Last Updated on March 18, 2026 by Bruno Bianchi
Question about the non lucrative Spain visa application
I was just reading through the requirements for the non lucrative Spain visa and read that you cannot have a mortgage in the US while residing in Spain. Can this be right? What if you are just going to Spain for a few years and then plan to return to the US?
Answers
These are the answers of some Facebook group members:
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Start the Moving to Spain Hub →“I was shocked when I learned that too. It’s one of the reasons we are reconsidering Spain as an early retirement option. However, one thing I was told is that different consulates have different rules. I’m in CA and our consulate requires the selling. However, one of the others (don’t remember which) does not”
“We have a mortgage and applied for non lucrative Spain visa through the Los Angeles consulate and were approved in February 2022. The mortgage can be seen in our taxes so I was very upfront about it and showed that we have enough assets to cover our mortgage payments for over a year in addition to the minimum financial requirements for the visa and they were ok with it”
“LA is the consulate who asks. If you can show enough assets to cover the mortgage or the rental income they will not make a big stink most of the time. I’ve seen a few outright refused so they have to change residency status to somewhere easy like Florida”
“We have a mortgage and were approved through the LA consulate in Feb 2021. We showed the rental income the house was making, though the consulate said that wouldn’t count in case something happened with the renter. They want to know you can cover the mortgage payments in case anything happens.”
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Explore Cities →“Not all consulates had that requirement when we originally got our visas in 2020”
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