Spain Family Reunification Visa: Bringing Your Family to Spain

At a glance

• Non-lucrative (NLV): family members can apply together with the main applicant. Means: €28,800 a year for the main applicant plus €7,200 a year per family member (400% of IPREM, and one full IPREM per family member, at €600 a month).
• Digital nomad (DNV): family members may apply jointly and simultaneously, or later (article 62.4 of Ley 14/2013). Means for 2026: €2,849 a month for the main applicant, plus €1,068 for the first family member and €356 for each additional one.
• Family reunification: for holders of permits under the general regime, such as self-employment. The sponsor must have resided in Spain for at least one year and have applied to renew.
• Reunification decision: within two months; no answer means refusal.
• Reunification permit renewals: four years.
• RD 316/2026: its changes on adult children and parents concern families of Spanish nationals, not reunification by foreign residents.

Together at the start, or joining later

The most useful decision a family makes is when each member applies. On the non-lucrative route and the digital nomad route, family members can apply with the main applicant. The family moves on one timetable, the children can start school in the same term, and nobody waits a year for a separate procedure.

Family reunification (reagrupación familiar) is a different, later procedure. It applies when the main applicant holds a permit that does not let the family apply alongside, such as self-employment residence. It carries a waiting period, its own means test, a housing requirement and negative silence.

For most families in the Gulf, the practical conclusion is to decide how the family will come before the main applicant files, not after.

Families on the non-lucrative route

Spanish consulates accept family applications together with the main applicant. Published consular checklists, such as those of Melbourne and Edinburgh, list the family members who may accompany: spouse or partner, minor children and dependent adult children, and at some missions dependent parents. Practice varies between missions, and some have their own filing rules; Casablanca, for example, lets only one of the applicants present a family's applications. We confirm the position with the mission that has jurisdiction for every file.

The means test adds one full IPREM (€600 a month) for each family member. For 2026:

• Couple: €28,800 + €7,200 = €36,000 a year
• Couple with two children: €28,800 + (3 × €7,200) = €50,400 a year
• Couple with two children and a dependent parent: €57,600 a year

Each family member needs health insurance with an insurer authorised to operate in Spain, and the funds should be traceable. Where household money is split between spouses, currencies and countries, the file should present one coherent financial picture rather than separate, overlapping ones.

Families on the digital nomad route

Article 62.4 of Ley 14/2013 allows these family members of a teleworker to apply "jointly and simultaneously, or successively":

• spouse or partner;
• minor children;
• adult children who are dependent and have not formed their own family unit;
• dependent parents.

The means test is graduated. For a teleworker in Dubai with a spouse and two children, the 2026 monthly figure is €2,849 + €1,068 + €356 + €356 = €4,629. These figures use the annual minimum wage divided over twelve months, the more conservative calculation; the method each authority applies is confirmed at filing.

Because there is no waiting period, a family can also stagger its applications. The teleworker obtains the authorisation first and the family follows at the end of the school year in the Gulf.

Documents for each family member

Every family member is an applicant in their own right, and each relationship is proved with a document from the country that issued it. The usual core is:

• a marriage certificate for a spouse, or evidence of the partnership;
• birth certificates for the children;
• for dependent adult children and parents, evidence of dependency, typically regular support from the main applicant over time;
• proof of legal residence in the consular district for each person applying there;
• health insurance for each person.

The legalisation route follows the issuing country, not where you live. The UAE, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon and Iran require consular legalisation; Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain and Armenia use the Apostille. The Embassy of Spain in Tehran legalises only documents already legalised by Iran's Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and translated by a sworn translator on its list.

Families often need two chains. An Iranian couple married in Shiraz whose children were born in Dubai will have an Iranian marriage certificate on the Iranian route and Emirati birth certificates on the UAE route: UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, then the Embassy of Spain in Abu Dhabi. A Lebanese family in Riyadh may combine Lebanese civil documents, legalised through Lebanon's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants and the Embassy of Spain in Beirut, with Saudi documents carrying an Apostille.

Dependent parents and adult children

These are the family members who raise the most questions, and the rules differ by route:

• Digital nomad: dependent parents, and dependent adult children who have not formed their own family, are expressly included in article 62.4.
• Non-lucrative: practice varies by consulate. Some published lists include dependent adult children and dependent parents; confirm the position with the mission with jurisdiction before filing. We check this for every file.
• Reunification: parents must be over 65 and dependent, with younger parents admitted only on humanitarian grounds. Children over 18 qualify only with a disability or if they cannot support themselves.

Dependency is a question of evidence. A widowed mother in Tabriz supported by her son in Abu Dhabi should be able to show that support over time, through regular transfers rather than a single payment before the application.

Family reunification after one year

Holders of self-employment (cuenta propia) residence and other permits under the general regime bring their family through reunification, under articles 65 to 68 of RD 1155/2024 (renewal under article 71):

• Timing: the sponsor has resided in Spain for at least one year and has applied to renew for at least another year. Long-term residents are exempt from this wait.
• Eligible family: spouse or partner over 18; children under 18, or older with a disability or unable to support themselves; dependent first-degree ascendants over 65; and an adult child acting as carer of a dependent sponsor.
• Means: 150% of IPREM for a two-person household (€900 a month on the current IPREM of €600), plus 50% (€300 a month) for each additional member, with a reduced requirement where there are minors.
• Housing: adequate accommodation for the family.
• Health insurance for every family member.
• Decision: within two months, and silence means refusal.

For a Turkish entrepreneur who moves first to open a business in Valencia, the realistic plan is a year apart, or a year of frequent travel. That is why the choice of route should weigh family timing as heavily as the business case. Our self-employment residency guide covers the route itself.

What RD 316/2026 changed, and what it did not

Royal Decree 316/2026, in force since 16 April 2026, has been widely described as opening Spain to adult children and parents. That is only partly accurate. The relevant change is to article 97 of RD 1155/2024, which concerns families of Spanish nationals: adult children over 18 and first-degree ascendants of Spanish citizens may now apply from within Spain on the same terms as other family members.

It did not modify the reunification rules for foreign residents (articles 65 to 71), nor the non-lucrative rules. If you are an Iranian, Lebanese, Turkish or Iraqi national holding Spanish residence, your parents' position is governed by the rules above, not by the April 2026 reform.

Planning a family move from the Gulf

• Residence of each applicant. Each family member applying at a mission must be legally resident in its district. If anyone's Emirates residence visa or iqama is close to expiry, the sequence needs planning.
• School calendars. Applying together only helps if the family is ready to move together; otherwise the digital nomad option to apply later may be the better tool.
• Renewal thinking. Each family member's permit will need renewing, and on the non-lucrative route the presence test (more than 183 days in Spain in the calendar year) is assessed at renewal. A family that plans to keep the children at school in Dubai should raise that before filing. Our route comparison can help.

How Parastoo Legal Group handles family files

Parastoo Legal Group is a Madrid-based immigration and global mobility firm with more than 400 approved residencies and a 93% approval rate. On the non-lucrative and digital nomad routes, applications for family members are part of our service, prepared alongside the main applicant's file so that funds, insurance and documents tell one consistent story.

Your case manager maps every document to its issuing country and legalisation route at the outset, which is where family files most often lose time, and each submission goes with a short cover memo for the case officer setting out who is applying and on what basis. We work in Persian, Arabic, Turkish, Spanish and English, by video call or phone, and the first consultation is free.