Spain had a noisy October. The prime minister dissolved parliament, the election moved forward to 29 November, the two big unions called a general strike over housing, and the immigration office started asking digital nomad applicants for original documents instead of copies. In the middle of all that, the country was named best in the world for quality of life by expats. Fifth year in a row.
If you live in Spain, or you are about to move there, here is what actually touches your paperwork.
The election does not freeze your application
Dissolving parliament cancels laws that were still being debated. It does not cancel rules that are already in force. Immigration offices keep working, appointments keep being handed out, and you can file a first residence permit, a renewal or a status change exactly as before.
The practical advice going around Madrid is simple: if you already have a plan, do it now. New governments like a quick win in their first hundred days, and one law can change the terms of a specific permit. Nothing has changed yet. That is the point.
Worth reading the opposition programme anyway. The Popular Party wants a points-based visa on the Canadian model, residency through arraigo tied to an actual job contract, higher income thresholds for family reunification, and B2 Spanish for citizenship instead of A2. None of that is law. Polls are polls, and a full cycle from election to implementation takes a year or two. But if your route depends on arraigo or on a low income threshold, you now know which way the wind could blow.
11 November: general strike, plan around it
CCOO and UGT have called a 24-hour general strike for Wednesday 11 November. First joint strike by the two largest unions in fourteen years. The demand is affordable housing and wages that cover rent.
Strike days in Spain are uneven rather than dead. Some transport runs, some does not. Public offices run thin. If you have an Extranjería appointment or a flight that day, move it if you can. And if you are signing a rental contract this autumn, read the terms as they are on the day you sign, not as they were described in a guide from last month.
Digital nomad visa: bring the originals
This is the change that will cost people time and money. Authorities found forged documents in the pile, so now even a properly apostilled original goes through an extra authenticity check. If the office asks for extra paperwork you have ten days to deliver it. Verifying an apostille inside ten days is not always possible, especially if the document has to come from another continent.
Three things that help. Carry originals to the appointment, not copies. Use a sworn translator from the official register who can sign electronically, and skip the cheap agencies that cannot prove their status. Start collecting documents months before you book flights, not weeks. If the digital nomad route does not fit your situation, look at a permit with clearer grounds instead of forcing this one.
The visa itself still works and approvals still come through. The scrutiny changed, not the programme.
The numbers behind the noise
Spain registered 92,327 new workers in September, the best September on record. Total employment is around 22.5 million, unemployment is down to 2.38 million, the lowest since September 2007. Foreigners made up roughly 91% of that growth and now account for about 16% of everyone employed. A large part of it comes from the regularisation programme finally clearing its backlog, which pushed people out of informal work and into contracts and tax returns.
So the political mood is tense and the labour market is, oddly, having its best autumn in years. Both things are true at once.
Quality of life, again
InterNations put Spain first out of 31 countries for quality of life in its Expat Insider 2026 survey, sixth overall worldwide and first in Europe. Eighth for personal finance, twenty-sixth for work and career. That last number explains a lot. People do not move to Spain for the career ladder. They move for the life, with a remote job already in hand or a business of their own.
It is also why the evenings matter. After the appointment, the translator and the bank, you want your own news and your own football, not a channel guide in a language you are still learning. Our piece on watching your home country’s TV abroad covers the practical side, and the best IPTV for expats guide explains what to look for in a provider. If you are weighing up a move to Portugal instead, the new Portuguese immigration rules are a useful comparison.
Related reading
- Where Expats Are Happiest in 2026, and Where They’re Not
- Portugal Just Tightened Its Immigration Rules
- The 30% Ruling Drops to 27% in 2027
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