Spanish Residency from Saudi Arabia

At a glance: applying from the Kingdom in 2026

• Competent mission: the consular section of the Embassy of Spain in Riyadh, with jurisdiction over the whole Kingdom. There are honorary consulates in Jeddah and Al-Khobar/Dammam, but no career consulate.
• Visa centres: BLS International in Riyadh (Al Rashid Centre, Al Murabba) and Jeddah (Cenomi Haifa Mall). BLS lists both the Non-Lucrative and the Digital Nomad national visas.
• Legalisation: Saudi Arabia has been a party to the Apostille Convention since 7 December 2022. Saudi documents are apostilled; there is no embassy legalisation step.
• Criminal record: a police clearance certificate issued through Absher, available to citizens and residents.
• NLV funds (2026): €28,800 a year for the main applicant, plus €7,200 for each family member.
• DNV income (2026): €2,849 a month for the main applicant, plus €1,068 for the first family member and €356 for each additional one.
• Expatriates: a copy of your iqama and Absher information showing your status in the Kingdom.

Thresholds are tied to official indicators and are confirmed on the filing date.

Saudi nationals and iqama holders: same rules, different files

For a Saudi national, the file is largely a Saudi file. Civil documents, the police clearance certificate and bank evidence all come from the Kingdom and follow the apostille route. Like every non-EU national, a Saudi citizen needs a Spanish national visa to live in Spain for more than 90 days, whatever arrangements apply to short visits.

For an expatriate, the file has two halves. Saudi-issued documents, such as the iqama, the Saudi police clearance and a marriage registered in the Kingdom, take the apostille route. Documents from your country of nationality follow that country's rules, which for Iran, Lebanon and Iraq means consular legalisation. In practice, the home-country chain is usually the one that sets the timetable.

One route that no longer exists: Spain's investor residence programme, the so-called Golden Visa, was abolished in April 2025. Buying property in Spain does not, on its own, lead to residence. For most readers of this guide, the realistic options are the Non-Lucrative Residency and the Digital Nomad Visa.

Where you apply: Riyadh, Jeddah and the BLS centres

The Embassy of Spain in Riyadh is competent for all of Saudi Arabia, and it lists BLS International's centres in Riyadh and Jeddah as places to lodge visa applications. For the Digital Nomad Visa, the BLS checklist asks applicants to contact the embassy's consular section and to book through BLS. We confirm the booking channel for your visa type and city when we prepare the file.

The mission only accepts applications from people residing in its consular district, so you must be legally resident in the Kingdom when you file. For the NLV, the official procedure then runs as follows:

1. The application (form EX-01) is filed in person; the official period for a decision is one month.
2. A granted visa is collected in person within one month of notification.
3. You enter Spain within the visa's validity, which is at most three months.
4. You apply for your residence card (TIE) within one month of arrival.

The apostille route for Saudi documents

Before December 2022, Saudi documents destined for Spain needed the full consular legalisation chain. Since Saudi Arabia's accession to the Hague Apostille Convention took effect on 7 December 2022, a Saudi public document needs only an apostille. The BLS checklist directs applicants to the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs' online apostille service. Where the document is not in Spanish, a sworn translation follows.

This is a real advantage over Kuwait and the UAE, neither of which is an Apostille country. It does not remove the need for planning: each document must still be issued correctly and apostilled individually, and some older Spanish-language guidance still describes the pre-2022 chain. We confirm the current requirement for each document type before the file opens.

The criminal record: Absher, and every country you have lived in

The police clearance certificate is issued through Absher, the Ministry of Interior's platform, and is available to both citizens and residents. It is then apostilled like any other Saudi document.

The period it must cover depends on the visa:

• NLV: criminal record certificates from every country you have lived in during the last five years.
• DNV: the Riyadh mission's page asks for certificates covering the last two years, plus a signed declaration (declaración responsable) covering the previous five.

For expatriates who moved to the Kingdom recently, this is often the step that surprises them. An engineer who arrived in Riyadh from Dubai two years ago needs a UAE certificate for the NLV, legalised through the UAE's consular chain. One who came from Tehran needs an Iranian certificate, legalised through the Iranian route.

Iqama holders: your residence status is part of the file

For non-Saudi nationals, the BLS checklist asks for a copy of your iqama and for Absher information showing your status in the Kingdom, such as iqama validity, exit and re-entry, and family details. We have found no official minimum remaining validity for the iqama, and we do not quote one.

The practical risk is sequencing. Most iqamas are tied to an employer. If you plan to resign, change employer or transfer your family's status while the process is running, your residence in the consular district, and your access to Kingdom-based services such as the police certificate, may change with it. Settle the order of events, and obtain every Saudi document, before you give notice.

Second chains for Iranian, Lebanese, Turkish and Iraqi residents

Iranian residents. Iran is not an Apostille country, so an Iranian in Riyadh or Jeddah runs one fast chain and one slow one. The Embassy of Spain in Tehran legalises only documents translated by its listed sworn translators and previously legalised by Iran's Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Its consular section reported an interruption to visa processing in June 2025; notices from July and August 2026 point to activity, but full resumption has not been officially confirmed. We check the current position, and the practical route for someone living in the Kingdom, before you order documents.

