In what order should you commit to moving to Spain?

Key rules

• Order: Commit in order of how costly each step is to undo, and leave the home sale, shipping, long lease and job exit for last.
• Resigning: Never resign before your approval is in writing, and on a digital nomad visa do not resign at all.
• Entry window: A granted visa must be used within three months of issue, and the window cannot be extended.
• After arrival: Apply for the TIE within one month of entering Spain.

The order in one line

Do the cheap, reversible things first. Leave the costly, hard-to-undo ones until your visa and your evidence are in hand. From cheapest to costliest to undo, the order is: research and cash, visa and documents, flexible bookings, a Spanish lease, shipping, selling a home, and leaving your job.

Rung 1: Build evidence and cash

Start by confirming three things: how much cash you can live on, which visa route fits you, and a target move date. These cost almost nothing and everything else depends on them. Many routes, such as non-lucrative and digital nomad, ask for proof of funds or ongoing remote work when you apply. Spending that money or quitting that job early can sink the application.

Rung 2: Visa and documents

Pay visa and document legalisation fees only when your route and papers are settled. These fees are generally not refunded if you change your mind, but they are small next to what comes later.

Then wait. Long-stay visa decisions are legally due within about one to three months, depending on the route. In practice, expect several weeks to a few months, and it varies by consulate. Do not make a costly commitment while the decision is pending. Keep to bookings you can cancel.

Rung 3: Dates and the entry window

Once the visa is granted, you must enter Spain within its entry window. It is normally three months from issue, and it cannot be extended. Fix your move date inside that window. If the date slips or the visa is delayed or refused, rebook flexible tickets and cancel cancellable housing.

Rung 4: Spanish lease

Sign a lease only when your visa decision and entry date are known. Undoing a lease costs you at least part of the deposit and often some rent. Where you can, choose a lease with an early exit, or start with a short stay.

Rung 5: Shipping

Ship household goods only once your move date is fixed inside the entry window. Cancelling a shipment costs you the booking fees and sometimes the full price. Send only what you need. Furniture is rarely worth the freight.

Rung 6: Selling a home abroad

If you own a home and need the sale money for proof of funds or for the move, sell once your route is chosen and your visa is secure. A sale is very hard to reverse, and a refused visa would leave you with cash but nowhere to live. If you do not need the money, there is no rush.

Rung 7: Leaving your job

This comes last. Resign only after your approval is in writing and your last day is agreed, because voluntary resignation generally gives no unemployment benefit and cannot be reversed. Before you set the date, check notice periods, final pay, accrued leave, health cover and pension. Unemployment benefits usually stop when you leave the country.

If your visa is a digital nomad visa, your employment relationship has to continue, so do not resign at all.

What waits until after you arrive

Once you are in Spain, you must apply for the foreigner ID card (TIE) within one month. You give fingerprints at the police station. You also register at the town hall (empadronamiento) and keep the permit's conditions, such as minimum stays and proof of means. Spending more than 183 days a year in Spain generally makes you a Spanish tax resident, so plan your tax position before your first full year.

How to use the tools below

The decision tool tells you which commitment to take next. The step lists show the order and what to confirm at each gate. The tracker lets you tick off your visa, housing, employer and health-cover status against your move date. The planner builds a sequence for your own situation.

Which commitment should you take on next?

Which commitment should you take on next?

• Gather more evidence first: Your visa or route outcome, your move date or your employer's approval is not yet in writing. Do not add a commitment just because the last one went smoothly.

• Take a cancellable step: Your evidence is partly in place and undoing the step costs little: flexible tickets, short-term or cancellable housing, or a prepaid phone plan with no minimum commitment.

• Take a costly-to-undo step: Your approval is in writing, your date sits inside the entry window, and the cash left after the step still covers your route's income requirement. This covers a lease, shipping, a home sale or resigning.

