Ask the hosting centre and your Spanish consulate what each family member must show, because the family documents are separate from your hosting agreement.
Budgeting in practice
Your funding is your income, so plan around the amount in your agreement. Before you move, work out whether that amount covers rent, the deposit and your first weeks. Set-up costs come before your first payment, so keep some money available for them.
More in Budgets by household type
- First-year budget for a single person with a Spanish job
- First-year budget for a couple with two incomes
- Can one income support a couple's first year in Spain?
- First-year budget for a family with children
- First-year budget for a retiree on pension income
- Why a single or widowed retiree's budget does not halve
- What to do when your pension's first payment is late
- First-year budget for a remote worker paid from abroad
- First-year runway for a freelancer with irregular income
- How much money you need for a first year studying in Spain
- Budgeting an Erasmus or short exchange stay
- Budgeting a job-search or start-up period in Spain
Need certainty before you act?
For important relocation decisions, speak with a qualified human specialist.
Always verify important information with the relevant official authority or a qualified adviser before acting. This website uses large language models together with various public data sources, official government documents and other established sources. Due to the amount of data on this website, some information might be wrong. Information may also be incomplete or outdated.