Moving to Spain from the USA: the checklist

Every year a growing number of Americans decide to make Spain home — retirees drawn by the climate and cost of living, remote workers who can do their job from anywhere, and founders and executives building something across the Atlantic. The Spanish side of the move is a well-trodden process, but it is document-heavy and unforgiving of missing steps, and it runs in parallel with a US tax system that follows its citizens abroad. This checklist is written specifically for the American situation: what to gather, in what order, and where the US-specific traps lie. It is general information, not legal or tax advice, and the details below should be confirmed for your own circumstances and year before you rely on them.

"With American clients I always remind them the US tax layer never switches off — Spain becomes your residence, but the IRS still wants to hear from you. Work the checklist in order, keep both tax systems in view, and the relocation is very achievable."

Step 1 — Choose the right route

Before a single document is ordered, the single most important decision is which visa route you are applying under. The route dictates the entire evidence pack, the financial thresholds, whether you may work, and how you will be taxed in Spain. Choosing the wrong route — or gathering documents before the route is settled — is the most common way an American relocation stalls. Spain offers several residence pathways for third-country nationals, and Americans are third-country nationals for these purposes. The three that matter most for a self-funded move are the non-lucrative visa, the digital nomad visa, and, on the tax side, the Beckham regime.

Which route fits which American

• Non-lucrative visa — for retirees and the passively funded. This route is built for people who can support themselves without working in Spain: retirees living on a pension, Social Security, 401(k) and IRA drawdowns, or investment income. You commit not to carry out work in Spain, and you demonstrate sufficient recurring income or assets. It is the classic path for an American couple retiring to the coast. Our guide to applying for the retirement (non-lucrative) visa sets out the process in detail.
• Digital nomad visa — for remote workers and freelancers. If you work remotely for a US employer or serve foreign clients as a freelancer, this route lets you live in Spain while continuing that work, subject to conditions on the share of income from Spanish clients and on your professional background. It is the natural fit for the American software engineer, consultant or designer who wants to keep their job and change their address.
• Beckham regime — for founders and executives. Beckham is not itself a visa but a favourable tax regime for individuals who take up qualifying employment or a qualifying activity in Spain and who have not been Spanish tax resident in recent years. It is most relevant to founders, senior hires and executives relocating for a role. Our guide to applying for the Beckham regime explains who qualifies and how the election works.

Pick the route first. Everything else — the documents, the thresholds, the tax treatment — flows from that one decision, and the right answer is genuinely different for a retiree, a remote worker and a founder.

If you are unsure which pathway fits, our visa eligibility quiz is a quick way to narrow the field before a consultation.

Step 2 — The FBI criminal record and apostille

Nearly every residence route asks for a criminal-background certificate covering the places you have lived. For an American, the document Spanish consulates typically expect is a nationwide FBI Identity History Summary — the federal record — rather than only a state-level check, because it reflects your record across the country. You obtain it from the FBI (directly or through an FBI-approved channeler) using fingerprints.

The FBI record must then be apostilled. Because it is a federal document, the apostille is issued by the US Department of State in Washington, D.C. — not by a state Secretary of State, which handles apostilles for state-issued documents. This distinction trips people up: sending an FBI record to a state office for apostille will simply come back rejected. Build in time for this; the combined fingerprinting, FBI processing and federal apostille can take several weeks, and consulates often require the certificate to be recent, so ordering it too early can also cause problems.

Step 3 — Sworn translation

Documents issued in English must generally be presented in Spanish, and Spain does not accept just any translation. It expects a sworn (official) translation — in Spain, one produced by a traductor jurado authorised by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The FBI record (and its apostille), any medical certificate, and other supporting documents typically need this treatment. Because the apostille is part of the document, it should be translated together with the certificate rather than left in English.

Sworn translation is a step Americans routinely underestimate. It takes time, it costs money per document, and doing it before the underlying document is final means paying twice. Order translations only once the FBI record is issued and apostilled, so you translate the finished article.

Step 4 — Private health insurance

Self-funded routes such as the non-lucrative visa require private health insurance valid in Spain, typically full-coverage cover with a Spanish or Spain-authorised insurer and without significant co-payments or waiting periods for the covered risks. A US travel policy or a domestic US health plan will generally not satisfy the requirement, because the consulate is looking for cover equivalent to what public healthcare would provide, in force in Spain.

For Americans, this means arranging a genuine Spanish-market policy before the visa appointment. The exact features the consulate expects can vary, so confirm the policy meets the current requirements for your route before you buy, and keep the certificate of coverage ready for the file.

Step 5 — Income and funds evidence

Self-funded routes require you to prove you can support yourself, and here the American situation is distinctive because so much US wealth sits in retirement and investment accounts. Consulates want to see recurring, verifiable income or accessible funds. Typical American evidence includes:

• Social Security — benefit statements or award letters showing your monthly entitlement.
• 401(k) and IRA — account statements and, where relevant, evidence of regular distributions, since a lump sum sitting in a retirement account reads differently from a steady drawdown.
• Pensions — employer or government pension statements.
• Investment and brokerage income — dividend and interest statements, brokerage account balances, and any recurring investment income.
• Bank statements — several months of statements demonstrating the funds and the flow of income into your accounts.

