The IPREM and 2026 income thresholds for Spanish visas

When people research a Spanish visa, they usually want a single number: "how much money do I need?" The honest answer is that Spain almost never publishes a fixed euro amount for immigration purposes. Instead, the income and savings thresholds for most residence routes are expressed as a multiple of the IPREM — a public reference index that is re-set each year. Once you understand what the IPREM is and how the multiples work, the figures for the non-lucrative visa, the digital nomad visa, student authorisations and family reunification all fall into place. This page explains the mechanism so you can calculate the requirement for your own application year, rather than relying on a stale headline figure that may already be out of date.

"Proving income is where non-lucrative and digital nomad files are won or lost. The IPREM tells you the target; the evidence tells the consulate whether you truly reach it — stable, passive and documented. I have seen strong applicants refused not because they lacked the money, but because they proved it against the wrong IPREM figure or with the wrong documents."

What the IPREM actually is

IPREM stands for Indicador Público de Renta de Efectos Múltiples — the "Public Multiple-Effect Income Indicator". It is a reference figure created by Spanish law to act as a common yardstick across many areas of public policy: eligibility for grants and subsidised housing, legal-aid limits, certain benefits, and — importantly for our purposes — the financial-means requirements of the immigration rules. Rather than writing a specific euro amount into every regulation, the legislator ties the requirement to a multiple of the IPREM. When the index moves, every threshold anchored to it moves with it, automatically.

The IPREM is expressed in three connected forms that matter for immigration files: a monthly value, an annual value, and the way that annual value is calculated (either over twelve or over fourteen payments — a distinction we return to below). The exact euro amount of the IPREM is fixed each year, generally through the national budget legislation, and it can stay flat for several years or rise. Because the figure is set annually, you must confirm the IPREM value in force for the year of your application before relying on any calculation. This page deliberately does not quote a hard euro figure, because doing so would risk anchoring you to an outdated number. And because the figure is set in euros, applicants paid in another currency have a further step: our note on which exchange rate proves your income for the non-lucrative visa explains how dollar income is converted to euros against the threshold.

Why Spain uses the IPREM, not the minimum wage

A common assumption is that visa income thresholds track the Spanish minimum wage — the Salario Mínimo Interprofesional (SMI). They do not. Spain intentionally moved away from using the minimum wage as a general reference index and created the IPREM precisely so that social and administrative thresholds would not automatically rise every time the minimum wage was increased for labour-market reasons. The two indicators are governed by different processes, updated on different timetables, and can diverge significantly in value.

For an applicant this has a practical consequence: news reports about the minimum wage going up do not necessarily change your visa income requirement, and conversely, an update to the IPREM can raise your requirement even in a year when the minimum wage is unchanged. When you calculate what you need to prove, the only correct anchor is the IPREM value for your application year — not the minimum wage, and not last year's IPREM.

IPREM ×12 versus IPREM ×14

One of the most misunderstood details is that the annual IPREM can be stated in two ways. Spanish salaries are traditionally paid in fourteen instalments — twelve monthly payments plus two extra "paga extra" payments in summer and at Christmas. As a result, the law publishes an annual IPREM computed over twelve payments and, separately, an annual IPREM computed over fourteen payments. The fourteen-payment figure is naturally larger.

Which one a given rule uses depends on the rule. Immigration thresholds are typically framed against a specific version, and applying the wrong one can leave you either short of the requirement or over-preparing. This is not a trivial rounding point: the gap between the ×12 and ×14 annual figures is meaningful, and a file built on the wrong basis can be questioned. When you see a percentage such as "400% of the IPREM", the next question must always be: 400% of which annual figure, computed over twelve or fourteen payments?

Visa-by-visa: the IPREM multiples

The table below maps the main routes to their approximate IPREM multiples. Treat every percentage as an approximate framework to be confirmed for the application year and against the current instructions of the relevant consulate or immigration office. The euro value flows from whichever IPREM figure is in force.

Route	Approximate requirement	Basis
Non-lucrative (retirement) visa — main applicant	≈ 400% of the IPREM	Passive income / savings; per year
Non-lucrative visa — each dependent	≈ +100% of the IPREM each	Added on top of the main applicant
Digital nomad visa — main applicant	≈ 200% of the IPREM	Remote-work / freelance income
Digital nomad visa — first family member	≈ +75% of the IPREM	Higher requirement for family
Digital nomad visa — each further family member	≈ +25% of the IPREM each	Added per additional dependent
Student / study authorisation	≈ 100% of the IPREM	Means of support; per year
Family reunification	Multiple scaled to family size	Set against IPREM; rises per member

Every figure in this table is a percentage of a number that changes each year. Confirm the IPREM in force for your application year before treating any of these as a euro amount.

