Spain pays up to 15,000 euros to digital nomads: how it works and what is open in 2026
The Extremadura scheme offering up to 15,000 euros to digital nomads closed applications in October 2025. Here is the 2026 status and which route is still open.
Spain pays up to 15,000 euros to digital nomads: how it works and what is open in 2026
The story is real, but it is out of date. Through decree 119/2024 of 17 September, the Junta de Extremadura created a scheme paying up to 15,000 euros to remote workers who move to the region. The application window for the first call ran from 9 October 2024 to 8 October 2025 and is now closed. As of August 2026 there is no record of a new call open to the public. What remains available is Spain's digital nomad visa, which requires income of roughly 2,849 euros per month in 2026 and was, in fact, a prerequisite for joining the Extremadura scheme.
If you landed here because of that 2024 headline, this article explains what the scheme was, why almost nobody who shared the news was eligible, and which path actually works today.
What the Extremadura scheme was
Extremadura sits in southwestern Spain, on the Portuguese border. It is one of the least populated regions in the country and faces continuous loss of population and services. The regional government's answer was to try importing people who work over the internet.
The incentive had two stages:
| Programme | What it requires | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Programme I | Establish residence and register (empadronamiento) in an Extremadura municipality and stay for 24 months | Between 8,000 and 10,000 euros |
| Programme II | Stay another 12 months beyond the mandatory 24 | Between 4,000 and 5,000 euros |
Adding both gets you to the 15,000 euros that became the headline. The higher end of each band applies to priority profiles, such as people under 30 and those choosing very small municipalities. The exact criteria are in the decree.
The initial budget was 2 million euros, targeting around 200 people. It was increased by 1 million euros in a publication in the Official Gazette of Extremadura on 4 August 2025, and received a further increase announced on 17 December 2025.
The requirements the headline left out
Here is why the scheme travelled so far and converted so little among international readers. To apply you had to:
- Not reside in Extremadura at the time of the request and in the previous six months.
- Register your official residence in a municipality of the region.
- Commit to staying registered for 24 uninterrupted months.
- Work remotely, exclusively through digital means, as an employee or as a self-employed worker.
- If employed, provide a certificate from the employer authorizing remote work from Extremadura.
- If self-employed, provide a memo describing how you organize your work, with which tools and which projects you will run from there.
- As a foreigner, hold an NIE, the foreigner identity number.
That last item is the real filter. Holding an NIE means already being legally settled in Spain. In practice, a foreign applicant had to obtain the Spanish digital nomad visa first, and only then compete for the regional grant. The money was never an invitation to enter the country. It was a relocation bonus for people who had already solved the hard part.
What the region actually looks like
For context on the incentive: a September 2024 report noted that the Ambroz Valley in Extremadura had one of the lowest per capita incomes in Spain and an unemployment rate of 17.6%, against a national average of 11.9%. The cost of living is far below that of major Spanish cities.
That is the core trade of the scheme. You receive money and pay less to live, in exchange for two years in a rural region, far from Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia, with fewer services and a smaller international community. For some people that is exactly what they are looking for. For others it becomes unsustainable after the third month.
What is open in 2026: the Spanish digital nomad visa
This is the path that still works, and it is national, not regional.
The international teleworking visa was created by Law 28/2022, the Startups Law, in force since 23 December 2022. It allows you to live in Spain while working remotely for companies based outside the country.
Main requirements in 2026:
| Item | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Main applicant income | 200% of the Spanish minimum wage, around 2,849 euros per month, roughly 34,188 euros per year |
| Additional per family member | Another 75% of the minimum wage for the first family member and 25% for each additional one |
| Qualification | Higher education degree or 3 years of experience in the role |
| Relationship | Employment or service relationship of at least 3 months |
| Contracting company | Based outside Spain, with at least 1 year of activity |
| Duration | Up to 1 year if requested at a consulate, or 3 years if applied for on Spanish soil |
The income floor rose in 2026 because Royal Decree 126/2026 of 18 February set the Spanish minimum wage at 1,221 euros per month across 14 payments, retroactive to 1 January 2026. In 2025 the amount required from the main applicant was close to 2,763 euros per month.
Three details that sink applications:
- A generic contract. Immigration lawyers report that a large share of refusals come from vague service agreements. The document must state explicitly that the work can be performed remotely from Spain.
- Owning the contracting company. The unit reviewing applications no longer accepts arrangements where the applicant is a partner or owner of the company issuing their own pay.
- Social security. If the employer's country has no bilateral agreement with Spain, you may need to register as self-employed there to keep the visa valid.
