Spain Visa from Iraq

At a glance

• Federal Iraq: the Embassy of Spain in Baghdad is competent for the whole of Iraq, with BLS International in Baghdad as its visa centre partner.
• Kurdistan Region: residents apply at the Embassy of Spain in Ankara, not Baghdad.
• Documents: no Apostille. Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs first, then the Embassy of Spain in Baghdad, then sworn translation into Spanish.
• Main routes: non-lucrative residence (€28,800 a year for the main applicant, €7,200 per family member) and the international telework visa (€2,849 a month for the main applicant).
• Iraqis in the Gulf: apply in the country where you legally reside, with an Iraqi chain and a local chain running in parallel.
• Iranians in Iraq: an Iraqi chain and an Iranian chain, neither of them Apostille.

Thresholds are tied to official indicators (the IPREM, at €600 a month since 2023, and the 2026 minimum wage set by RD 126/2026) and are confirmed on the filing date.

Which routes are realistic

Spain's investor residence route was abolished in April 2025, and buying property in Spain does not by itself give a right to reside. For Iraqi applicants, three routes do most of the work:

• Non-lucrative residence for families and individuals living on savings, rental income, dividends or pensions, without working in Spain. See our non-lucrative residency service.
• International telework visa for professionals working remotely for companies outside Spain, with at least three months in the role, an employer active for at least a year, and a degree or three years' experience. See our digital nomad visa service.
• Self-employment residence for those who intend to run a business in Spain, built on a business plan and a viability assessment. See our self-employment residency service.

The right choice depends on where your income comes from, and it should be settled before any document is legalised, because each route needs a different set.

Federal Iraq: the Embassy in Baghdad

The consular section of the Embassy of Spain in Baghdad is competent for the entire Iraqi territory; there is also an honorary consulate in Erbil. BLS International operates the visa centre in Baghdad and lists both the non-lucrative residence visa and the telework visa among its services.

One point is not settled on the official pages: the embassy's own page on where to lodge applications returned no information when we reviewed it, so whether national visas are physically lodged at BLS or at the embassy is not confirmed there. We confirm the lodging arrangements with the mission before every appointment.

Whichever office receives the file, you must prove that you reside in the mission's district. For the telework visa, the mission pages require legal residence in the country where you apply.

Kurdistan Region: your file goes to Ankara

This is the single most important jurisdiction fact for Iraqi applicants, and it is often missed. The Embassy of Spain in Baghdad states that residents of the Autonomous Region of Kurdistan must apply for their visa at the Embassy of Spain in Ankara. A family in Erbil, Sulaimaniyah or Duhok therefore prepares a file for the Turkish capital, not for Baghdad. How and where the application is physically lodged in Ankara is something we confirm with the embassy for each file.

Documents are the second question. Documents issued in the Kurdistan Region are authenticated for use abroad by the Kurdistan Regional Government's Department of Foreign Relations, and documents prepared by KRG bodies must first be approved by the KRG Ministry of Justice. What we have not found on any Spanish official source is whether the Embassy in Ankara accepts that KRG authentication on its own or also requires legalisation by the federal Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We therefore do not assume a route: we confirm it with the mission before any Kurdistan document enters the legalisation process, because starting down the wrong chain costs weeks.

Legalising Iraqi documents

For documents issued in federal Iraq, the chain published by the Embassy in Baghdad is:

1. legalisation by the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs;
2. legalisation by the Embassy of Spain in Baghdad, by appointment;
3. sworn translation into Spanish.

This applies to the criminal record certificate, marriage and birth certificates for family applications, and any other Iraqi public document the file relies on, including evidence of property or business income.

The criminal record certificate is the Non-Conviction Certificate issued by the Directorate of Criminal Evidences Investigations in Baghdad. According to the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it is available to Iraqis abroad and to Arabs and foreigners who have resided in Iraq, which matters for both Gulf-based Iraqis and Iranians who lived in Iraq. For residents of Kurdistan, which certificate the Ankara embassy expects, and through which chain, is part of the check described above.

Iraqis living in the Gulf

Many Iraqi families considering Spain live in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Kuwait City or Muscat. You apply to the Spanish mission for the country where you legally reside, and your residence permit there is a core document. No official page we have reviewed sets a minimum remaining validity for it, so we check a permit close to renewal with the mission before filing.

