IPREM and SMI: the two indexes behind every Spain visa income figure
Plain Spain editorial team · Last reviewed · 9 min read
Every income figure you have read about a Spanish visa is a multiple of one of two published indexes. The Non-Lucrative Visa multiplies an index called IPREM. The Digital Nomad Visa multiplies the minimum wage, the SMI. Neither index was written for immigration. IPREM is a general means-test benchmark, the SMI is the minimum wage, and the visa rules borrow both.
That is why the numbers on forums disagree. People quote the multiple correctly and the index wrongly, or they quote a figure from the year before last. Once you know which index your visa reads and what it is worth this year, you can work out your own requirement in about a minute, including your family's.
Key takeawaysLink to this section
- IPREM is the benchmark income figure Spanish law uses for means tests. In 2026 it is €600 a month, and it has not moved since 2023.
- SMI is the statutory minimum wage, reset by decree most years. For 2026 it is €1,221 a month over fourteen payments, with an annual floor of €17,094.
- The Non-Lucrative Visa asks for 400% of monthly IPREM, plus 100% of it again for each family member.
- The Digital Nomad Visa asks for 200% of SMI, plus 75% for the first family member and 25% for each one after.
- The same monthly figure can be shown as income or as savings, but savings are tested against the whole period you are asking for, not against one month.
What is IPREM?Link to this section
IPREM is the reference income figure Spanish law uses when it wants to means-test something without tying the test to the minimum wage. The full name is the indicador público de renta de efectos múltiples, the public multi-purpose income indicator, and it is set in the state budget law rather than by a standalone decree.
For 2026 it is worth €600 a month. That value comes from the ninetieth additional provision of Ley 31/2022, the 2023 budget law, whose consolidated text still reads "El IPREM mensual, 600 euros".
The same provision publishes the index in four forms, and the visa rules use one of them:
| IPREM 2026 | Value | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Daily | €20 | Stated in the same provision |
| Monthly | €600 | The figure the visa rules multiply |
| Annual, twelve payments | €7,200 | The monthly figure twelve times |
| Annual, fourteen payments | €8,400 | Used where a rule counts the two extra payments |
Both visa rules quote the monthly value, so the annual figures are not a second, gentler test you can choose instead.
Why is IPREM the same as it was in 2023?Link to this section
Because it lives in the budget. A new IPREM arrives only when a new Ley de Presupuestos Generales del Estado is passed, and since Ley 31/2022 the budgets have been extended rather than replaced. The figure has therefore been frozen since 2023, which is unusual and worth knowing: it means an income bar that looks like it should rise with inflation has not.
It also means the figure can move without much warning. If a budget law passes, the new IPREM applies from the day it takes effect, and every non-lucrative income figure moves with it.
What is the SMI, and why do two different monthly figures exist?Link to this section
SMI is Spain's statutory minimum wage, the salario mínimo interprofesional, and unlike IPREM it is normally reset every year by royal decree. The 2026 figure comes from Real Decreto 126/2026, whose article 1 fixes it at "40,70 euros/día o 1 221 euros/mes": €1,221 a month.
Article 3 of the same decree then sets an annual floor of €17,094, which is where the confusion starts. Spanish salaries are conventionally paid in twelve monthly amounts plus two extra payments, the pagas extraordinarias that article 4 provides for, so the monthly figure is paid fourteen times a year rather than twelve. Fourteen payments of the monthly figure produce exactly the annual floor.
Spread that same annual floor across twelve months instead, and the monthly figure becomes €1,424.50. Both figures describe one wage, divided by a different number of payments.
No official text says which of the two readings the visa uses. The threshold applied in practice, twice the twelve-payment figure, is the one this site uses, and it follows the Large Companies Unit's habit of assessing gross annual income. So when one page tells you the Spanish minimum wage is one figure and another tells you it is a larger one, neither is wrong and neither is the visa threshold.
How does the Non-Lucrative Visa use IPREM?Link to this section
It multiplies the monthly IPREM by four, then adds one more IPREM for every family member on the application. The rule is in article 62.1 of the immigration regulation, RD 1155/2024, and on the ministry's own non-lucrative residence sheet: 400% of IPREM for your own upkeep, and 100% of IPREM for each dependent family member, on top.
The arithmetic, in full:
- Main applicant: 4 × €600 = €2,400 a month, which is €28,800 across a year.
