The income and health-cover requirement: what Spain wants to see before you may stay

If you stay longer than three months in Spain and don't work there, you have to demonstrate two things at your registration. That is what article 7 of Real Decreto 240/2007 says:

• sufficient means for yourself and everyone who comes with you, so that you don't have to rely on Spanish social assistance;
• health insurance that covers all risks in Spain.

The Spanish route has no points system and no visa, but it does have this one test.

This article is about what those two requirements involve. Where they fall in your process is in the article on the registration certificate; that you have them at all, you discovered in the orientation.

First: does the requirement apply to you at all?

Article 7 has four grounds of residence, and only one of them carries this homework. If you work in Spain, employed or as an autónomo (self-employed), you fall under Spanish social security and there's nothing to demonstrate. Your employment contract or registration is your evidence, and with your consent the counter checks it directly with the Seguridad Social or the tax agency.

Ground of residence (article 7)	What you demonstrate
Employee or self-employed	employment contract, or registration as self-employed (for example in the Censo de Actividades Económicas)
Non-worker with means	sufficient means and health insurance covering all risks in Spain
Pensioner	the pension as income; the health-cover requirement is met with proof that the pension country bears the care (S1)
Student	enrolment at a recognised institution, a declaration about means, and a European Health Insurance Card for the whole period of study
Family member of an EU citizen	the tie to the EU citizen who themselves meets one of the grounds

For two groups there's therefore a lighter route.

Pensioners demonstrate with the S1 form that the Netherlands continues to bear their healthcare, and the pension itself is the income. The regulation says expressly that a certificate of entitlement to care at the expense of the pension-paying state meets the health-cover requirement.

Note: the S1 is expected to be open from 1 November 2026 only to new registrants with a statutory benefit such as AOW (the Dutch state pension) or WIA. With only early retirement you then bear the full health-cover requirement.

Students may make do with a declaration about their means and a European Health Insurance Card that covers the whole period of study.

The full requirement therefore applies to whoever comes without Spanish work: remote work for a Dutch employer, living off assets, or between two lives.

What "sufficient means" means — and why there's no figure here

The assessment is individual. The regulation prescribes that the adequacy of the means is assessed case by case, with the personal and family situation taken into account.

As a yardstick it names the amount the budget act sets each year as the threshold for a non-contributory benefit: a benefit for people who paid too few contributions. Whoever is above it has in any case demonstrated enough.

Writing down an amount that's no longer right next year is worse than no amount. You'll find the current threshold through the sources under this article.

What is stable is which evidence counts. The regulation names periodic income as well as assets. You may demonstrate that with any means admissible in law, such as:

• a title deed;
• certified cheques;
• proof of income from assets;
• a credit card with a current bank certificate of the available credit.

In practice a recent bank certificate is the usual route. And that's where it often goes wrong on form:

A screenshot of your balance is not a bank certificate. Ask your bank for a signed or certified statement, freshly dated. Counters want to see that the money is there now, not that it was there once. Arrange this just before your registration appointment, not months earlier.