What the tasa is
Spanish immigration applications carry an administrative fee, a tasa, set each year by the Ministry. For the authorisations of Law 14/2013, which is where the Digital Nomad Visa lives, the fee is collected on form 790 with code 038. The Ministry’s document list for international teleworkers puts it among the mandatory items, with the payment receipt attached if the form itself does not show payment.
For 2026 the amount for an initial application is €73.26. That is per application, not per family. A couple with two children who file together pay it four times, once on each file, because each family member’s application is a separate procedure with its own form and its own fee.
When and how it is paid
The fee is paid before the application is submitted, not after. The Ministry’s questions-and-answers document describes the process: the fee is paid online in advance, by bank card, by debit from a Spanish account, or by Bizum, and the payment produces a reference number called the NRC. That number is entered in the application. The receipt showing the payment is filed with the rest of the documents.
Two practical consequences follow. First, the fee has to be paid in a way that generates an NRC, which means the Ministry’s own online payment platform, not a bank transfer from the United States. Second, the payment and the filing have to be coordinated, because the number produced by one goes into the other. A file lodged without the NRC or without the receipt is incomplete and invites a request for correction that stops the clock.
Paying it from the United States
An applicant in Spain with a Spanish bank card can pay the fee directly. An applicant paying from the United States can pay by card as long as the card works for online payments in Spain, which most U.S. cards do. Bizum and account debit need a Spanish account.
The simpler route, and the one I use, is the option the Ministry’s form provides for paying on behalf of another person. The payer selects that option, enters the applicant’s details in the authorisation section, and the payment is recorded against the applicant’s file. In my engagements the fee is included in the price and I pay it for the client and for each family member before filing, so the NRC and the receipt are in the file on the day it is lodged and nobody has to work out a Spanish tax form from a U.S. time zone.
What the fee does not cover
The tasa is the State’s charge for processing the application. It does not cover the residence card issued after approval, the TIE, which has its own fee paid at the police appointment. It does not cover apostilles, sworn translations, insurance or the FBI check, which are paid to the bodies that issue them. And it does not cover a renewal, which is a new application with its own fee. The cost guide puts every line in one place.
If the application is refused
The fee is not returned. It pays for the examination of the file, not for a favourable answer. That is one more reason to file once, complete, rather than to test the process with a thin application. A refusal is not a ban and a new filing is a new procedure with a new fee, but it is a cost and a delay nobody needs. The refusals guide explains the options if it happens.
The bottom line
The government fee is small and fixed. What matters is that it is paid before filing, through the Ministry’s platform so an NRC is produced, once per applicant including each family member, with the receipt in the file. Paid that way, it is the least interesting line in the whole application, which is exactly what it should be. The document checklist shows where it sits among everything else the UGE asks for.
Sources: Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, document list for initial applications by international teleworkers and “Preguntas frecuentes. Autorizaciones de residencia y trabajo de teletrabajadores internacionales” · Law 14/2013 as amended by Ley 28/2022. Fee amount for 2026. Last updated: 3 October 2026.