You will run two chains in parallel:

• Iraqi chain: Iraqi civil documents and, if you lived in Iraq during the last five years, the Non-Conviction Certificate, legalised by the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of Spain in Baghdad. In our experience it is the slower of the two, and it is often handled through a representative in Iraq.
• Local chain: the police clearance of your country of residence, through that country's route. The UAE and Kuwait are not Apostille countries (ministry of foreign affairs, then the Spanish embassy); Saudi Arabia and Oman issue Apostilles.

In the UAE, non-lucrative applications are lodged at the BLS centre in Dubai for the Embassy in Abu Dhabi; our guide for UAE residents sets out that route in full.

Iranian nationals living in Iraq

Iranians who have built careers and businesses in Baghdad, Basra, Najaf or Erbil apply from Iraq, as residents, and prove that residence with their Iraqi residence permit. Their files carry two chains, and neither is an Apostille:

• Iraqi documents (typically the Non-Conviction Certificate covering the years in Iraq): Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, then the Embassy of Spain in Baghdad, then sworn translation. For residents of Kurdistan, the Ankara jurisdiction and the open document question above apply.
• Iranian documents (birth and marriage certificates, and an Iranian criminal record certificate if you lived in Iran during the period required): the Embassy of Spain in Tehran only legalises documents translated into Spanish by a sworn translator on its list and previously legalised by the Iranian Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Iranian chain has to be run inside Iran, usually through a representative, and the Tehran embassy's visa services have operated under changing conditions since June 2025. We plan that step first and start both chains on the same day; running them one after the other is the most common way these files lose months. Our guide for applicants in Iran explains the Iranian chain in detail.

Funds and the source of funds

For the non-lucrative route the requirement is 400% of the IPREM for the main applicant and 100% of the IPREM for each family member: on 2026 figures, €2,400 a month (€28,800 a year) plus €600 a month (€7,200 a year) per dependant. A couple with two children plans on at least €50,400 a year. Consulates may apply their own calculation method, so we build files with a margin.

For the telework route the test is income from the remote work: €2,849 a month for the main applicant (200% of the 2026 minimum wage, annualised), plus €1,068 for the first family member and €356 for each additional one. We prepare files on this higher calculation.

In Iraqi files the difficulty is rarely the amount; it is the evidence. Wealth held in property, family businesses or cash has to be turned into documents a case officer can follow:

• bank statements showing funds held over time, not deposited just before the appointment;
• title deeds and tenancy agreements for rental income, legalised through the Iraqi chain;
• a documented trail wherever money has moved between Iraq, the Gulf and the account you present.

Spanish banks apply their own source-of-funds checks when you open an account, so the same trail serves twice. Our guide to building a source-of-funds chain from the Middle East shows what a complete one looks like.

Insurance, timeline and life after approval

The non-lucrative route requires public or private health insurance with an insurer authorised to operate in Spain, covering the risks of the Spanish public system; many consulates also require no co-payments or waiting periods. For the telework route, a consular application requires private insurance, while an application from inside Spain to the UGE-CE does not, because Social Security registration gives public cover.

The official information sheet gives the mission one month to resolve a complete non-lucrative application. You then collect the visa within one month, enter Spain within its validity (at most three months) and apply for your residence card within one month of arrival. The real timetable is set by the legalisation chains and appointment availability, which is why we start them first.

Non-lucrative renewals, every two years, require more than 183 days in Spain per calendar year. After five years of continuous legal residence you can apply for long-term residence.

How Parastoo Legal Group works on Iraqi files

We are a Madrid-based immigration and global mobility firm with more than 400 approved residencies, a 93% approval rate and a team of 15 working in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Spanish and English. Iraqi, Kurdish-region and Iranian clients in Iraq all work with us remotely.

• Free first consultation by video call or phone: route, competent mission (Baghdad, Ankara or your Gulf country) and which chains your file needs.
• One case manager who maps every document to its legalisation route before anything is ordered, and confirms the open points with the mission.
• A short cover memo to the case officer summarising the applicant, the route and the evidence of funds.
• Continuity in Spain: our non-lucrative and digital nomad services include filing, the fingerprint appointment and TIE, a Spanish bank account, family members' applications and the recurso de reposición if a refusal occurs. Sworn translations, legalisations and government fees are separate.