Do you need your Spain non-lucrative visa funds in a Spanish bank account to renew?

The attorney's own rule

Call them the Hollands. It isn't their name. They were living in Spain on the non-lucrative visa, the one for people who live on savings, a pension or passive income and are not allowed to work. Their first renewal was coming up, for years two and three. And their attorney had just told them two things.

First, to be approved they needed $80,000 in their Spanish bank account, and they were told to move more money over. Second, they needed a newly issued marriage certificate with an apostille (the official stamp that makes a document valid abroad). It was ordered, a month away.

The Hollands weren't short of money. They had €65,000 in their Spanish current account, much more in the US, and a monthly US pension payment on top. What they couldn't see was why the money had to sit in Spain: four times the IPREM (Spain's official reference figure for income thresholds) for 24 months. And they could find nothing in writing saying a renewal needed a new marriage certificate. So they asked the group.

The replies didn't line up with the attorney. One member renewed with all their money in a UK bank account and wasn't asked to move it to Spain. A couple renewed using funds in a US account, keeping only a small amount in Spain for regular bills. Another renewed on US bank statements that had to be translated, notarised and apostilled, which slowed things but went through. Several put the point the same way: the funds need to be accessible and documented, or there needs to be enough passive income to cover the period.

On the marriage certificate, couples who renewed around Malaga and in Cádiz province said no new one was needed. One couple was asked for theirs, but not a newly issued copy. Others thought it depended on the region, or on the official.

So was $80,000 in Spain the rule, or the attorney's own rule? The replies point to the second, at least in the offices they renewed in. The thread can't say what the Hollands' own office would ask for, or what they decided.

This is one couple's account, not legal advice. Renewal requirements can vary between regional offices, and the official source is the place to check before acting.

That matters to anyone weighing a quote from a firm. Some of the cost of advice never appears on the invoice. Moving a large sum across currencies can mean conversion and transfer costs. A fresh certificate with an apostille means another fee and another month. Neither is the firm's fee. Both follow from what the firm says to produce. The question most quotes leave unanswered: when a balance or a document is called "required", is that the published rule, or the firm's own margin of safety?

A renewal costs the fee, plus whatever you're told to produce for it. The second part depends on who is telling you.

For Spain's non-lucrative visa, we have fees from 8 firms on file. The typical fee is about €950. The middle half sit between €762 and €4,625. Some cover the application only, some the full package.

When you renewed, what were you asked to show, and where did the money have to be?

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