- Each family member: 1 × €600 = €600 a month more, or €7,200 a year.
| Household | Monthly income | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Just you | €2,400 | €28,800 |
| You + 1 family member | €3,000 | €36,000 |
| You + 2 family members | €3,600 | €43,200 |
| You + 3 family members | €4,200 | €50,400 |
Article 62.2 adds the rule that catches people applying on savings rather than on a monthly income: the total has to represent the monthly amount for the length of the authorization you are asking for. A first application covers one year, so a single applicant showing savings alone is showing €28,800.
The same multiples come back at renewal, because article 62.1 says its amounts apply at the moment of the visa application or of the renewal of the authorization. The monthly bar does not rise. What changes is the period: a renewal is granted for two years, so a lump sum at renewal is measured against €57,600 over the two years, plus €14,400 per dependent over the two years. Both of those are two-year totals. Anyone who describes them as annual figures has doubled the real yearly bar.
How does the Digital Nomad Visa use SMI?Link to this section
It multiplies the SMI by two for the main applicant, then adds 75% of it for the first family member and 25% for each additional one. The percentages are in the joint instruction that governs international teleworkers and on the UGE document checklist, which also settles a question people get wrong: the amounts are gross, brutas antes de retenciones, before any withholding.
Working from the twelve-payment monthly figure of €1,424.50:
- Main applicant: 2 × €1,424.50 = €2,849 a month, or €34,188 gross a year.
- First family member: 0.75 × €1,424.50 = €1,068.38 a month more.
- Each additional member: 0.25 × €1,424.50 = €356.13 a month more.
| Household | Monthly income | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Just you | €2,849 | €34,188 |
| You + 1 family member | €3,917.38 | €47,008.56 |
| You + 2 family members | €4,273.51 | €51,282.12 |
| You + 3 family members | €4,629.64 | €55,555.68 |
How do I work out my own number?Link to this section
Five steps.
- Pick your index by how you are paid, not by where you live. Money you receive without working for it, such as a pension, rent or investment income, points at the Non-Lucrative Visa and IPREM. Money you earn by working remotely for a company outside Spain points at the Digital Nomad Visa and SMI. The non-lucrative route is genuinely non-lucrative: the funds have to be there whether or not you work, and the visa does not permit working in Spain. The route-by-route paperwork sits in our non-lucrative application walkthrough and the digital nomad walkthrough.
- Count the household, and count it by route, because the two routes define family differently. On the Non-Lucrative Visa the list is closed: your spouse, registered partner or proven stable partner; your unmarried minor children; and adult children who cannot provide for themselves because of a disability or their state of health. That is art. 61.3 of RD 1155/2024, and a dependent parent is not on it. On the Digital Nomad Visa it is your spouse or a partner in an equivalent relationship, dependent children, and dependent ascendants, under art. 62.4 of Ley 14/2013. A parent you support counts on that route and on no other. You claim the main applicant's multiple once, then one add-on for each person who qualifies on your route.
- Multiply and add. A couple on the non-lucrative route needs €3,000 a month between them. The same couple on the digital nomad route needs €3,917.38 gross, and with two children it becomes €4,629.64.
- Turn it into a lump sum if that is what you are showing. Multiply the monthly total by the number of months in the authorization you are requesting. The non-lucrative rules accept a wide range of proof for this, including bank certificates, property titles and certified cheques, not only a salary landing every month.
- Convert your currency with room to spare. The regulation asks for the amount in euros or its legal equivalent in foreign currency, so an account held in another currency gets converted at some point in the process. In our experience a file that clears the bar by a few percent is a file that can fall under it while exchange rates move.
If you would rather have the arithmetic done for you, our eligibility check asks six questions and returns the figure for your household and route.
Do these numbers change every year?Link to this section
The SMI usually does. IPREM currently does not.
A new SMI arrives as a royal decree, and it can land well after the year it governs has started. The 2026 decree was published on 19 February 2026, in force the next day, with effect from 1 January to 31 December 2026. For the first weeks of the year, then, every digital nomad figure in circulation was still the previous year's, and anyone budgeting from it was budgeting low.
IPREM changes only when a state budget law changes it. That has not happened since 2023, so every non-lucrative figure on this site has been stable for three years. Nobody can tell you when the next budget will pass, which is the honest answer to the question of when this number moves next.
We re-check every published SMI decree and every state budget law, because those are the two events that can move a threshold, and we re-read the official source pages behind these figures on a fixed schedule, because ministry pages get rewritten without announcement. The date at the top of this guide is the last day someone read every source in this article in its original text, not the last day a word was edited.
The index tells you the bar, not whether your evidence clears it. A pension comfortably above 400% of IPREM can still be refused if it is documented in a way the consulate will not accept, and a salary above 200% of SMI does not help if the employer letter leaves out what the checklist asks for. Working out the number is usually the quickest part of the application.