Spain's Golden Visa Was Cancelled: What Happened

Brittany Collins

In 2024, Spain's government moved to end the Golden Visa program. Congress passed the measure as Ley Orgánica 1/2025, and Spain's investor residence route under Law 14/2013 closed to new applications on 3 April 2025. The program no longer accepts new applicants.

Spain's Golden Visa program was introduced in 2013 to attract foreign investment during a period of economic crisis. Before it closed to new applications on 3 April 2025, it granted a renewable residence permit for six investment options:

real estate purchase: €500,000 or more
a deposit in a Spanish bank: €1,000,000 or more
shares in Spanish companies: €1,000,000 or more
units in Spanish investment funds: €1,000,000 or more
Spanish government bonds: €2,000,000 or more
a qualifying business investment: no fixed minimum amount

None of these routes accepts new applicants now.

When this article was first published, the Spanish cabinet had only begun studying whether to end the real estate route. That is no longer where things stand. Congress went further and abolished all six investor routes, passing the change as Ley Orgánica 1/2025, which repealed Articles 63 to 67 of the 2013 law on support for entrepreneurs and their internationalisation. Spain's investor residence route under Law 14/2013 has been closed to new applications since 3 April 2025.

The program is not accepting applications, and there is no expedited route to it. Existing valid holders are not new applicants: renewals and any later residence steps depend on the rules that applied to the original authorisation and on continued compliance with the legal requirements, and pre-cutoff applications and existing authorisations require separate legal review.

Spain still offers other residence routes, such as the Digital Nomad Visa and the Non-Lucrative Visa, but these are separate programs with their own eligibility conditions. Neither is a continuation of, or a like-for-like replacement for, the closed investor route. Compare current European residence options or talk to My Golden Visa about which route fits your situation now.