What It Costs to Move to Spain From the U.S.: The Official Fees

The cost to move to Spain from the U.S. comes as two bills. Public bodies set the first and print it on their fee tables: the consulate’s visa and residence fees, the FBI check and its apostilles, the TIE card in Spain. The market sets the second: flights, movers, insurance, translators and the rent itself. Only the first has a figure anyone can check, so only the first is added up here, per household and per consulate, with the body that sets each fee. The second is listed without a number. This article is for informational purposes only and is not legal, tax or immigration advice; verify current requirements with the relevant Spanish authority or a licensed professional.

Which fees do you pay twice because a document expired before the appointment?

The FBI check and its apostille are the usual ones, and for a family the civil records some consulates date: consulates want an FBI check issued within 6 months and a medical certificate within 90 days or 3 months, and Washington admits only complete files and keeps its $140 visa fee.

Every consulate page read that states a window gives six months for the FBI check. The medical certificate is where the wording differs.

Five consulates also date a family’s civil records: Los Angeles, Miami and San Francisco want birth and marriage certificates issued in the last 6 months, Houston a marriage certificate issued in the last six months, and Boston every record but the birth certificate issued in the last 12 months. A lapsed record means a new certified copy and a new state apostille.

No consulate page read says what happens to a document that expires before the appointment, beyond admitting only complete files, and none mentions a refund. So the cost of a slipped date is the cost of the documents again. A new FBI check is $18 under 28 CFR 16.33, the federal apostille another $20 per document on the State Department’s form DS-4194, then a new sworn translation at the translator’s price. If the file is refused instead, the visa fee goes too: Washington’s $140 is non-refundable.

The order that avoids this is to book the appointment first, then count back. The FBI check must be issued within the six months before that date, with its federal apostille and translation done before it; the medical certificate within the last 90 days. How apostilles and sworn translations work for a Spanish visa file is in the guide to apostilles and sworn translations for Spain.

How much does it cost to move to Spain from the U.S. in official fees?

In 2026 the official fees for a non-lucrative visa move come to $211 and 16.08 euros for one person, $432 to $442 and 32.16 euros for a couple, and $798 to $828 and 64.32 euros for a family of four, at a consulate that charges the $20 BLS fee.

The subtotals are our arithmetic and cover official fees only. The couple and the family are two adults, with two children under 18 in the family. Each family member applies for a visa and pays both consular fees, and the price lists read show no reduced national visa fee for children, their child rates being for Schengen visas; the BLS fee is counted once per applicant, as the lists print it without saying per what. Only adults file the FBI check, and the family adds a marriage certificate and two birth certificates with state apostilles to prove the relationship. The state range runs from $10 in New York to $20 in California, with Texas and Pennsylvania at $15; a New York City record first needs a $3 county clerk step, NYC 311 says, and California adds $6 for each different official’s signature at the counter.

The dollar fees are not converted: the consulates set them in dollars, and Washington’s page says its fees are revised every quarter with the exchange rate, while the TIE fee is set in euros.

What do visa fees cost at each Spanish consulate in the U.S.?

All nine Spanish consular offices in the U.S. read charge a U.S. citizen $140 for the non-lucrative visa in 2026, and the eight with a 2026 price list add $13 for the residence authorization (Miami’s page names the form, not the amount); the BLS line and the payment rules differ.

Other routes cost more at Washington: $160 for the student visa and $190 for the telework visa, the digital nomad route. Washington’s table lists an employee work visa at $190 and a self-employed one at $270 for U.S. citizens. San Juan’s is the only price list of the third quarter of 2026 found, with the same amounts as January; Washington’s page says its fees are revised every quarter, so check the list in force on the day you pay.

What does Spain charge once you arrive?

In Spain the first TIE card costs 16.08 euros per person, paid on form 790 code 012, according to the Policía Nacional; Washington’s page says to request it within a month of entry.

The Policía page shows no year, and its amounts are those of Order PJC/617/2025, in force since June 16, 2025. The steps from the fingerprint appointment to the card are in how to get a TIE card in Spain. An NIE requested on its own, before any visa, costs $12 at the consulates.

