Spanish Citizenship by Investment: Why It Does Not Exist, and What Does

Short answer: Spain does not sell citizenship, and it never has. There is no programme, no price, and no fast track. Anyone offering you a Spanish passport in exchange for money is selling something Spain does not issue.

That is worth stating flatly, because the phrase is everywhere and half the results you will find for it are companies selling exactly that.

Why the phrase exists at all

Because Spain did have something adjacent, and people ran the two words together. Between 2013 and 2025 there was the Golden Visa, a residence permit for people who invested, usually 500,000 euros in property. It was residence. It was never nationality. What it did do was start the clock that residence runs on.

Spain closed it on 3 April 2025. Organic Law 1/2025 left articles 63 to 67 of Law 14/2013 without content, and nothing replaced them. Permits granted before that date are still valid and can still be renewed, which is the only reason the term is still in circulation.

So the bridge that connected money to a passport, indirectly and slowly, is gone.

Why no EU country can really sell you a passport any more

This is the part the citizenship-by-investment industry does not put on its landing pages.

On 29 April 2025 the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled against Malta, the one member state still running a formal investor citizenship scheme. The Grand Chamber held that granting nationality in exchange for predetermined payments or investments amounts to the commercialisation of Union citizenship, and breaches Article 20 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union along with the duty of sincere cooperation in Article 4(3) of the Treaty on European Union.

The reasoning matters more than the result. The Court said nationality has to rest on a genuine bond of solidarity and good faith between a state and its citizens, and that a transaction cannot create one. Spain never built a scheme like that, which is why nothing on the Spanish side changed when the judgment landed.

So when you see a Spanish passport advertised as an investment product, you are looking at something that Spain does not issue and that the EU’s highest court has already ruled against in principle.

Can I get permanent residency in Spain if I buy a house?

No. Not since April 2025. You can buy property here as a foreigner with no restrictions, and plenty of people do, but the purchase and the residence permit are two separate things now. Buying gets you a house.

This is the single most common misunderstanding we deal with, and it usually arrives after somebody has already spoken to an agent who told them otherwise.

What your money can still do

It is not useless. It just stopped being a route on its own and went back to being what it always was: proof that you can support yourself.

• Under article 62 of the Immigration Regulation, the non-lucrative visa asks for sufficient means for the period, or a regular income. Either one. Savings count, and so do property titles and certified funds.
• If you work remotely for clients or an employer outside Spain, the digital nomad visa is built for that, and unlike the non-lucrative it lets you work.
• If you want to put the money into a business, the entrepreneur route exists, but Spain assesses the project rather than the sum. It has to be considered innovative, and plenty of profitable, sensible business plans are not.

What no amount of money does is shorten the years of residence, or buy the passport waiting at the end of them.

What is the fastest way to get Spanish citizenship?

Marriage, then descent, then the reduced residence periods. Article 22 of the Civil Code sets them out.

• One year if you have been married to a Spanish national for a year and are not separated, or if you were born in Spain.
• Two years if you are a national of origin of an Ibero-American country, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea or Portugal, or if you are Sephardic.
• Five years for recognised refugees.
• Ten years for everybody else.

In every case the residence has to be legal, continuous and immediately before you apply. A gap resets it, which is why the permit you choose at the start matters more than most people realise. The full route is in our guide to Spanish nationality.

There is one discretionary route, carta de naturaleza, granted by Royal Decree where exceptional circumstances apply. It is not a programme, and it is not something you plan around.

Is it hard for a US citizen to move to Spain?

Harder than it was, and easier than most people fear. The Golden Visa closing removed the option that required no plan beyond a bank transfer. What is left requires you to show something about your life rather than your balance: an income, a remote job, a business, a marriage.

Americans are now the largest group we work with, and the files that go wrong are rarely the ones with the least money. They are the ones where somebody chose the permit before understanding which one their situation actually fits.

Where this leaves you

If you were looking at Spain as an investment play, the honest answer is that Spain stopped being one in April 2025 and no equivalent exists.

If you were looking at Spain as somewhere to live, nothing was taken from you. The routes that work are the ones that always worked, and money still helps, just not as a shortcut.

Tell us where your income comes from and how long you can commit to being here, and we will tell you which permit fits and what the realistic timeline to nationality looks like from there.

Written by Lucia Lagunas Reyes, Spanish immigration lawyer, Pamplona Bar (MICAP) registration 2572.