Selling Fiction Books on Amazon in the U.S. while on a Non-Lucrative Visa in Spain

@NomadWriter

Welcome to the expat.com forum, and good luck with your potential move to Spain!

The No Lucrativa Visa (NLV) is one of the easiest residence options, and used by many retirees.

Working (and/or selling) remotely is a bit of a grey area, arguably. But most folks take the "not working" rule to cover being employed (by a Spanish company), or self-employed (in Spain), or utilizing a (Spanish) company to invoice your clients/customers. There is (imminently) a Digital Nomad Visa, but, until recently many nomads would get (if they could qualify) the NLV.

There may be others who disagree, but I'd certainly suggest you proceed with your plan. I take the narrow view that the NLV isn't a "work permit", hence you avoid anything which requires verification of your legal right to work (i.e. self-employed or employed in Spain).

Switching to a different visa (e.g. self-employed) is a right faff in comparison... and I'm sure the amount of revenue is probably quite small in relation to your pension and other income. If you wanted to spend a bit of money, you could consider incorporating a US LLC and putting all your book sales through that, and leave the money in the company bank account... and perhaps occasionally pay yourself a dividend, and add that to your tax return.

However, I wouldn't volunteer to the Embassy that I was going to work remotely as an author... or use my book royalties from abroad as the basis for getting my NLV. I'd say I was a retiree, and provide proof of my pension and investments in order to meet the financial requirement. (It's less than 30k euros in savings, which most American retirees will far exceed.)

@NomadWriter Hi NomadWriter Before publishing I advise you to get all your books copyrighted.  You have to declare all your royalty income to the Spanish tax authorities.   Check out this website from a Spanish lawyers blog:https://www.echeverriaabogados.com/en/blog/procedures/6-risks-to-avoid-when-applying-for-a-non-lucrative-residence-permit-in-spain  If you spend more than half a million in Spain on properties etc. then you would fall into a golden visa category.Also contact the American consulate office in Spain.  https://es.usembassy.gov/Also contact the Spanish Citizens Advice Bureau:  https://www.citizensadvice.org.es/

@NomadWriter Hi NomadWriter Before publishing I advise you to get all your books copyrighted. You have to declare all your royalty income to the Spanish tax authorities.  Check out this website from a Spanish lawyers blog:https://www.echeverriaabogados.com/en/blog/procedures/6-risks-to-avoid-when-applying-for-a-non-lucrative-residence-permit-in-spain If you spend more than half a million in Spain on properties etc. then you would fall into a golden visa category.Also contact the American consulate office in Spain. https://es.usembassy.gov/Also contact the Spanish Citizens Advice Bureau: https://www.citizensadvice.org.es/-@Buddy2

thanks mate.also, another contact facebook.com/CAB.Spain/

@gwynj Would we be able to get a NLV if we have an eCommerce LLC store?

@gdikel

As the NLV is for the "economically inactive", your income should be "passive income" that continues indefinitely, such as rent, pensions, dividends, and so on.

Or, instead of income, you can show savings (around 30k euros).

If you can meet the above, and you don't mention your store, then I'd expect you to be able to get the NLV.

On the other hand, if you provide information about your e-commerce store, and provide proof of the income generated to meet the financial requirements of the NLV... then you raise two red flags: (a) this doesn't sound like passive income (so no guarantee it will continue once you are a Spanish resident), and (b) this sounds like this is your "professional activity or work" (which you will need to continue, in order to keep the store generating income).

If your store generates $10k per month, I'd just save up until I could show 30k euros in my (personal) account, and get the NLV! If it makes $3k-ish (depends on the exact minimum specified) a month, I'd wait for the DNV to be available, and re-jig my LLC to meet the requirements (e.g. give myself an employment contract). If it makes $2k or less, you need to find a DNV elsewhere with lower financial requirements. If you've had the LLC for more than 2 years, then Bulgaria residence via TRO (Trade Representative Office in Bulgaria of your USA business entity) becomes an option.

Thank you for the helpful info!

If you show 30k savings, then you have to show that again when renewing the visa after one year?

@gdikel

Good question. I'm not an expert on the NLV, but I believe for a non-EU citizen you will get it for a year. Then renew for 2 years. Then renew for another 2 years which will get you to the magic number of 5 years legal residence (= permanent residence). You need to show income or savings for each renewal. And as the renewal is for 2 years, you need 2 years worth of savings (i.e. around 60k euros!).

However, you might want to investigate renewing as employed or self-employed (rather than the NLV), both of which are probably much easier to do when you're already living in Spain, rather than trying to do this from abroad. It might be that you could incorporate your LLC and your e-commerce income stream into being a Spanish "autonomo".

This is what a big law firm says on the issue:

https://balcellsgroup.com/renew-non-lucrative-visa/