Spain Entrepreneur Visa for Americans: ENISA Report, Money and Timing

Spain’s entrepreneur visa, the residencia para emprendedores of Law 14/2013, is the route for Americans who want to move to Spain to launch an innovative business rather than work for someone else. Unlike the non-lucrative visa it allows work, and unlike the telework permit it does not require a foreign employer. What it requires is an outside opinion: ENISA, the state innovation company, must rate your project favorably before the immigration office decides, and the rest of the file waits for it. This article is for informational purposes only and is not immigration or legal advice; verify current requirements with the relevant Spanish authority or a licensed professional.

Is your business innovative enough for ENISA?

The permit is for people over 18 who intend to develop an entrepreneurial activity of an innovative character with special economic interest for Spain, according to the UGE’s page on entrepreneurs, the unit of the Ministry of Inclusion that handles every permit under Law 14/2013. There is no minimum investment and no job-creation requirement. What decides the file is a favorable report from ENISA, the Empresa Nacional de Innovación, which rates three things:

• your professional profile and your involvement in the project; where there are several partners, the participation of each one is assessed, whether or not they need a visa themselves;
• the business plan, covering a description of the project, the product or service, and its financing, including the investment required and the possible sources of funds;
• the elements that add value to the Spanish economy, the innovation, or the investment opportunities the project creates.

The report is requested through ENISA’s own website. The UGE’s instructions for entrepreneur applications describe the sequence: register on enisa.es, choose the option for the entrepreneur residence authorization, and complete a questionnaire about the project section by section, with a help guide linked at the bottom of the form. The form can be saved and finished over several sessions. When it is complete, ENISA informs the UGE that an application exists and sends its report to the unit once the project has been evaluated. All technical documentation about the project goes to ENISA through that channel, not into the immigration file.

That sequence carries a practical consequence: the questionnaire is the business plan as the evaluator will see it. A project that is real but described in two paragraphs, with no figures for the investment required and no named sources of funds, gives ENISA nothing to rate on its second criterion.

From questionnaire to visa sticker

The route has two stages with two different offices. The UGE grants the residence authorization; the consulate issues the visa on the strength of that resolution. The Washington consulate’s entrepreneur visa page states the order plainly: to apply for the visa, you must already hold the initial residence authorization issued by the UGE.

The 20-day rule comes from article 76 of the law, in the consolidated text of its mobility section published by the Ministry of Economy, Commerce and Business: the UGE processes the file online, the decision belongs to the Directorate General for Migration, and if no decision is issued in 20 days the authorization is deemed granted. The same article says that filing the application extends the validity of whatever stay or residence you hold until the decision. That text was consolidated in 2018, so read it for the procedure rather than for the details of each permit; the ministry’s 2025 sheet for highly qualified professionals, another permit of the same law, repeats the 20-day rule and the positive silence.

The money and insurance test in 2026

Sufficient means are one of the general requirements of the law, and the Washington consulate puts a figure on them: 100 percent of IPREM for the entrepreneur, plus 50 percent for each family member who comes along. The consulate’s page still shows the 2025 figures, 600 euros a month or 7,200 euros a year, with 3,600 euros per relative, and dollar conversions of about $8,000 and $4,000. IPREM is unchanged for 2026 at 600 euros a month, according to the consulate’s non-lucrative visa page, so the bar in euros is the same this year. The proof is your own funds or a regular source of income, in original and copy, apostilled and translated where the documents are foreign.

Health insurance follows the same clause as the other long-stay visas. The insurer must be authorized to operate in Spain, public or private, and the policy must cover all risks normally covered for Spanish nationals for the whole authorization: preventive, diagnostic, treatment and rehabilitation care, plus urgent medical transport, with no waiting period, no copayment and no coverage limit. The consulate links the register of authorized insurers at the Directorate General for Insurance, and the UGE’s own checklist asks for the same public or private policy at the residence stage.

