Digital Nomads in Spain, is it feasible?

You are digital nomad, a person that can work remotely across all around the world, and you want to pass by Spain. What Spain can offer to digital nomads?

Recently, the Spanish government defined a new law “Ley 28/2022, de 21 de diciembre, de fomento del ecosistema de las empresas emergentes“, also called “StartUps Law”, which was formally approved recently.

After this law was approved, new initiatives came along from different regions within Spain to attract people from other countries that could get profit from that law. One of those initiatives is the initiative called “Nomad Asturias“, which claims to be “a digital nomad paradise“.

Source: Midjourney

I’ve born in this country and I’ve been working meanwhile living in different regions of the half-north of Spain, so I’m in a position to share some experiences with you, in case you are considering exercising your work as a digital nomad in Spain.

In today’s issue, I cover:

• Documentation/paperwork. What documentation is needed based on which country I’m coming from?

• Living. You need a place to live, to sleep. How easy is it to get a place? how expensive?

• Internet connection. You are a digital nomad, which means that most likely you will use the Internet to work. What do you need? What if you want to go into the rural area, outside of the big cities?

• Daily duties. Because not everything is work, you have life as well. Is the country ready for people who do not manage the Spanish language?

• Transportation. You are a nomad, which means you will move around from time to time. Does it work properly?

Let’s start with the use case. Let’s imagine we are talking about a Software Engineer (could apply to Engineer Managers, Tech Leads, etc) who earns around €65k (raw per year), does not travel by own car, and this person was born in a country that belongs to the European Union, to which Spain belongs too.

Documentation/Paperwork

If you have a passport from a country that belongs to the European Union, you do not need any extra documents. You don’t need a VISA.

However, if you stay for more than 3 months in a continuous manner, you will have to register in Spain as a resident. Please note the part of “continuous manner”, which means that you are staying in the country, without coming back to your home country, for 3 months or more. If this is your case, it means that you would have to go to the city hall, of the place you are living, and request a registry certificate (certificado de registro), which can be obtained by having 2 things:

• Your personal identification (passport, ID, etc)

• A work certificate from your company

I provide this link where you can follow a wizard to know more.

In case you are not a citizen of the European Union, with the new StartUps Law you could request a visa for Digital Nomads for a period of 1 year with the possibility of extending it for a maximum period of 3 years.

If this is your case, here you have the 2 important documents:

• https://prie.comercio.gob.es/en-us/Paginas/Teletrabajadores-caracter-internacional.aspx 

• https://sede.inclusion.gob.es/en/-/presentacion-solicitudes-autorizacion-residencia (Only Spanish version avaiable)

Note aside for the government and entities that are impulsing this kind of initiative: If you expect people from outside of the country, better you have documentation in other languages (at least, English).

Now that we have more clarity about the documentation required, let’s see how the living is doing.

Living

Let’s imagine that this person goes to Asturias, in the north of Spain.

The first thing you need as a digital nomad is to know where you are going to live. Whether in one place or multiple places. For searching for a home in Spain, I can recommend some internet portals to search for accommodation, such as Idealista or Fotocasa. I do not have stock options from those portals, but I’ve using them for a while, and I find them useful.

Let’s assume that, for a digital nomad, it’s ok to have an apartment with 2 bedrooms, kitchen, living room, bathroom, about 65 m2, and that it is already furnished. With a search like this, in the 3 main cities of Asturias, we get the following rent cost averages (I have used Idealista):

• Oviedo: €655

• Gijon: €620

• Aviles: €470

In the main cities, you can have a bit of trouble getting rentals that are not long-term. If you want to rent in those cities, the tenants are not going to let you rent for less than 3 or 6 months. Commonly, the minimum rental period is 1 year. However, in villages, and small towns, there is usually more flexibility in this regard.

It is true that, in areas far from these cities, and even more in towns that are far from the cities, the price is lower. Even you could get a house in rural areas, even with more square meters, and more space, by something like €350.

Internet connection

You are a digital nomad working as a software engineer for a company; you definitely need an internet connection.

You have a couple of options:

• Using your mobile phone is the straight option, especially if you are moving very often. If you come from the European Union, with some exceptions such as Switzerland and other countries, you can use the Internet connection that you have contracted in your country. We are talking about having a 4G connection. The 5G connectivity has not yet been deployed throughout all north of Spain yet. Find here a 5G connectivity coverage map. Even in Madrid’s city center, you could have problems if you set up your smartphone for using 5G only.

• Another possibility is, for the apartment where you are living, to sign an optic fiber line. You have operators like Simyo that give you 600MB of speed for €28 per month.

Make sure you have good Internet connectivity because working as a software engineer, if you don't have a good connection, your company could hinder your dream of being a digital nomad.

Personally, my experience with 4G in Spain is that it works well for video calls, such as Zoom but, if you also have to share your screen, you could experience some quality reduction. With 5G I've never tested it but, in theory, it should suffice for all use cases.

If you are really thinking of moving from one town to another, or from one city to another, in places like Asturias you will not have a problem with Internet coverage.

Daily duties

In all the cities in the north of Spain, such as Asturias, and also in its towns, you will have many facilities for everything that is food or hygiene, that is, the shopping cart will not be a problem.

The challenges that you can find in Spain in your daily routines, outside of work, are more related to the language. In cities like Madrid or Barcelona, using English, or even your native language, is a real possibility. In the principal cities of Asturias, it is less common than in Madrid or Barcelona, but it is also feasible. However, in the small villages of Spain, it is very rare that you find someone who speaks English, for example, in the bakery, grocery, etc.

This point is important for cases in which you have to do tasks such as signing an electricity contract, for the accommodation you are in (it depends on the deal you have with the owner of the apartment), go shopping, restaurant or bar, or even move on public transport. From my point of view, Spain, outside of Madrid and Barcelona, is still complicated for non-Spanish-speaking people.

Transportation

In our use case, we are assuming that you do not have your own car, so public transport is important to you. It is very important, when you are a digital nomad, to have quick access to public transport that can take you to your company’s headquarters if needed, or back to your home country.

In the particular case of Asturias, cities like Oviedo, Avilés, and Gijón, there is no problem moving around within the city. However, if you plan to travel to towns or villages that are a little further from these principal cities, it’s not so simple, because you would need a car, otherwise, you would have to rely on buses, which are quite slow (making many stops on their trip) in these cases.

Are you up to the challenge?

I, personally, was a digital nomad in the northern half of Spain for a few months. I can tell you my experience was not as bucolic/romantic as the typical images that are shared with Digital Nomad articles, like the one I added to the top of this issue.

From my experience, something important to take into account is the stress that you can get because of having to change your accommodation every often. This is something important to keep in mind when considering the possibility of becoming a digital nomad, even for a while.

In my case, every Sunday I had to search for my next accommodation. That did suppose to me an extra load of stress, because I was not sure where I was going to end up, nor the quality of the accommodation that I was going to get. The longer you stay in a place, the lower will be your stress.

Takeaways

Let’s summarize the most important aspects that have been dealt with in this issue.

• The first step is to be clear that you really like moving from one accommodation to another. The choice of accommodation will make a difference.

• Choice of your Internet connection. If you do not need a high speed, or you do not have internet access in your accommodation, using your smartphone connectivity may be enough for you. Ideally, use a fiber connection provided by the accommodation you are staying at.

• The language challenge is another very important point. In major cities, you will have a better chance of finding people who speak English or even your native language. In the towns or villages of Spain, it is almost impossible.

• You need to have quick access to transportation, so you have the ability to easily move around the region in which you are.