The driving line matters to anyone who drives. The DGT says a license from outside the EU is valid for six months from the day you become resident, and the United States is not on its list of countries whose licenses can be exchanged, so a resident who keeps driving needs a Spanish permit by exam; the DGT fee catalogue charges 94.05 euros, before any driving school.

Diplomas are optional fees. Homologating to the ESO certificate, the lower secondary title, is free, says the Ministry of Education; to the bachillerato, 49.76 euros on its 2026 fee form. A university degree costs 166.50 euros, not refunded if the file is refused, lapses or is not admitted, says the Ministry of Science. On October 22, 2026 it closed its universities e-office after a technical incident, and its notice suspends new homologation and equivalence applications until the office reopens.

Do you pay duty on household goods and pets?

Household goods enter Spain free of customs duty and VAT if you lived outside the EU for 12 consecutive months, owned them for at least 6 months, keep them in the same use and declare them within 12 months of settling, says the Agencia Tributaria; the VAT relief also needs the goods bought with their tax paid where you lived, alcohol and tobacco get no duty relief, and the page lists no customs fee.

The relief is claimed on the import declaration itself, with no prior application, and the goods cannot be lent, pledged, rented or sold for 12 months without telling customs. The shipping, the container and any customs agent are market prices.

A dog or cat costs at least one official fee in the U.S.: the USDA charges $101 per certificate when no laboratory test is needed, and $160 with one or two tests for one pet, plus $10 for each other pet on that certificate. The vet’s own charges and the airline fare come on top. The order of the microchip, the rabies shot and the endorsement is in the guide to moving to Spain with pets.

Is there a tax on moving your money to Spain?

Not on a wire from your U.S. bank account: the 1 percent U.S. remittance tax on transfers after December 31, 2025 excludes transfers funded from an account at a financial institution or with a U.S.-issued card, the proposed regulations restate.

The tax falls on cash-funded transfers: cash, money orders, cashier’s checks and similar instruments handed to a provider. On a bank wire, the cost is the provider’s fee and the margin inside the exchange rate. How to compare them, and what Spain does and does not declare, is in moving money from the U.S. to Spain.

Which costs of a move have no official price?

Most of the money: no public body prices flights, movers, sworn translations, private health insurance, the medical exam, fingerprinting services or rent, which the law caps only in declared stressed housing areas, so none of them is in the subtotals above.

• Sworn translations. Translators set their own prices, and no official page read fixes them; the FBI check needs one, and its translation needs no apostille, Washington says.
• Health insurance. The non-lucrative visa requires health insurance; premiums are set by insurers.
• The medical certificate. A physician’s fee; at Washington it needs no translation if the physician uses the consulate’s template, while New York and Miami ask for an official or sworn translation, at the translator’s price.
• Fingerprinting and the FBI request channel. The $18 is the federal fee; the FBI’s own page could not be read on the day of writing, so any service charge on top is not stated here.
• Flights, movers and storage. Market prices.
• Rent and the deposit. The rent is agreed with the landlord, within the limits that article 17 of the urban leases law sets in declared stressed housing areas. The deposit is set by its article 36: one month’s rent for a home, and article 36 also caps any extra guarantee at two months’ rent for a lease of up to five years, or seven if the landlord is a company, and since October 8, 2026, under Royal Decree-law 29/2026, at one month for a temporary let.

Your next step: date the appointment, then order the documents

Book the consulate appointment first, then work back from its date. Order the FBI check so that it, its federal apostille and its translation land inside the six months before, book the medical exam for the last 90 days, and buy the money orders your consulate takes. Then set aside 16.08 euros per person for the TIE in Spain.

You can pay every fee here yourself: none needs a lawyer or a gestor. A professional earns their fee when the file is unusual, such as a refusal or a family member with a different route. The full order of the move, from the visa file to the first month, is in the checklist for moving to Spain from the U.S., and what the months after cost, region by region, is in the cost of living in Spain for Americans.

The Spain Navigator, the app that puts every step of your move to Spain in order, works out the cost of your own move, with your own dates and deadlines.