Family Reunification in Spain

As with Portugal, Spain's family reunification process (reagrupación familiar) is distinct from including a spouse as a dependent on your own Digital Nomad Visa or Non-Lucrative Visa application — see the site's Family & Spousal Visas overview for the general distinction between these two paths.

Confirmed: the sponsoring partner needs at least 1 year of legal Spanish residency (with renewal in process or completed) before filing. Income is benchmarked at 150% of Spain's IPREM — roughly €900/month as of 2026 — plus 50% of IPREM (about €300/month) per additional family member, alongside a housing adequacy report certified by the local municipality or autonomous community. Since Royal Decree 1155/2024 took effect on May 20, 2025, reunified family members aged 16 and over now receive automatic work authorization with their residence card — a real, confirmed improvement over the prior rules, which required a separate work permit application.

As in Portugal, this route generally takes longer than a joint original application, since the sponsor's own status has to be established and stable first — if both partners can qualify together from the start (one on a visa, the other as an included dependent), that's generally the faster path where it's available.

Unmarried registered partners can qualify alongside married spouses under Spain's framework, though as with most European systems, proving a genuine, long-standing relationship (rather than a marriage or partnership of convenience) is confirmed as a real area of scrutiny — expect to document the relationship's genuineness specifically, not just its legal registration.