Hi all. I’ve been lurking here for a bit now, reading up on posts and browsing the article sections. I wanted to create an account to ask for advice on a topic I haven’t really seen addressed:

As a US citizen who does fully remote development work what are the issues around getting a temporary residency visa when 100% of my income comes from outside of Spain?

I own a small US firm that does technology consulting, mostly “cloud development” work, which includes writing code for different clients. Fortunately I can do that from anywhere in the world. There are a lot of posts discussing how to find a job in Spain first, and then apply for residency, but I haven’t seen any (perhaps I just missed them?) talking about people who already have income from elsewhere and just want to live+work physically from Spain. My income level is more than enough to support the cost of living there, and in that I’m fortunate. I’m just tired of the political climate in the US, however, and so I’m looking to get away and move my family to the Madrid area. Every country comes with trade-offs,

An interesting side note: my wife is a citizen of a South American country who (because of her native country’s past affiliation with Spain) can obtain a permanent residency visa in 2 years, instead of the normal 10. So we should have that angle covered, but I’m still not sure how to approach the initial temporary residency aspect.

Also, for all those expats who have already gone through this process, any referrals to gestors or attorneys would be greatly appreciated. I will be in the Madrid area from Jan-March as well doing onsite research, so I could meet with referrals then.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Awesome. I was in a similar situation for a while in Spain. My solution? Don’t worry about it; live on a tourist visa for a couple of years. It’s a bit risky of course, and there’s lots of discussion on the forum here about those who have overstayed - a lot of worries but no first hand reports on having been deported. That your wife is a South American could be more of a problem however, as they’re singled out for higher risks of undocumented/illegal immigration.

Your best bet may be to start your own company and sponsor a work visa. I suggest talking to http://www.strongabogados.com about this as they do company formations and have some immigration lawyer connections. Another option would be a non-lucrative/retirement visa, but I’m a bit murkier on that one. As I understand you have to show a large pile of money in a bank account, the amount of which has been difficult to confirm. I’ve heard as little as 75k to as much as 250k. It could be more.

The Expatriator - 28 November 2010 11:35 PM

My solution? Don’t worry about it; live on a tourist visa for a couple of years. It’s a bit risky of course, and there’s lots of discussion on the forum here about those who have overstayed - a lot of worries but no first hand reports on having been deported.

Unfortunately, while doing the “overstaying the tourist visa” does seem to be common advice here, but it isn’t something I’m comfortable with pursuing. I will need to put my kids in private school, start a business (as you suggested), travel to different countries to meet with clients, execute contracts, etc.. all of which can be a bit difficult with an illegal status.

The business attorney recommendation does look interesting; I will definitely check that out. Thanks!

Can’t offer much assistance to your question, despite having kids, living in the Madrid area, and working in IT (java based) - but it’s this last point that’s sparked my interest - how about meeting up when you come over in January, I can fill you in about life in Madrid and you can tell me all about cloud computing?

jdcheesman - 15 December 2010 12:24 AM

Can’t offer much assistance to your question, despite having kids, living in the Madrid area, and working in IT (java based) - but it’s this last point that’s sparked my interest - how about meeting up when you come over in January, I can fill you in about life in Madrid and you can tell me all about cloud computing?

Sounds like a plan. I’ll PM you. 😊