Moving to Spain from the US

US passport holders can visit Spain visa-free for up to 90 days, but living there takes a residence permit. The self-funded residency routes we track start at an income of about $2,793 a month, and our residency index rates Spain 72/100 for US citizens (comparatively open). We estimate €2,987 a month for a couple living centrally in Bilbao and €3,256 in Madrid. Spain is in our high tax tier. Check the official requirements before you apply.

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Short stays
Visa-free 90 days
US passport
Residency
72/100
Comparatively open, our index
Tax tier
High
High personal income tax
Est. cost for two
From €2,987/mo
Bilbao, our estimate

Living there long term

Our residency index: 72/100, comparatively open. It is our own rating of how realistic long-term residency in Spain is for US citizens, based on the routes Spain publishes. Realistic self-funded routes are the non-lucrative visa (passive income/sufficient means) and the digital nomad visa (remote work), alongside sponsored work permits and the EU Blue Card; the property-based golden visa was abolished in April 2025, so no capital-investment route remains. EUR converted at 1.1637 USD/EUR as of 2026-06.

The cheapest self-funded routes we track:

  • Income: about $2,793 a month (Spain non-lucrative (non-working) residence visa, 400% of IPREM = EUR 2,400/mo (EUR 28,800/yr), single applicant; as of June 2026)

Check the official requirements before you apply: amounts, conditions and exchange rates change, and what a couple needs can differ from a single applicant's threshold.

For short visits, US passport holders can visit visa-free for up to 90 days, according to the passport-index dataset. Short-stay entry covers visits; living there takes a residence permit.

Source: OurNextCity residency dataset, hand-reviewed approximations researched against published immigration rules, figures as of June 2026. Not legal advice: check the official source before you apply. Short-stay entry from the passport-index dataset (ilyankou, MIT).

Where in Spain to start

Ranked by our match model for a typical couple who both hold US passports, using the preset answers of our best places to live list. Your own answers would change the order. We pick the cities, up to five, by how often English Wikipedia readers looked them up over the past year.

  1. 1. Bilbao

    90% match
    Est. cost
    €2,987/mo
    Avg temp
    15°C
    Safety index
    65/100

  2. 2. Barcelona

    89% match
    Est. cost
    €3,177/mo
    Avg temp
    17°C
    Safety index
    65/100

  3. 3. Madrid

    88% match
    Est. cost
    €3,256/mo
    Avg temp
    16°C
    Safety index
    65/100

  4. 4. Valencia

    88% match
    Est. cost
    €3,091/mo
    Avg temp
    18°C
    Safety index
    65/100

  5. 5. Seville

    85% match
    Est. cost
    €3,069/mo
    Avg temp
    20°C
    Safety index
    65/100

Cost of living for two

Our estimate for a couple living centrally runs from €2,987 a month in Bilbao to €3,256 in Madrid. For comparison, we estimate €4,640 a month in New York City. Use these figures to compare places rather than to set a budget.

Source: our cost model: a country-level cost-of-living index scaled for city size, from our city dataset (last rebuilt June 2026). An estimate, not a survey of current prices.

Taxes

Spain is in our high tax tier (high personal income tax); the US is in our low to medium tax tier (moderate personal income tax). Tiers describe each country's own income tax. They do not cover tax you may still owe in the US after you leave, or the treaty between the two countries, so check both with a tax adviser before you move.

Source: OurNextCity tax tiers, assigned by hand from each country's top marginal personal income tax rate and overall tax reputation, with no fixed rate cut-offs. Coarse by design; not tax advice.

Compare cities in Spain

Lists with cities in Spain

Moving to Spain from elsewhere

Every country and origin we cover

How we built this page

Every figure here comes from the datasets behind our city and country pages:

  • Short-stay entry: the passport-index dataset (ilyankou, MIT license), which records the entry rule for short visits on each passport.
  • Residency index, routes and thresholds: the OurNextCity residency dataset, hand-reviewed against published immigration rules, figures as of June 2026. It is a summary, not legal advice.
  • City ranking: our match model, the one behind the quiz, run with a typical couple's preset answers and both partners holding US passports. It ranks up to five of the country's best-known cities: of the cities in our quiz (100,000 people or more, capitals and a few towns movers seek out, such as Faro), the five most read about on English Wikipedia over the past year. It folds suburbs into their main city and leaves out countries with a residency index under 40 and areas under a US State Department Level 4 advisory, as our best-cities lists do.
  • Costs: our cost model, a country-level cost-of-living index scaled for city size, from our city dataset (last rebuilt June 2026).
  • Tax tiers: three coarse bands we assign by hand from each country's top marginal personal income tax rate and overall tax reputation.