Can you be refused a Spain digital nomad visa for not having a degree, and what does trying again cost?

A refusal without a clear reason

The answer was no, and the reason was a guess. Call them the Ellises. It isn't their name. They are a couple, both working as software developers, with a high school diploma and no university degree, and more than three years of experience with official social security contributions behind them. They had applied for Spain's digital nomad visa, and been refused.

"One of the possible reasons," they wrote, was the missing degree. So they asked the group three things. Had anyone been approved with three years of experience instead of a degree? What documents did they send? And had anyone applied while working for a family-owned company, as they do?

The first replies were encouraging. "Lots of people have applied and got approved with 3 years relevant work experience," one member wrote, but reference letters or contracts alone were not enough: accreditation from the tax office or Social Security went in too. Someone who helps applicants said most of their clients use experience. One member had been approved with a single letter from a client of three years, not notarised.

Then the warnings. The simple letter "has changed and it's more strict now," one member wrote: official, apostilled proof (stamped so a foreign public document is valid in Spain) goes in on top of the experience letter. Another said that for renewals, US tax forms used as proof go in apostilled and with a sworn translation. Another doubted the degree was the real reason at all, and asked how long they had owned the business, whether their clients were real businesses, and how many owners there were. One reply mentioned "one appeal in progress because of this." And a developer with only an associate degree wrote: "Sometimes same applications have different resolutions without reason. I would try to apply again."

We do not know whether the Ellises appealed, applied again, or stopped.

Their position has a short name: a refusal without a clear reason. When you know why you were refused, you know what to fix. When you are choosing between three possible reasons, a second attempt can mean paying to fix all three: new official records, new apostilles, new sworn translations, and a new application with its own fee. An appeal is a separate path, with its own cost and its own wait.

This is one couple's account and one group's replies, not legal advice. How the office weighs experience against a degree can vary from file to file, and the official requirements are the place to confirm it before acting.

For anyone holding a quote, refusal is where quotes tend to go quiet. Most say what the first application costs. Fewer say what happens after a no: whether the fee covers a second application, whether an appeal is extra, and who pays for documents the office wants a second time.

A refusal costs twice when nobody can say what to change.

For Spain's digital nomad visa, we have fees from 9 firms on file. The typical fee is about €1,000. The middle half sit between €950 and €4,000. Some cover the application only, some the full package.

If you were refused, did you find out why? What did the second attempt cost?

Based on a real case, shared publicly in an online group and anonymised. Fees on file as of November 2026.