• Hold off and build cash: The cash you would have left is below what your route asks for. For the non-lucrative visa that is 400% of IPREM per year for the main applicant, about 28,800 euros in 2025 terms, plus 100% for each family member. IPREM is the public income indicator the government sets each year.

Move to the next commitment only when three things hold: the evidence for it is in hand, you can afford to lose what it costs to undo, and your cash after paying still covers your route's requirement. Momentum, or having already booked something, is not a reason.

Income figures are revised every year, so check the current amount for your route with the consulate handling your application.

Order of costly-to-undo steps and what to confirm first

• Confirm your cash runway, your route and a target move date before taking any costly step: before you start

• Pay visa and document legalisation fees only once your route and documents are settled. These fees are not refunded if you withdraw or are refused: first costly step, after your route is chosen

• Sign a Spanish lease only when your visa decision and entry date are known. Undoing it costs a deposit, often an agency fee and the notice terms, set out in the article on the cost of undoing each step: after the visa is approved in writing

• Ship household goods only once your move date is fixed inside the entry window. Undoing a shipment costs the carrier's cancellation terms and storage: after the visa is granted and the date is fixed

• If you own a home abroad and need the sale money for proof of funds or the move, sell once your route is chosen and take tax advice in both countries. If you do not need the money, keep the home until your route and date are certain, because a sale brings transaction costs and possibly capital gains tax and cannot be undone: at the decision point on your home

• Leave these for after arrival: registering at the town hall (padrón), social security, the health card (tarjeta sanitaria), a Spanish bank account, school enrolment and a driving licence exchange, generally within six months for non-EU licences. Apply for the foreigner ID card (TIE) within one month of arrival. Your visa, any health insurance your route needs and criminal record certificates must be ready before you leave: after you arrive

• If a fact you relied on changes after a step, such as a delayed or refused visa, rebook flexible tickets, ask the landlord to move the start date or use a break clause, and extend your home-country notice or storage. If the visa expires unused, apply again; short-term lodging can bridge the gap and an employer or school may agree a later start: if a gating fact changes after you have committed

Departure gates and the order to commit

• Choose your route and list the gates it needs: visa, housing, employer approval, health cover and any child papers: before you start

• Get health cover and child papers ready. Proof is a private insurance certificate covering Spain with no co-payments, and an apostilled, translated birth certificate with parental consent and custody orders where relevant: while you prepare the visa application

• Wait for the visa decision before any costly commitment. Decisions are legally due within one to three months, though practice is several weeks to a few months. Proof is the visa sticker in your passport or the consulate's approval notice. While it is pending, book only flexible tickets and cancellable housing, and hold shipping, a home sale and resigning: from application until the decision

• Get employer approval, proved by the work authorisation from the immigration office (UGE) and your employment contract. Resign only after approval is in writing and your last day is agreed: after the route decision, before you resign

• Sign your lease or host arrangement, proved by the signed lease, deed or host's letter, then ship goods and fix tickets inside the entry window of three months from issue: after the visa is granted

• If the visa is granted, commit in the order above. If it is still pending, keep only cancellable bookings. If it is refused, stop shipping, the home sale and the lease, and ask the consulate about your options: at the decision point

• If the entry window passes or a gate stays open close to travel, rebook flexible tickets and housing; the visa sticker cannot be extended, so apply again at the consulate. Some routes can be processed inside Spain if you are already there legally, but a tourist generally cannot switch. Fees are not refunded on withdrawal or refusal: if you miss the window or a gate stays open near travel

Build your own commitment sequence

Your sequence works best when the commitments that are easiest to undo come first and the ones that lock you in come last. Write each commitment as a line, and don't move to the next until its checkpoint is a clear yes.

How to build it

1. List every commitment your household will make, from a short-term stay to a phone contract.
2. Put them in order, easiest to undo first.
3. Before each one, write three checkpoints:
   • Evidence: which document or confirmation you must hold before you commit.
   • Cash: how much you must pay, and whether you still have enough left afterwards.
   • Cancellability: whether you can walk away, by when, and at what cost.
4. If any checkpoint is a "no", stop. Fix it before you go further.

