Can the owner of a US LLC qualify for Spain’s Digital Nomad Visa through their own company?

• Owning the LLC is not an automatic obstacle, but it is not the qualifying fact.
• The LLC’s one-year business history and the applicant’s three-month work relationship are separate tests.
• The application must identify whether the owner is relying on employment or self-employed professional activity.

The legal test is the work relationship, not the shareholding

Spain’s international-teleworker route covers remote employment or professional activity for businesses established outside Spain. Articles 74 bis and 74 ter of Law 14/2013 do not exclude applicants because they own the foreign company. They do, however, require evidence of an actual work relationship and an operating foreign business.

This distinction matters for a single-member LLC. Articles of organization prove that the entity exists and identify its ownership; they do not establish that the company trades, pays the applicant for qualifying remote work or has a sustainable activity. The file must make the economic reality understandable.

First decide whether the application is based on employment or professional activity

The law uses different evidence for the two routes. An employee must prove at least three months of employment with the foreign company and the company’s permission to work remotely from Spain. A self-employed professional must prove at least three months of a commercial relationship with one or more foreign companies and the conditions under which the services will continue remotely.

An LLC owner should not choose a label merely because it produces a simpler document list. The company’s legal and tax treatment, payroll records, agreements, invoices and actual working arrangement need to tell the same story. For example, an owner drawing US payroll as an employee presents a different structure from a consultant who invoices companies through a disregarded single-member LLC.

The official sources do not create a special “LLC owner” category. If the structure makes it unclear whether the applicant contracts with their own entity, with the LLC’s customers, or both, clarify that before filing.

The LLC and the owner face two separate history tests

The foreign company must have carried on real and continuous activity for at least one year. Separately, the applicant’s employment or professional relationship relied upon must have existed for at least the three months immediately before the application.

The Spanish Consulate in Washington’s current checklist illustrates the difference. It requests a certificate from the relevant state Division of Corporations showing incorporation date and activity, and also asks for a company certificate describing the applicant’s seniority or contractual relationship and remote-work conditions.

A formation certificate can help with the first date, but formation is not the same as real activity. Depending on the case, consistent records might include filed company documents, contracts with customers, invoices, bank movements, tax records and evidence of ongoing operations. Use documents that genuinely exist; do not manufacture a retroactive contract or backdate a letter.

Self-issued letters need independent support

A conventional employee can obtain confirmation from an unrelated HR department. The sole owner of an LLC may effectively be writing on both sides of the relationship. That does not automatically invalidate the evidence, but it makes independent corroboration more important.

A useful file explains who owns and controls the entity, who its customers are, what the applicant actually does, how money reaches the applicant, and why the work can continue from Spain. Customer contracts and payments can corroborate the company’s operations even when the applicant signs the LLC’s internal certificate.

If the LLC works only for individuals rather than businesses, review the route carefully. The Washington consular page states that the teleworker must work for or provide services to companies and does not accept work for individuals, government bodies or certain non-profit entities under this visa.

Social Security depends on the real working status

The UGE’s current FAQ says that self-employed international teleworkers must register in Spain’s Special Regime for Self-Employed Workers (RETA). It states that importing coverage under a bilateral agreement is not available for self-employed applicants.

For employees, the analysis is different. The foreign company may need to register with Spanish Social Security unless a valid international coordination instrument applies and the competent institution issues the required certificate. The Washington instructions specifically limit the US certificate-of-coverage alternative to employees, not freelancers or self-employed workers.

This is why “my LLC pays me” is not enough to resolve the issue. Determine the defensible employment or professional classification before choosing Social Security documents. Private health insurance may satisfy a separate health-cover requirement in appropriate cases, but it does not erase contribution obligations.

A hypothetical LLC-owner scenario

Consider a US software consultant who formed an LLC three years ago. The LLC has continuing contracts with two US companies, receives regular payments, and the owner performs all services online. The records show more than one year of genuine LLC activity, more than three months of relevant relationships and sufficient continuing work-derived income.

Those facts could support an application, subject to the remaining requirements. The case becomes weaker if the LLC was formed twelve months ago but remained inactive until last month, if its only “client” is the owner personally, or if the documents conflict about whether the applicant is an employee or an independent professional.

How Anemoss can help assess the structure

ANEMOSS ASESORÍA JURÍDICA S.L. can review the LLC structure, identify which relationship the application actually relies on and organise the supporting evidence. Its Digital Nomad Visa service describes the broader process; the related guide for a US freelancer with several clients explains multi-client evidence. Applicants can contact Anemoss for an individual assessment. The consulate or UGE makes the final decision.

• Treating LLC registration or ownership as proof of qualifying remote work.
• Mixing employee and self-employed evidence without resolving the applicant’s actual status.
• Using a newly drafted owner-signed letter without independent records of operations, contracts and payments.