How an adult can get residency in Europe with just money

Moving abroad as an adult is easier than doing it in youth: you have finances, work experience, achievements. In Europe, you can get a residence permit in 2–3 months with almost no other requirements, if you have remote income or are willing to arrange it. Spain, France, the Netherlands, the UK, and Portugal offer programs available to those who can afford them.

Spain: residency in 2 months via Digital Nomad Visa

The digital nomad program is one of the easiest ways to get a residence permit in Europe. The process looks like this: first, you need to get a Schengen tourist visa from any EU country — this isn’t hard, even if you’re abroad. For example, you can come to Yerevan and get a Schengen visa there without returning home.

After arriving in Spain with a tourist visa, you submit your residency application online. About three weeks later, you’re invited to give fingerprints. Another three to four weeks after that, you receive your residence card. In total — about two months.

The issued residence permit is valid for three years and remains valid even if you’re not physically in Spain, haven’t become a tax resident, and don’t pay taxes or social security contributions. Nobody checks this — the permit stays valid regardless.

Main requirement: remote income

For the digital nomad program, you need to prove you have remote income from some source. For example, you work remotely for a company, or provide services to other companies and individuals.

However, if you don’t have remote work but have money, you can work around this requirement. There are various ways to arrange an employment contract and documents confirming remote work — for instance, getting hired by a Moscow-based company that will provide the necessary paperwork. So if your main goal is to get residency as quickly as possible, money solves the problem.

Other European countries for those with money

The EU has 27 countries, and almost every one has a way to get residency if you have the funds. A set of more or less universal programs operates in Spain, France, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, and several other countries.

The choice of a specific country and program depends heavily on your goals. For example, if you need residency for 3–4 years without any obligation to actually live in the country, Spain or France are great options. In these countries, nobody cares whether you’re physically present or whether you’ve become a tax resident.

Why get a residence permit

A residence permit opens up several opportunities. First, there’s freedom of movement: holding a residence permit from any Schengen country lets you move freely between them. The exception is Latvia, which recently introduced a special form even for people arriving from the Schengen area.

Second, a residence permit gives you the right to study, work, and start businesses within the EU, open bank accounts, and unblock funds that fell under sanctions or inherited property.

Third, a residence permit grants resident rights. In Spain, for example, it gives you the right to free healthcare on equal footing with citizens — with no distinction between a resident and a native.

Renewing residency and the path to citizenship

If your goal is to eventually get citizenship, then after three years, when your residence permit expires, you need to renew it. To do this, you must prove to the immigration authorities that the chosen country is the center of your economic and personal interests.

In practice, this means: you pay taxes in the country, you have a rental agreement or own property, your family lives there, and your children attend local schools. In addition, you need to meet the criteria of the specific program under which you got your residency: for example, for the Digital Nomad Visa, you need to confirm that your remote income remains at the same level.

In no country is this path easy. It’s not enough to just get the permit and do nothing. You need to live in the country and gather evidence of the center of your interests. In each of the mentioned countries — Spain, the Netherlands, France, the UK — the renewal criteria are similar.

Program nuances: contributions and obligations

There’s often talk of a social security contribution that digital nomads in Spain are supposedly required to pay. However, this depends on how you obtained the visa. If done correctly, you won’t have any obligation to register as self-employed (autónomo) in Spain at all.

The point is that the program can be arranged in different ways, and the chosen method determines what financial obligations you take on.