A typical order to start from

Adjust it to your household. Move a step up or down if your own checkpoints say so.

1. Entry on your visa. Evidence: the approved visa in your passport. Cash: travel and first-weeks costs. Cancellability: a flexible booking is best until the visa is in hand.
2. Short-term housing. Evidence: a written booking with the cancellation terms. Cash: only what you can lose. Cancellability: choose free cancellation.
3. Registering at the town hall (empadronamiento) and applying for the TIE. Evidence: your passport, visa and a proof of address. Cash: any fee for the card. Cancellability: not optional. The TIE application must be made within one month of arrival, so plan the appointment before you land.
4. Long-term rental. Evidence: a written contract you have read in full, plus proof of the landlord's identity and ownership. Cash: the deposit and first rent, with money still left for the other steps. Cancellability: check the exit terms in the contract before you sign.
5. Water, electricity and gas. Evidence: the address and contract details. Cash: usually low. Cancellability: the regulated electricity and gas tariff (PVPC) has no minimum term or exit penalty, and water contracts have no minimum term. Free-market offers may fix the price for a year, and some charge for leaving early, so ask before choosing.
6. Mobile, home phone and internet. Evidence: the minimum commitment (permanencia) written in the offer. Cash: any installation or handset cost. Cancellability: commitments commonly run 6 to 12 months, and up to 24 when a handset or installation is subsidised. Leaving early means a penalty, usually in proportion to the months left. Prepaid options carry no commitment, so use one until you are settled.
7. Tax registration and filings. Evidence: your TIE and your address. Cash: set aside money for any tax due. Cancellability: you cannot undo it. Spending more than 183 days a year in Spain generally makes you a tax resident, so track your days from the start.

Your own sequence

Copy this for each adult in the household, or once if you share every commitment.

Check it before you start

• Does any step with a penalty come before a step you can still undo? If so, swap them.
• Do you have enough cash after the deposit and first rent for everything below it on the list?
• Does anyone else in the household have a different visa or arrival date? Give them their own row for the TIE step, because their one-month deadline starts from their own entry.

Departure gate tracker

• Choose the outcome of your route decision: approved, still pending or refused

• Choose where your employer arrangement stands: approved in writing, approval pending, or not applicable

• Choose where your Spanish housing stands: signed and cancellable, signed and not cancellable, not yet signed, or staying with a host

• Enter your target move date and check it falls within three months of your visa being issued

• Choose how you will handle your timing: date fits the entry window, flexible tickets and cancellable housing in place, date moved, or applying again

• Check your visa is issued, shown by the sticker in your passport or the consulate's approval notice

• Check you hold proof of housing: a signed lease, a property deed or a host's letter

• Check you hold a private health insurance certificate covering Spain with no co-payments, if your route needs it

• Check any child's papers are ready: apostilled and translated birth certificate, parental consent and custody orders where relevant

• Hold shipping, a home sale and resigning until every gate above is cleared, and resign only once approval is in writing and your last day is agreed

Frequently asked questions

Should I resign before my digital nomad visa is approved?

No, do not resign at all if you apply for a digital nomad visa, because the employment relationship must continue for the visa to work. Other routes, such as the non-lucrative visa, ask for proof of funds when you apply, so resigning early can also weaken the application.

How long does a Spanish long-stay visa decision take?

A long-stay visa decision is legally due within about one to three months, depending on the route. In practice it often takes several weeks to a few months, and consulates differ. Some Startup Law routes are faster, while others can take longer, so plan your costly steps after the decision.

What do I have to do after I arrive in Spain on a visa?

Apply for your foreigner ID card (TIE) within one month and give your fingerprints at the police station. Then register at your town hall (empadronamiento) and file Spanish taxes. Keep meeting the permit's conditions, such as minimum stays and proof of means, and renew on time.