Spain's Non-Lucrative Visa from Iran

Who this route suits, and who it does not

The non-lucrative residence authorises you to live in Spain without carrying out any work or professional activity there. It suits you if:

• you have savings, rental income, dividends or a pension that can support you and your family;
• you can show where that money came from, with documents, and show that it is genuinely available to you;
• you intend to live in Spain for most of the year.

It is not the right route if you plan to keep working, even remotely, or if your wealth cannot yet be documented. In the first case the international telework route may fit better; in the second, the honest advice is usually to build the evidence first and apply later. We would rather tell you that at the first consultation than file a case we do not believe in.

At a glance

• Where you apply: the Embassy of Spain in Tehran, competent for the whole of Iran, with BLS in Tehran as its visa centre partner.
• Means, 2026: €28,800 a year (€2,400 a month) for the main applicant, plus €7,200 a year (€600 a month) for each family member.
• Documents: no Apostille. Sworn translation into Spanish, Iranian Ministry of Justice, Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, then the Spanish Embassy.
• Permit: one year initially, then renewals of two years each; long-term residence after five years of continuous legal residence.
• Work: not permitted under this authorisation.

The means are 400% and 100% of the IPREM, which has remained at €600 a month since 2023. They are confirmed on the filing date.

The Embassy in Tehran in 2026: what we know

The consular section of the Embassy of Spain in Tehran is competent for the whole of Iran. Its visa centre partner is BLS, at the Shiraz Building on Khaled Islamboli, and BLS lists a non-working residence visa among its services. The embassy's page does not state where the non-lucrative application itself is lodged, so we confirm this before booking.

The operating picture has changed several times, and we set it out as dated facts:

• 26 June 2025: the embassy announced that visa processing continued to be interrupted.
• January and April 2026: Spain's Ministry of Foreign Affairs advised against all travel to Iran; the April advice referred to closed airspace, with land exits via Türkiye, Armenia and Azerbaijan.
• 6 July 2026: an embassy notice on legalisations referred to applicants holding BLS visa appointments.
• July and August 2026: BLS notices indicate that visa intake was operating.

We have not found an official notice confirming a full return to normal national-visa processing. Before any appointment we check the current position directly, and we plan timelines on the assumption that conditions can change at short notice.

The financial threshold

The regulation asks for monthly means of 400% of the IPREM for the main applicant and 100% of the IPREM for each family member. In 2026 that is €2,400 a month for the main applicant and €600 a month per dependant, or €28,800 and €7,200 a year. A married couple with two children therefore needs to evidence at least €50,400 a year.

Three points matter particularly for Iranian applicants:

• These are minimums. Consulates may apply their own calculation method, so we build files with a margin.
• The thresholds are in euros. Where wealth is held in rial, its euro value can move substantially between preparing and lodging a file. A comfortable margin is, in our view, the only sensible protection.
• Availability counts as much as the amount. The file must show that the money can actually support you in Spain, not only that it exists.

Traceable funds: the evidential bar

This is where files from Iran succeed or fail, and it deserves plain words. A case officer is not only checking that a balance exceeds the threshold. They are asking whether the funds are genuinely yours, where they came from, and whether they will be available throughout your residence. A balance that appears shortly before the appointment and matches the minimum almost exactly invites exactly the questions you do not want.

A strong file from Iran usually shows:

• History: statements covering a meaningful period, in our experience at least six months, showing the funds held consistently.
• Origin: documents explaining how the money was generated: a property sale contract, lease agreements and title deeds for rental income, company documents and dividend records, pension statements.
• Movement: where money has moved from Iran to an account abroad, or passed through several accounts or intermediaries, each step documented so the path can be followed from origin to the account presented.
• Consistency: names, amounts and dates that agree across every document and every translation.

If some links in that chain are missing, it is usually better to rebuild them before filing than to explain them afterwards. The same trail will be asked for again when you open a Spanish bank account, because Spanish banks must understand the origin of funds under anti-money-laundering rules. Our guide to building a source-of-funds chain from the Middle East goes into this in detail.

Legalising Iranian documents: four steps

Iran is not a party to the Hague Apostille Convention. The Embassy of Spain in Tehran states that it only legalises documents that have been translated into Spanish by a sworn translator on its published list and previously legalised by the Iranian Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In practice:

1. sworn translation into Spanish by a translator on the embassy's list;
2. legalisation by the Iranian Ministry of Justice;
3. legalisation by the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs;
4. legalisation by the Embassy of Spain in Tehran, by prior appointment requested by email.

According to the embassy's July 2026 notice, its fee is €5 per document with a maximum of five documents per appointment. A family file with marriage and birth certificates, criminal records and income documents can easily exceed five documents, so appointments need to be planned in sequence. In our experience this chain, not the consular decision, sets the timetable of an Iranian file.

Criminal records, insurance and the rest of the file

• Criminal record: a certificate from every country where you have lived in the last five years. Inside Iran, the certificate of no criminal record is typically requested at a Police+10 service centre or through the Sana online system; it then passes through the legalisation chain above.
• Health insurance: public or private insurance with an insurer authorised to operate in Spain, covering all the risks of the Spanish public system. Many consulates also require no co-payments, deductibles or waiting periods; travel policies are a classic cause of refusal.
• Proof of residence in Iran, as the embassy only admits applications from residents of its district.
• Application form and fee: the national visa form, form EX-01, and the government fee (form 790, code 052).

Families

A spouse and minor children can normally apply together with the main applicant, and some consulates also accept dependent adult children; each family member adds €7,200 a year to the required means. Every Iranian civil document for the family goes through the same four-step chain, which is another reason to plan embassy appointments early.

After approval: visa, residence card and renewals

The official information sheet gives the mission one month to resolve a complete application. After notification you collect the visa in person within one month and must enter Spain within its validity, at most three months. Once in Spain you apply for your residence card (TIE) within one month.

The first authorisation lasts one year. Renewals are for two years each and require more than 183 days of real residence in Spain in the calendar year, continuing means, insurance and a clean record. They are filed within the two months before expiry, and can still be filed up to three months after, although late filing may be penalised. After five years of continuous legal residence you can apply for long-term residence. Our renewal and TIE service handles each step.

If the non-lucrative route does not fit

Two situations come up often. If you work remotely for companies outside Spain, the telework route is designed for you; see our digital nomad guide for Iranian professionals and our digital nomad visa service. If you hold legal residence outside Iran, in the UAE, Türkiye, Armenia or Iraq for example, you apply to the Spanish mission of that country, with your Iranian documents still following the chain above; our guide for UAE residents covers the most common case.

How Parastoo Legal Group works on files from Iran

We are a Madrid-based immigration and global mobility firm with more than 400 approved residencies and a 93% approval rate. Our Persian-speaking case managers work with clients in Iran by video call or phone, and the first consultation is free.

• An honest first assessment of whether your funds and their evidence meet the bar today, or what needs building first.
• A document plan that sequences translations, ministry legalisations and embassy appointments, with the embassy's current status checked before any date is fixed.
• A short cover memo for the case officer, summarising the family, the funds and how their origin is evidenced.
• Continuity in Spain: our non-lucrative residency service includes 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.