Spain Killed Its Golden Visa: What Investors Do Now

0:00Spain reportedly issued 14,576 golden visas and received millions and foreign direct investment. Then, they shut the program down for good in 2025. My name is Christopher Victoria. In this video, I'll show you which Spanish residency paths survived the shutdown. And the program others like Near Exploring now that the door I walk through this place. Let's start with what Spain built. Because that scale explains everything that happened after. Spain launched its golden visa in 2013 in the depths of a financial crisis to attract foreign capital into a struggling economy. The offer was simple. Invest at least 500,000 euros into Spanish real estate and you received Spanish residency for yourself and your family with visa-free movement across the shangan area and no obligation to relocate. And investors said yes. Over 12 years, Spain reportedly issued 14,576 golden visas and 95% of those allegedly came through the real estate route.

1:03Chinese nationals with the largest applicant group, followed by Russians, with British and Latin American buyers climbing steadily in the final years. In 2023, the program's biggest year, Spain reportedly approved 3,273 visas in 12 months along. That success became the program's biggest problem. Housing costs in Madrid and Barcelona rose sharply through the 2020s and many blame golden visa buyers who purchased homes worth more than 500,000 euros in the country's most in demand areas. The government announced its intention to end the program in 2024, framing it as a housing affordability measure. The European Commission also had spent years already encouraging member states to wind down investor residency programs. For perspective, golden visa purchases accounted for under 1%, just barely 0.3% of Spain's residential transactions. A detailed critics of the man pointed out repeatedly. The politics won anyway.

2:04On April 3, 2025, the shutdown took effect. Every investment route was eliminated all at once. Real estate, public debt, company shares, bank deposits, all of it. Investors approved before the deadline, myself included, can renew under the original rules. The program is closed to new applicants altogether, so Spain closed the door on investment-based residency. What it didn't do is close the door to residency altogether. If your goal is Spain itself, two paths deserve your attention and both reflect a different philosophy than the golden visa. No capital required, but a commitment to residing there. The first is the non-locative visa. Spain's independent means route. It is designed for people who can support themselves without working in Spain. Retires, investors with dividend or rental income, anyone with sufficient savings already. And the financial bar is pretty modest. For 2026, you have to show funds equal to about 400% of Spain's

3:07Iprim benchmark, which works out to about 28,800 euros for the year. Plus another 7,200 euros for every additional family member. No investment, no donation, just prove that you don't need a Spanish paycheck. The structure rewards patients. Your first permit covers one year. Renewals then come in two year blocks thereafter. And each renewal requires shilling double the amount of funds, specifically 57,600 euros to cover the longer period. Spend more than 183 days per year in the country, and your own track for permanent residency at the five-year mark. That presence threshold also strongly hints towards the being a Spanish tax resident, which is the trade-off plan that you need to sort out before you end, not after. Citizenship follows at the 10-year mark for most nationalities. And if you're from an Ibera American country or a former Spanish colony, that weight drops to just two years, one of the fastest unnaturalization routes anywhere in Europe. The second path is the digital no-med visa.

4:09Created under Spain's startup act and operational since 2023. It's for remote employees and freelancers, earning from companies outside of Spain. The 2026 income threshold is 2849 euros per month, tied to 200% of Spain's own minimum wage. And at least 80% of your income must come from non-spanaged sources. You'll also need a university degree, or at least three years, a professional experience. Plus a work relationship with your employer or clients, going back at least three months. Two features make this visa much more attractive than most of its European rivals. Self-employed applicants can take up to 20% of their income for Spanish clients. And qualifying new residents can even opt in to Spain's Beckham law, a flat 24% tax regime for Spanish-shourced income up to 600,000 euros, instead of Spain's own progressive tax rates. Notice the shift. Spain moved from granting residency for capital to granting residency for income and talent. Both paths lead to a Spanish address,

5:11but neither works for the investor who wants European status without relocating. Our clients ask about that profile more than any other, and for those clients, the answer moved one country to the east. Italy has offered an investor visa since 2017. A program that IMI has a factually nicknamed Leto Chivisa. And it has absorbed much of the demand that Spain left behind. The structure differs significantly from Spain's in one fundamental way. Best summarized in four words. Visa first, invest after. In Spain, you deployed your capital and then you applied, similar to other European programs. Italy reverses that order. The process starts online with a government pre-approval called a Nulo Asta. Effectively, a certificate of no embediment. No money moves at this stage. Once approved, you have six months to request your visa at your nearest Italian consulate. And you complete the investment only after entering Italy.

6:12Within three months of arrival, your capital faces zero program risk before your approval is secured. The permit gives you the right to reside, work, or study in Italy, plus visa-free movement, though not settlement across the rest of the Schengen region. And this is a feature that gets investors attention. Italy imposes no minimum stay requirement. It is the only Italian residence permit that renews without a single mandatory day spent in the country. You can build a base in Milan if you wish, or you can visit twice a year, and the permit renews either way, as long as your investment is maintained. Four investment routes qualify. The lowest threshold is 250,000 euros invested in an Italian innovative startup. A category of early-stage companies registered under Italian law. This is the most popular route by volume, though sometimes comes with perceived higher risk of the fall. At five of the thousand euros, you can also buy shares or corporate bonds

7:14of an established Italian company. The middle path, most investors and advisors point towards conservative clients. A donation of one million euros to a project of public interest qualifies as well. And lastly, at the very top, two million euros in Italian government bonds is the lowest risk route for those prioritizing capital preservation over returns. Whichever path you choose, the initial visa is valid for two years. Renewal thereafter comes in three-year increments. Requested at least 60 days before your current permit expires. Provided that your investment is in place throughout this period. To be fair, cheaper passive residency options do exist in Europe. For instance, Greece's Golden Visa has much lower entry tiers. But no other European program pairs approval before investment with zero physical presence obligations. Now, the fine print that separates the permit from the passport. Permanent residency requires five years of physical residence,

8:17which Italy interprets as jointed 70 days of physical stay in the country per year. Naturalization requires 10 years as a physically present resident, plus language and integration requirements. So the no-o-minimum stay rule protects your permit, but not your citizenship route. That flexibility applies to the residence card. The passport or citizenship requires your commitment. The market has noticed. Sources project a net inflow of 3600 millionaires into Italy in 2026 alone. Ranking at the third largest wealth destination on the planet and number one in Europe. For comparison, the United Kingdom by contrast is projected to lose 16,500 millionaires per year over the same period. The largest upflow ever recorded for a single country. Italy's poll goes beyond the visa. New residents can access a flat tax rate of 300,000 euros per year on all foreign-sourced income,

9:18regardless of how much they earn abroad for up to 15 years. Pair that regime with a residence permit that demands nothing from your calendar, and you can see why capital that once flow towards Spain is now flowing towards Italy across the Mediterranean. It's that same shift I emphasize at conferences and forums all around the world. Investors follow open doors. I watched Spain's window close from the inside. That experience is why I'm telling you about Italy's window while it's wide open. Because of Spain taught investors anything, it's that these programs always get more restrictive and more expensive. If you'd like to explore what's possible for you and your family, whether that means settling in Spain through its income-based visas or securing Italian residency through investment, my team at Oriens can advise you on both. You'll find the details in the description below. Thank you for watching.