Income Requirement for EU Registration in Spain in 2026

Three numbers, one question

Register in Spain as an EU citizen who is not working here, as a pensioner, a remote worker paid from abroad or someone living off savings, and the official across the desk will want to see that you can support yourself. The paperwork calls it medios económicos suficientes. Spain has never published a table for it, and the three figures in circulation come from three different places and disagree with each other. For the certificate itself, start with our page on EU residency in Spain.

Where the law actually points

The operative text is Orden PRE/1490/2012. Article 3.2.c) covers people not working in Spain and asks for two things: health insurance, and sufficient resources for you and your family so as not to become a burden on Spanish social assistance during your residence.

Then comes the benchmark, and this sentence decides everything. Holding resources above the amount fixed each year by the Ley de Presupuestos Generales del Estado for entitlement to a prestación no contributiva counts as sufficient proof, taking your personal and family situation into account. So the legal anchor is not IPREM. It is the non contributory pension, and that single distinction separates this page from most of what you will find elsewhere.

The 2026 non contributory pension figure

For 2026 the IMSERSO guide gives a full annual amount of 8.803,20 €, or 628,80 € a month across fourteen payments. The same guide sets household accumulation limits, which map onto the family adjustment the Orden requires:

• One person. 8.803,20 € a year.
• Two people. 14.965,44 € a year.
• Three people. 21.127,68 € a year.
• Four people. 27.289,92 € a year.

Each additional member adds 6.162,24 €. These move with every revalorisation, so treat them as 2026 numbers. Clear them and you have satisfied the highest of the three readings.

The number you will hear at the counter

In practice a great many Oficinas de Extranjería work from IPREM instead, which in 2026 is 600 € a month and 7.200 € a year over twelve payments. IPREM has sat at its 2023 level for a fourth consecutive year, because it only moves when a Ley de Presupuestos Generales del Estado sets it and the Presupuestos remain prorrogados. IPREM is the lower of the two, which is exactly why one applicant clears a desk in one province and another is turned away in the next.

The third number is a rule against numbers

Above both sits RD 240/2007 article 7.7, which says no fixed amount may be established, that the personal situation of the EU citizen must be taken into account, and that in any event the amount shall not exceed the level of resources below which social assistance is granted to Spaniards, or the amount of the minimum Social Security pension. That is a ceiling rather than a floor, and it forbids the tidy published table everyone wishes existed. Falling below the pension figure is a conversation rather than an automatic refusal, and a mortgage free home is part of your personal situation and can be evidenced.

Who does not have to show income at all

The Orden sets its requirements route by route, and the employed and self employed routes in articles 3.2.a) and 3.2.b) carry no separate means test and no separate insurance requirement. With a Spanish contract or an alta as autónomo, Social Security covers you and your work answers the means question. Students under article 3.2.d) need enrolment, insurance with full cover in Spain and a declaración responsable of sufficient resources, which is a signed statement rather than a bank balance.

Where this sits in the process

You apply in person at the Oficina de Extranjería of your province, or the corresponding Comisaría, on form EX-18, and RD 240/2007 article 7.5 gives you three months from entry. Resources may be proved by any means admitted in law, including property deeds, certified cheques and documentation of capital income. The tasa is 12,00 €, set as item 4.6 of the annex to Orden PJC/617/2025, whose article 1.3 ties the fee to what Spaniards pay for a DNI, and it is paid on Modelo 790, código 012. Clear the appointment and the certificate is handed to you immediately.

Our guide to registering in Spain covers the sequence, your NIE is assigned here if you do not hold one, and after five years the income test disappears entirely under permanent residency in Spain. Health cover is the other half of the test, covered on healthcare in Spain.