What the Washington consulate checks

The consular file is the second stage, and it has its own document list. Beyond the application form, a photo and a passport valid for the stay requested with two free pages and issued within the last 10 years, the consulate asks for:

• the UGE’s resolution granting initial residence, and the separate resolution for each family member;
• proof of legal residence in the United States for non-citizens, and proof of residence or in-person study in the consular district; B1/B2 visa holders cannot apply there;
• for applicants 18 and over, an FBI identity history summary issued within the 6 months before submission, authenticated with the federal Hague apostille certifying the FBI signature, and translated into Spanish by a sworn or certified translator, plus checks from any other country where you spent more than 6 months in the last 2 years;
• a responsible declaration that you have no criminal record in the countries where you lived in the last 5 years;
• the disclaimer form, and the fee: $270 for U.S. citizens since July 1, 2025, paid in cash or money order, with rates revised quarterly.

Two details on the page deserve a second look. Under “procedure” it states that the application period is 1 year from the capital investment and mentions real estate purchases; that sentence belongs to the former investor visa and has no bearing on an entrepreneur file. And the criminal record rule differs between the two stages: at the UGE, the instructions say no certificate is needed when you apply from abroad, because the consulate will ask for it later, while a certificate for the last 2 years plus the 5-year declaration is required if you file during a short stay in Spain.

Refusals come in writing with their grounds. An appeal for reconsideration goes to the consulate within 1 month of the day after notification, and a judicial appeal to the High Court of Justice of Madrid within 2 months.

Bringing your family

The law lets the spouse or partner, dependent children of any age who have not formed their own family unit, and dependent parents apply together with the entrepreneur, at the same time or later, provided they meet the general requirements. Each relative needs their own UGE resolution before the consulate stage, and the Washington page lists the proof it wants: civil registry birth or marriage certificates, a partnership registration or, for an unregistered couple, evidence of at least 1 year together or a child in common with shared cohabitation, and for adult children or parents 65 and over, documents showing financial dependence and membership of the household. Relatives file the same sections of the checklist as the entrepreneur, including insurance, the disclaimer and the fee, and the FBI check and declaration where they apply.

The money test grows with each of them, at 50 percent of IPREM per person, so a couple with two children shows 100 percent plus 150 percent, or 18,000 euros a year at 2026 figures. The family reunification guide covers the alternative for relatives who join later under the general regime, which carries a 1-year wait that this route avoids.

Entrepreneur, telework or non-lucrative

Three long-stay routes look alike from the U.S. and answer different questions. The non-lucrative visa is for living on income without working, and its guide explains why remote work for your own company is ruled out there. The digital nomad visa is for working remotely for employers or clients outside Spain, with rules on the share of Spanish business allowed, covered in the telework guide. The entrepreneur permit is for building a company in Spain, and it is the only one of the three whose central document is a business plan rather than an income statement.

Graduates of Spanish universities have a fourth path in. The ministry’s job-search permit gives holders of at least a bachelor’s degree 24 months to look for work or to start a business project, without working in the meantime; once the project is under way, the entrepreneur authorization is the permit to move to, as the student visa guide explains.

Where entrepreneur files stall

• A thin financing section. ENISA’s second criterion names the investment required and the possible sources of funds. A plan that leaves both blank cannot pass it, however good the product.
• Unnamed partners. ENISA assesses each partner’s participation. A co-founder who does not appear in the questionnaire is a gap in the profile criterion, not a detail.
• Insurance with a deductible. The consulate refuses policies with a copayment, a waiting period or a coverage limit; check the three clauses before paying the premium.
• Two clocks on the FBI check. The consulate counts 6 months from the issue date, and the apostille and the sworn translation have to fit inside that window.
• A partial passport scan. The UGE wants every page of the passport, stamped or blank, in a single upload of up to 24 MB.
• Filing during a 90-day visit. Applicants on a short stay owe the UGE criminal record certificates for the last 2 years and the 5-year declaration; applicants abroad do not, until the consulate.

Write the plan before you book the flight

The next action is to draft the three sections ENISA rates, in Spanish, with figures: who you are and what you will do in the company, what the product is and how it is funded, and what it adds to the Spanish economy. A founder with a written plan, identified funding and apostilled documents can file the UGE application alone, since the questionnaire and the online office are built for the applicant. Several partners, a regulated activity that needs its own sector license, or an existing Spanish company are the cases where a lawyer or gestor earns the fee. The Spain Navigator puts every step of your move to Spain in order, from the visa to settling in.