Changes in the “Golden visa” and investor residence permit law in Spain
On the 29th of July 2015, the Official State Journal of Spain (BOE) published the text of a new law, Ley 25/2015 de segunda oportunidad1. On Thursday, the 30th of June, the law took effect. Apart from other changes, the law includes information about some modifications in the Ley 14/20132 Law of Entrepreneurs that gives foreigners an opportunity to get the so-called “Golden visa” and investor residence permit for large investments (including real estate investments in Spain). For more detailed information, read our articles on «Golden visa» and «Investor residence permit».
The changes lie in the following:
1. The list of persons that can get a visa together with an investor has been enlarged. Initially, only the official husband/wife or children under age had such a right. Children older than 18 years old could get their documents only in case if they depended on their parents for medical reasons. The modification of paragraph 4 of article 64 in the law of entrepreneurs provides an opportunity to apply for a visa and a residence permit for civil partners, parents depending on their children economically, as well as for children of age in case if they are still economically dependent on their parents and have not created their own families. This modification is a very important change in the law since it makes visas and investor residence permits much more advantageous than non-lucrative residence permits (residencia no lucrativa) also called a “D type visa”.
2. The period during which you can submit documents for an investor visa in case of investing in shares, funds, deposits and bonds of the public debt has been extended from two to twelve months according to the modification of paragraph A of article 64. In the meantime, it has been emphasized that shares and bonds can be purchased only in an incumbent company, investment funds must be founded in Spain, deposits must be established only in Spanish financial institutions.
3. As for real estate investment to the value of 500,000 euros or more, those who still have not realized the deal of sale and purchase but have already signed the collateral contract (arras) have the possibility of getting an investor visa. In this case, an applicant can submit documents for a visa for a period of 6 months. After signing the contract of sale and purchase, an investor can apply for a visa for a period of one year or a residence permit for a period of two years straight away.
4. Work permit. According to the modification of Article 35 in the Law of Entrepreneurs, an investor visa does not only give right to reside on the territory of Spain, it also authorises investors to work in the country. Before this modification, it was possible to get a work permit only after getting an investor residence permit.
5. Now it is possible to get an investor residence permit without having to get an investor visa. Paragraph 3 of article 66 modifies the initial requirements of the law that obliged applicants to get an investor visa at first and submit documents for a residence permit only after. Now applicants that reside on the territory of Spain and make investments that comply with all of the requirements of the new law can apply for residence permits without having to leave the country and apply for investor visas in Spanish consular instututions in their home countries.
6. The duration of an investor residence permit has been extended to five years. According to article 67, an initial residence permit is issued for two years with the following extensions valid for five years. In other words, having obtained a residence permit once, provided that the investment is maintained, you can prolong your residence every five years without any limits.
All the changes mentioned above have been made in order to make the Law of Entrepreneurs more appealing for potential foreign investors. It bears reminding that this law came into effect at the end of September 2013. According to official statistics of the Government of Spain3, during 15 months of its existence, the programme raised investments in the amount of 694 millions of euros. In total, 5,581 visas and investor residence permits have been issued in this period of time. The best part of the investments, 369,7 millions of euros, was realized in the real estate market.
You can read the complete text of the Ley 25/2015 de segunda oportunidad Law here.
Top House Realty assists its clients who have bought real estate in Spain in getting golden visas and in
vestor residence permits. For more information, please contact us via telephone +(34) 933 153 147 or e-mail info@tophouserealty.com.
1 Ley 25/2015, de 28 de julio, de mecanismo de segunda oportunidad, reducción de la carga financiera y otras medidas de orden social.
2 Ley 14/2013, de 27 de septiembre, de apoyo a los emprendedores y su internacionalización.
3 «Informe de evaluación a medio camino del Plan Estratégico de Internacionalización de la Economía Española 2014-2015» elaborado por la Dirección General de Comercio Internacional e Inversiones y publicado el 24 de Abril de 2015 en la web de la Secretaría del Estado de Comercio (http://www.comercio.gob.es/).
