Spain Ends Golden Visa Under Organic Law 1/2025 and Entrepreneurs Law

(SPAIN) — Spain ended all Golden Visa routes nationwide under Organic Law 1/2025, closing the investor-residence channels created by the Entrepreneurs Law and stopping new applications from April 3, 2025.

Organic Law 1/2025, published in the Official State Gazette on January 3, 2025, deleted Articles 63–67 of Law 14/2013. Those provisions had governed investor visas tied to real estate, public debt, shares and investment funds, bank deposits, and projects of general interest.

The repeal preserved earlier filings. Applications submitted before April 3, 2025 continue under the previous rules, while existing holders may renew and keep their residence rights, including family members covered in pre-April 3 filings.

Congress of Deputies approved the repeal in November 2024 by 179 votes to 169, with no abstentions. The measure passed through a Socialist Party amendment to a justice-efficiency bill after the government had signaled the move in April 2024.

La Moncloa later repeated the cutoff date in a government communication that said, “On April 3, 2025 the end of the ‘Golden Visas’ comes into force… this law completely repeals residence visas for investors.” Housing and Urban Agenda Minister Isabel Rodríguez provided the quote context cited in that communication.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez had framed the policy as part of a housing push. He said “housing is a right, not a speculative business.”

Legal Basis and Effective Date

Final Provision 21 of Organic Law 1/2025 removed the legal core of the program by leaving without content Articles 63, 64, 65, 66 and 67 of Law 14/2013. Final Provision 38 set the general entry into force three months after publication, making April 3, 2025 the operative date.

That legal change effectively abolished the Golden Visa across Spain rather than limiting the measure to property purchases. Once the repeal took effect, authorities no longer accepted new investor-visa filings under any of the routes previously listed in the law.

The regime had begun with Law 14/2013 and was implemented in 2014. It offered residency to foreigners who invested at least €500,000 in residential property, €2,000,000 in Spanish public debt, or €1,000,000 in Spanish shares, investment funds, venture funds, or a bank deposit, or who backed a business project deemed of general interest.

Those thresholds were central to Spain’s investor-residence offer for more than a decade. Organic Law 1/2025 removed them from the statute book by deleting the underlying articles.

Government Rationale and Housing Policy

The government’s rationale combined housing affordability with wider concern over where the permits were being used. Official communications in 2024 and 2025 presented the repeal as a housing-policy measure, while broader European pressure had pushed member states to tighten investor-migration channels.

By the time Spain moved to end the program, official data showed 22,430 Golden Visas had been granted up to 2023. The permits were heavily concentrated in a handful of areas, with 93% located in Barcelona, Madrid, Málaga, Alicante, the Balearic Islands, Girona and Valencia.

The nationality pattern also showed a narrow profile. About 75% of permits went to Asians, mainly Chinese nationals, and to non-EU Europeans, notably from Russia, Ukraine, and the post-Brexit UK.

That concentration sharpened the political argument around housing. The government had first announced in April 2024 that it would move against the investment-property route, but the final law went further and repealed all investor-visa channels in the Entrepreneurs Law.

Transitional Rules for Existing Holders

For applicants already in the system, the transitional rules remain decisive. Anyone who filed before April 3, 2025 stays under the old regime, and existing residence rights continue for permit holders and their relatives included in those earlier applications.

That grandfathering means Spain did not retroactively cancel status already granted. It instead closed the front door for new Golden Visa cases while preserving renewal rights for people already admitted.

Spain still offers other immigration routes. Non-investor categories remain available for highly qualified professionals, entrepreneurs under other provisions, digital nomads, students and family members, even though there is no replacement investor-visa channel.

That distinction matters for applicants who still want to move to Spain in 2026. The country has ended the Golden Visa, but it has not closed other residence pathways outside the repealed investor provisions.

What Was Removed from the Entrepreneurs Law

The legal basis for the old system sat in the Entrepreneurs Law, formally Law 14/2013. By deleting Articles 63–67, Organic Law 1/2025 dismantled the part of that law that had made investor residence possible.

The timing also drew a clear line between past and future cases. January 3, 2025 marked publication in the Official State Gazette, and April 3, 2025 marked the day new investor-visa applications stopped.

Government statements after that date left little room for doubt about scope. Officials described the repeal as the end of residence visas for investors, and legal summaries confirmed that the abolition covered real estate, financial instruments, deposits and projects.

Comparison With Hungary’s Investor Route

Spain’s decision stands out more sharply because another European country moved in the opposite direction. Hungary reintroduced an investor-residence regime through its Guest Investor Residence Permit, often described as a golden visa, under Act XC of 2023.

That framework took effect on January 1, 2024, and the new investor route became active on July 1, 2024. As of 2026, the Hungarian regime remains in force.

Hungary’s program has changed since launch. The planned €500,000 direct residential real-estate purchase option, which had been due to start on January 1, 2025, did not go live and was later removed.

Investors instead use other routes. Those include a €250,000 investment in units of a government-registered Hungarian real-estate investment fund and a €1,000,000 donation to a designated higher-education institution maintained by a public-interest asset-management foundation.

Hungary also built a two-step process around entry and residence. Applicants first seek a Guest Investor Visa to enter the country and complete the pledged investment, then apply for the Guest Investor Residence Permit.

The residence permit can run for up to 10 years and may be renewed for another 10 years. Spouses and minor children can be included.

Hungarian procedures require applicants to apply for the residence permit within 30 days after entering the country with a Guest Investor Visa, through the competent regional office or online via the Enter Hungary platform. The National Directorate-General for Aliens Policing, known as OIF, publishes implementing details and procedures.

Current Impact

That contrast leaves southern and central Europe moving in different directions on investor migration. Spain shut every route in its Golden Visa system, while Hungary kept an active program but narrowed its options.

In Spain, the end of the program now sits firmly in the past tense. The political debate played out in 2024, the law arrived at the start of 2025, and the repeal took practical effect on April 3, 2025.

For lawyers, applicants and permit holders, the dividing line is simple. Pre-April 3, 2025 filings still move forward under the previous rules, and post-April 3, 2025 investor applications no longer enter the system.

That clarity has turned Organic Law 1/2025 into the controlling reference point for Spain’s investment-residence policy. It closed the chapter opened by the Entrepreneurs Law in 2013 and ended a program that had brought 22,430 Golden Visas by 2023, mostly into the country’s largest and most pressured property markets.