Free Guide to Health Insurance for Spain’s Digital Nomad Visa
Not sure whether you need private health insurance for your DNV application, or which Sanitas plan would suit you? This guide walks through the three ways applicants are covered, the documents worth checking before you buy anything, and the mistakes that cost people the most.
Written for people applying for the DNV
If you are moving to Spain on the digital nomad visa, as a remote employee, as a freelancer, or with a partner and children, this guide takes the health-insurance side of the application in the order the questions actually come up, rather than in the order a product brochure would put them.
It assumes you know nothing about Spanish Social Security, because most first-time applicants do not, and because that is the part that decides everything else.
It is most useful before you have bought anything. The single most expensive mistake in this subject is buying a policy first and working out afterwards whether the application ever needed one.
What the guide covers
- Whether you need private insurance at all — the three ways DNV applicants are covered for healthcare, and how to tell which one is yours. Only one of them involves buying anything.
- If you are employed, and if you work for yourself — the two situations work differently, and what to ask an employer, in writing, before you assume anything.
- Social Security, and cover carried from another country — why a certificate saying which country’s rules apply to you is not the same as one saying you are covered for healthcare in Spain.
- The two Sanitas visa plans — Sanitas Residents Visa Plan and Sanitas Residents Platinum Visa Plan, what separates them, and how the choice usually goes.
- Your paperwork — what you are given when you take out cover, and what is worth checking on it before it goes anywhere near an application.
- Families — why every person on the application gets their own answer, and why a household can end up with different answers for different people.
- The mistakes we see most often — starting with buying a policy before knowing whether the application needs one.
- What to do next — including how to get a quote for exactly the people who need cover, if that is where you land.
Sanitas calls these products Residents para visado and Residents Platinum para visado. “Para visado” means “for visa purposes”.
Get the guide
This guide is being updated and is not available to download yet.
If you would like help with DNV health insurance now, request a personalised Sanitas quote or contact us.
A guide can’t look at your situation
It can tell you which questions matter. Which answers apply to you depends on how you work, how you will be covered by Social Security and who is coming with you. If you would like that worked out properly, for the actual people on your application, tell us and we will do it.
Or just ask us
We arrange Sanitas cover for people moving to Spain on the digital nomad visa. If you have one question and would rather not read anything at all, call or message us. That is usually faster, and it costs you nothing to find out you need less than you thought.
Mon–Fri 9:00–18:00 · Spain time
Start with these
Do I need private insurance? →
The short answer, and how to work out your own.
What a policy has to include →
The private-insurance requirements, in one place.
Compare the two Sanitas visa plans →
Side by side, with the differences that matter.
Cover for your family →
Every person on the application gets their own answer.