Always confirm on the Spanish government portal for international teleworkers before assembling your file. The figures change with every minimum wage revision.
Is it worth chasing regional schemes?
It is, but in the right order. Spain, Italy and Portugal run dozens of municipal and regional initiatives to repopulate rural areas, and they appear and vanish with the budget. The logic is always the same: first you secure the right to live in the country, then you compete for the local incentive.
Putting the incentive first is the mistake that costs people months. The same reasoning applies to comparing with the French visa landscape, where the route you pick defines everything that follows, or to checking how much Germany actually works from home before assuming Europe has remote jobs to spare.
The prerequisite nobody discusses: the remote contract
Notice what all these routes have in common. Extremadura required an employer certificate authorizing remote work. The Spanish visa requires a contract of at least three months with a company outside the country and proven income of 2,849 euros per month.
In other words, the bottleneck is not the country. It is having the contract.
And that is where most people stall, because competing for an international remote role means competing with candidates worldwide in processes that start with automated screening. Your resume is read first by software that extracts fields, indexes them and scores the document against the job description.
The mistakes that most often eliminate international candidates in this kind of process:
- A resume in your own language for a job described in English or Spanish. The system compares vocabulary, not potential.
- A two-column layout with icons and text boxes, which the parser reads out of order.
- A PDF exported as an image, with no text layer.
- Experience described by activity instead of result, without the terms the job uses.
- The same file sent to dozens of jobs with different descriptions.
The last one is the most expensive. The score is calculated against each specific posting, so a generic resume scores mediocre across all of them.
If you have never looked into this, start with why so many resumes disappear without a reply and then see how to tune your resume to each job description.
Where FoxApply comes in
FoxApply exists to solve that step. The platform reads the job description, compares it against your resume, shows which skills and terms are missing, and generates the version adapted for that application. The Chrome extension automates applications on LinkedIn Easy Apply, which lets you keep dozens of processes open at the same time.
For anyone aiming at Europe, this solves both sides of the problem. Volume, because international remote roles are competitive and you need many attempts. And quality, because every application arrives optimized for the filter that reads it first.
A realistic checklist
- Check the current status of the call on the Junta de Extremadura website before planning anything around it.
- Treat the regional incentive as a bonus, never as the main plan.
- Confirm whether your income clears the Spanish visa floor, currently around 2,849 euros per month.
- Check that your contract states in writing that the work can be done remotely from abroad.
- If you own the company that pays you, get legal advice before applying.
- Settle the social security question before assembling your file.
- If you do not have an international remote contract yet, that is step one, not the visa. Before that, understand the tax side of invoicing in dollars from Brazil.
- Convert your resume to a single column, real text, in the language of the posting.
- Rewrite the resume vocabulary with the exact terms of each description.
A 2024 headline about easy money in Spain gets shared, but what changes someone's life is the right order of steps. First the remote contract, then the visa, and only then the regional incentive, if there is still one.
Analyze your resume against a real job on FoxApply and find out your match score before your next application.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Extremadura scheme paying 15,000 euros still open? No. The application window for the first call of Programme I ran from 9 October 2024 to 8 October 2025. As of August 2026 there is no record of a new open call. Check with the Junta de Extremadura for updates.
How much did Extremadura pay each digital nomad? Between 8,000 and 10,000 euros under Programme I, for staying 24 months, and between 4,000 and 5,000 euros under Programme II, for another 12 months. The maximum total reaches 15,000 euros.
Could a non-EU applicant join the Extremadura scheme? Yes, provided they held an NIE, meaning legal status in Spain, had not lived in the region in the previous six months, and could prove authorization to work remotely from there.
What is the minimum income for the Spanish digital nomad visa in 2026? Around 2,849 euros per month, equivalent to 200% of the Spanish minimum wage, set at 1,221 euros per month across 14 payments by Royal Decree 126/2026. Add 75% of the minimum wage for the first family member and 25% for each additional one.
Do I need a degree for the Spanish digital nomad visa? A higher education degree or, alternatively, at least 3 years of professional experience in roles equivalent to those you will perform remotely.
Can I use my own company to prove the remote relationship? In practice, no. The unit responsible for the review no longer accepts cases where the applicant is a partner or owner of the company issuing their own pay.
Sources
- Junta de Extremadura, official page on the grants to attract digital nomads: juntaex.es
- Junta de Extremadura, budget increase for the grants, December 2025: juntaex.es
- SEXPE, conditions and deadlines for Programme I and Programme II: sexpeemplea.juntaex.es
- Official Gazette of Extremadura, decree 119/2024: doe.juntaex.es
- Spanish Ministry of Inclusion, international teleworkers: inclusion.gob.es