UKMS

Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere and buried deep but I cant see a clear answer anywhere.

If an individual applies and is granted a non lucrative visa, is there a minimum amount of time that you are legally required to spend in country after the visa is granted ?

Ronnyone

Once you have visa you have to apply for residency within a month. Once you have residency you need to spend 183 days a year in Spain and for the first 5 years you can only be absent for 10 months. Which basically means that you need to spend the majority of the year in spain which will become your primary centre of financial interest hence you also become a Spanish tax resident.

Notdunroamin

Implicit in applying for an NLV is that you want to live in Spain full time so save for short periods for say holidays etc. it's not unreasonable to be expected to do just that.

UKMS

Completely agree and I didn’t say I wouldn’t be …. Just trying to plan and get timings right and sorted when I decide to move and also trying to establish how long the Spanish embassy in UAE will take to process things, but that’s another topic .

Notdunroamin

I meant no criticism it's just that we've seen both here and elsewhere numerous instances of people thinking that they could somehow use the NLV as a workaround for the 90 day rule.

UKMS

Fully understood ! …. No that wasn’t my intention, I should have been a little clearer, I’m just looking at various options when we pack our bags out of the UAE particularly on the transition, but the 90/180 days is fine to cover that. As I mentioned it will be interesting to see how efficiently the embassy here deals with a UK citizens application for NLV when I eventually make it.