The financial thresholds are tied to Spanish reference amounts that change, and the way passive drawdowns from a 401(k) or IRA are presented can matter as much as the totals. It is worth structuring how you evidence income — recurring benefit letters plus statements often read more convincingly than a single large balance — and confirming the current threshold for your route and family size before the appointment.

Step 6 — Your consulate by state

Most residence visas for Americans are applied for before you move, at the Spanish consulate whose jurisdiction covers your US state of residence. The United States is divided among several Spanish consulates (for example in Washington D.C., New York, Miami, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and others), and each covers a defined set of states. You must apply at the correct consulate for your state; applying at the wrong one, or after moving away from the state that consulate covers, causes rejections.

Consulate practice is not perfectly uniform, either. Appointment availability, document formatting preferences, whether appearances must be in person, and processing times differ between posts. Check your specific consulate's current requirements and book the appointment early, since slots can be scarce. Aligning the FBI record's issue date, the apostille, the translations and the insurance certificate to the appointment date is a scheduling exercise in itself.

The US tax overlay — it never switches off

This is the part of an American move that surprises people most, and getting it wrong is expensive. Unlike almost every other country, the United States taxes its citizens and green-card holders on worldwide income regardless of where they live. Moving to Spain — even becoming Spanish tax resident and paying Spanish tax — does not end your US filing obligations. You will generally be filing in both systems and using treaty and credit mechanisms to avoid being taxed twice on the same income.

• You keep filing US returns, forever. As long as you are a US citizen or green-card holder, an annual US return is due wherever you live. This runs alongside your Spanish obligations once you are Spanish tax resident.
• FBAR and FATCA reporting. Holding foreign (including Spanish) financial accounts can trigger FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) reporting once balances cross the threshold, and FATCA reporting on foreign financial assets. These are information filings with real penalties for omission, separate from any tax due.
• The US–Spain tax treaty. The treaty and the foreign tax credit are the main tools for reducing double taxation, allocating taxing rights and coordinating the two systems. How they apply depends on the type of income and on your Spanish tax status, so the analysis is individual.
• PFIC caution. Many non-US pooled investments — including a range of European and Spanish funds and ETFs — can be passive foreign investment companies (PFICs) for US purposes, which triggers punitive US treatment. An American should be cautious about buying local funds after moving and should screen holdings before rearranging investments.
• Coordinate with a US CPA. The Spanish side and the US side must be planned together. A Spanish lawyer handles residence and Spanish tax; a US CPA experienced with expatriates handles the US return, FBAR/FATCA and treaty positions. The two should be talking to each other, ideally before you move rather than after.

Settling in — NIE, empadronamiento, TIE, banking

Once the visa is granted and you have arrived, a second sequence of practical steps begins on the ground in Spain. These are administrative rather than discretionary, but each has its own logic and they tend to depend on one another.

• NIE — the Número de Identidad de Extranjero is your foreigner's identification number, needed for almost everything official: contracts, tax, banking, utilities. For visa holders it is generally issued in connection with the residence process.
• Empadronamiento — registering on the municipal roll (the padrón) at your local town hall records your address in the municipality. It is often a prerequisite for other steps, so it is usually done soon after arrival once you have an address.
• TIE — the Tarjeta de Identidad de Extranjero is the physical residence card you obtain in Spain after arriving on your visa, typically requiring an appointment, fingerprints, photos and the empadronamiento certificate. It is your proof of legal residence.
• Banking as a US person — opening a Spanish bank account is normal, but expect the bank to ask about your US status because of FATCA; Spanish (and other) banks report US persons' account information. Some institutions are more comfortable onboarding Americans than others, so it can take a little shopping around, and you will typically need your NIE, proof of address and identification.

The relocation checklist at a glance

This table is an orientation aid, not a substitute for the precise, current requirements of your chosen route and consulate. Requirements, thresholds and processing times change and must be confirmed for your year and circumstances.

Sequence and timing

The reason relocations from the USA go smoothly or badly is almost always sequence. The documents have interdependencies and shelf lives, and doing them in the wrong order means paying twice or seeing a certificate expire before the appointment. A sensible order for most self-funded Americans is: settle the route; book the consulate appointment to anchor the timeline; order the FBI record and send it for federal apostille; only then commission the sworn translations of the finished, apostilled documents; arrange the Spanish-valid health insurance; assemble the income and funds evidence in the format the consulate expects; and, in parallel, brief a US CPA so the tax side is coordinated before you leave rather than reconstructed afterwards.

Once in Spain, the ground-level steps follow their own chain: an address enables empadronamiento, which supports the TIE appointment, and the NIE and TIE together unlock banking and the rest of ordinary life. None of it is difficult in isolation; the difficulty is holding the whole sequence — Spanish and American at once — in view from the start. That is precisely the coordination we help Americans manage.

General information, not legal or tax advice. Immigration and tax rules, financial thresholds, apostille and consular procedures, and reporting obligations change and must be confirmed for your circumstances and year. US tax matters should be coordinated with a qualified US adviser.