Lebanese residents. Lebanese documents are legalised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants and then by the Embassy of Spain in Beirut. The Internal Security Forces issue the criminal record, and Lebanese abroad can apply through relatives or an embassy. Our guide for Lebanese applicants looks at funds evidence and the Beirut leg in more detail.

Turkish residents. Türkiye has been an Apostille party since 1985, so both halves of your file use apostilles, which makes Turkish nationals in the Kingdom among the most straightforward files we see. The criminal record (adli sicil kaydı) can be requested through e-Devlet, prosecutors' offices or Turkish embassies.

Iraqi residents. Iraqi documents go to the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs and then, by appointment, to the Embassy of Spain in Baghdad. The non-conviction certificate, issued by the Directorate of Criminal Evidences Investigations in Baghdad, is available to Iraqis abroad. Documents issued in the Kurdistan Region need their route confirmed case by case.

NLV or DNV: which fits life in the Kingdom

The Non-Lucrative Residency suits Saudi nationals and expatriates with savings or passive income who intend to make Spain the family's main home. It requires monthly means of 400% of IPREM for the main applicant (€2,400, with IPREM at €600, the level at which it has remained since 2023) and €600 for each family member; a family of four evidences €50,400 a year. No work in Spain is allowed, and renewal requires more than 183 days' residence in Spain in the calendar year. Health insurance must come from an insurer authorised to operate in Spain and cover all the risks of the Spanish public system. See our Non-Lucrative Residency service.

The Digital Nomad Visa suits expatriates and Saudi professionals working remotely for companies outside Spain, with a relationship of at least three months, a company active for at least a year, and a degree or three years' experience. The main applicant needs €2,849 a month (200% of the 2026 minimum wage, annualised). The file must also evidence Social Security compliance, either through a certificate under a Social Security agreement or through the employer's registration with Spanish Social Security; we check which applies to your employer. For consular filings, private health insurance is required, and the Riyadh DNV checklist asks for valid medical insurance for the whole stay in Spain. See our Digital Nomad Visa service.

The recurring obstacle for DNV applicants in the Kingdom is not the income but the employer. Many Saudi roles are tied to physical presence, and an employer must be willing to document remote work from Spain and deal with the Social Security side. For a side-by-side view of the two routes, see NLV or Digital Nomad Visa.

Funds and source of funds from Saudi banks

For the NLV, the question is rarely whether the money exists. It is whether the file shows, clearly and consistently, that the money is yours and where it came from. Three situations deserve care in the Kingdom:

• Family wealth. Where assets sit with a parent or a family holding, the file must show means available to the applicant, not to the family in general.
• End-of-service benefits and salary savings. For expatriates, the trail from payslips to savings to the account used as evidence should be unbroken.
• Currency. Balances in riyals must cover a threshold set in euros, so we build a margin above the minimum.

Spanish banks apply the same logic when you open an account. Under Ley 10/2010 they must understand the purpose and nature of the relationship, and the Banco de España confirms they may ask for documents showing the origin of your funds. Our guide to opening a Spanish bank account from the Gulf explains how to sequence the account with the visa.

Timeline, renewals and life between the Kingdom and Spain

With Saudi documents on the apostille route, the timetable is usually set by everything else: a home-country chain for expatriates, a criminal record from a previous country of residence, insurance wording and appointment availability. Official periods, one month for an NLV decision and 20 days for a UGE-CE decision on a DNV residence authorisation filed in Spain, describe what the rules provide, not a promise about a given file.

After arrival, the NLV's first authorisation lasts one year and renews for two years at a time; the DNV authorisation granted in Spain lasts three years and renews for two. Renewal applications go in within the two months before expiry and can still be filed up to three months afterwards, although late filing may be penalised. For NLV holders who intend to keep business or family ties in the Kingdom, the 183-day rule is the one to plan around from the start. We handle renewals and TIE appointments as part of an ongoing relationship.

How Parastoo Legal Group works with clients in the Kingdom

Parastoo Legal Group is a Madrid-based immigration and global mobility firm, founded in 2022, with more than 400 approved residencies and a 95% approval rate. Our team of 15 works in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Spanish and English, so Saudi nationals and expatriates alike can work with us in their own language.

Each file has a dedicated case manager who confirms at the outset the current requirement for every document: which are Saudi and go to apostille, which come from another country and follow its chain, and which cover a previous country of residence. We assess which route fits your income and plans before anything is ordered, prepare the file and lodge it with a short cover memo that summarises it for the case officer.

Our NLV and DNV services include preparation and filing, family members' applications, the TIE appointment in Spain, Spanish bank account opening and the administrative appeal (recurso de reposición) if an application is refused. Sworn translations, apostilles and legalisations, and government fees are separate. The first consultation is free, by video call or phone.