Do I need a visa to move to Spain?

It depends entirely on your passport. Citizens of EU or EEA countries and Switzerland don’t need a visa at all — you can move first and register once you’re there, with a certificate that makes your residence official.

Everyone else needs a residence visa before moving, and the right one depends on how you’ll support yourself: passive income or savings point to the non-lucrative visa, remote work for a foreign employer points to the digital-nomad visa, and studying, employment in Spain, or joining family each have their own route. Choosing the category is genuinely the first step — most of the paperwork that follows depends on it.

Whichever route applies, the application itself is lodged from your home country at the Spanish consulate that covers where you live — and the appointment, not the paperwork, is usually the bottleneck.