The non-lucrative visa (≈400% + 100% per dependent)

The non-lucrative visa — the route most retirees and financially independent applicants use — is the clearest illustration of how the IPREM drives a requirement. The main applicant is broadly expected to demonstrate income or savings equivalent to around 400% of the annual IPREM, with roughly an additional 100% of the IPREM for each dependent included in the application. So a couple would look to the base 400% plus 100% for the accompanying spouse, and a family with children would add a further 100% per person, in each case as a share of the IPREM in force.

Because this route does not permit work in Spain, consulates focus on whether the money is genuinely passive, stable and available — pensions, investment income, rental income and liquid savings, rather than a Spanish salary. For a full walk-through of what counts and how to present it, see our dedicated note on the non-lucrative visa income requirements for 2026, and you can model your own position with the non-lucrative visa income calculator.

The digital nomad visa (≈200%, higher for family)

The digital nomad visa, introduced under the Startup Act, is aimed at remote workers and freelancers whose income comes from outside Spain. Its income requirement is generally set at around 200% of the IPREM for the main applicant — a lower multiple than the non-lucrative visa, reflecting that the applicant is expected to keep earning from active work rather than living on passive means. When family members are added, the requirement rises: broadly an extra 75% of the IPREM for the first accompanying family member and around 25% for each additional one.

The evidential standard differs too. Here the consulate or the immigration office wants to see a genuine, ongoing remote-work relationship or client base generating that income, not just a bank balance. Our dedicated note on the digital nomad visa income requirements for 2026 sets out exactly what documentation tends to satisfy that test.

Student and other routes

Student authorisations and several other residence permits also lean on the IPREM, generally at a lower multiple. A student is typically asked to show means of support in the region of 100% of the IPREM for their stay, scaled to the length of the course, with additional amounts if family members accompany them. Other permits — from certain work authorisations to specific family situations — use the IPREM as a floor in the same way. The common thread is that whenever a Spanish immigration rule says "sufficient economic means", there is usually an IPREM multiple sitting behind that phrase, defining what "sufficient" means for that year.

Family reunification

Family reunification (reagrupación familiar) is another route where the IPREM is central, and here the requirement scales explicitly with household size. A resident sponsoring family members must show income above an IPREM-based threshold that increases as more people join the household — a base multiple for the first reunified member and a further increment for each additional one. The logic mirrors the non-lucrative visa: the more people the income must support, the higher the multiple of the IPREM that must be proven. Adequate housing evidence is usually required alongside the income test.

How consulates compute annual versus monthly

A recurring source of confusion is whether the requirement is a monthly figure or an annual one. In practice, most immigration thresholds are framed as an annual amount — a multiple of the annual IPREM — but applicants naturally think in monthly income, especially pensioners and salaried remote workers. Consulates and immigration offices generally bridge this by looking at annualised means: they take the required annual multiple of the IPREM and assess whether your documented income or savings, projected over the relevant period, meets or exceeds it.

This is where the ×12 versus ×14 distinction resurfaces. If a rule is anchored to the fourteen-payment annual IPREM, then dividing that annual figure by twelve to get a "monthly equivalent" produces a higher monthly number than dividing the twelve-payment figure. Presenting monthly income against the wrong annualised basis is a classic way to fall short on paper while actually having enough. The safe approach is to calculate the exact annual target from the correct IPREM figure for your year, and then show that your income or savings clears it with a comfortable margin, rather than sitting exactly on the line.

Why the threshold rises when the IPREM is updated

Because every one of these requirements is a percentage of the IPREM, they are not fixed in euros — they float with the index. When the government raises the IPREM in the annual budget, all the anchored thresholds rise in the same proportion, without any change to the immigration rules themselves. A 400% requirement is still 400%; it is the base figure it multiplies that has moved.

The practical implication is that an application prepared late in one year and submitted early in the next can face a different euro requirement, if the IPREM changed at the turn of the year. This is one of the most common ways applicants are caught out: they budget against last year's number, gather exactly that amount, and then discover the target has moved up. The defensive habit is simple — always recalculate from the IPREM in force on the date you actually submit, and build in a buffer above the minimum.

Confirming the figure for your year

Everything on this page reduces to one discipline: never treat an IPREM-based threshold as a static euro amount. The mechanism is stable — the multiples for each route change only rarely — but the underlying figure is re-set annually and must be looked up for the year and, ideally, the specific date of your application. Confirm three things before you rely on any number: the IPREM value in force for your year, whether the relevant rule uses the twelve- or fourteen-payment annual figure, and the current means requirement published by the consulate or immigration office handling your file. Get those three right and the arithmetic follows cleanly.

General information, not legal advice. The IPREM value and every multiple referred to here are approximate and must be confirmed for your application year and against the current instructions of the relevant consulate or immigration office. For advice on your own file, please get in touch.