A family’s Spain digital nomad visa application at the San Francisco consulate

Last Updated on March 18, 2026 by Bruno Bianchi

Approved today for the Spain Digital Nomad Visa! We are a family of four who applied through the consulate in San Francisco on June 16th.

My husband was the primary applicant as a W2 employee in the U.S. We submitted both a SSA certificate (specified an address in Spain for a distributor of his company’s products and were able to obtain the certificate that way; it seemed sketchy, but did this at the advice of our lawyer) as well as a letter from his employer stating that they will pay into Spanish social security on his behalf (almost certainly what got us in and not the SSA certificate). We realize he is in a very rare and fortunate situation with their willingness to do this.

We really appreciate the support and collective expertise offered by Spainguru Spain Digital Nomad Visa group as we navigated this convoluted process over the past several months.

Q&As

How long did you have to wait for the SSA Certificate?

My husband was able to speak with someone in the Social Security office and he received the certificate within two weeks of applying for it. It is worth noting, though, that this was shortly after the guidelines for the visa were released and perhaps before it was generally settled that these would not be issued for W2 employees in the US for telework.

I think the certificate was probably ignored in our application because the application also included assurance from the employer that they would pay into Spanish social security

So they took over a month to process your application, not 10 working days as they officially have?

There is no accountability or transparency regarding the 10 days. It is a paper process, so the date of submission by the applicant and the official date of application (when they look at it, enter it into the system, and give you a proof of receipt) can be totally different dates. In our case it was almost 3 weeks after we submitted our documents to the consulate. We are awaiting the outcome and hope to follow in Michelle’s footsteps in about a week if they process us in a similar time frame

I’m confused the wisdom this far has been that you cannot be a w2?

You can be a W2 but your employer has to be willing to pay into Spanish SS from what I understand. This is something most employers will not do. My husband is a W-2 employee, not autonomo, so it’s the company he works for that has contracted with the payroll company in Spain.

At Spainguru.es we highly recommend to obtain legal advise from vetted immigration experts with a track record of Spain Digital Nomad Visa applications.

Bruno Bianchi CEO & Spain Immigration Expert

Bruno Bianchi is the founder and CEO of Spainguru, Spain's largest expat immigration community with 150,000+ members. Since 2014 he has helped thousands of people relocate to Spain through expert guides, webinars and vetted professional services covering visas, residency, taxes and life in Spain.

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