Thanks! Yes, if there's an expat site we've been there ... knocking on doors and asking the same questions. Nobody can give us specific, all-encompassing, "universal" answer but prefer, instead, to send us here and therre. Ultimately, we've been told, the decision comes down to whatever interpretation our designated consul -- i.e., the consulate of Spain in Chicago -- decides. Increasingly, we are beginning to believe that you are quite right: for many reasons (not the least the ease and simplicity of applying for and being granted a residency visa), having homes in both Portugal and Spain may prove to be the best of both worlds for us. And it's only a five-hour drive from the door we're looking at in Castelo Branco (that also houses a cafe/small restaurant we could operate for income on the ground level and two bedrooms sharing a bathroom on one of the two upper levels for potential airbnb income) to our door in Pruna. Thanks, Destry, for your comments ... and insights! XXX

Thanks, Nigel. Your reply -- which is sincerely appreciated -- simply proves my point: the "visado de jubilado" residency requirements as listed by consulates of Spain in the USA other than Chicago (i.e., Miami, Los Angles, New York, etc.) are quite different from those required by the Chicago consulate. And, unfortunately, because we live in Wisconsin, we are required to submit our residency request to the consulate in Chicago. As for lawyer Mario de Castro, she is a fine and caring lawyer with whom we've been in touch. She does not take face-to-face appointments, however, with prospective clients such as us ... and would do little more than agree with our premise. If we purchase property in Portugal -- where being granted residency is far easier for US residents than Spain -- Maria agreed that our travels to and from Spain -- including the amount of time we could stay at our property in Sevilla (Pruna) -- would be governed by our Portuguese residency cards rather than our USA passports. We appreciate your interest, Nigel! :-)

Can anyone help us determine -- definitively -- what actually will be required, financially, to qualify for a “visado de jubilado” and Spanish residency?

Muchas gracias y unos saludos desde Wisconsin en los EE.UU.

Curious American here who just purchased property in one of the "pueblos blancos."

Questions: What effect, if any, do you think the Brexit will have on property values in Spain? Do you think people in the UK are more likely now to be hesitant -- and wait a while -- to buy holiday homes or vacation bolts ... especially in Spain?

Hola, folks. I'm Bruce ... and have owned a vacation bolt earlier in Olvera (Cadiz) and currently Pruna (Sevilla) for about ten years now. With even the remotest possibility of Donald Thump being elected President (Hillary Clinton comes with her fair share of baggage, too), we are seriously considering spending our lives full-time in Spain as expats.

Retired expats. Or "jubilados," in Spanish.

Our problem is that we must, first, apply with all the completed paperwork to the designated Spanish consulate here in the colonies that handles our affairs. For us, that would be Chicago. Trouble is, Chicago is insisting that our documents and application follow Spanish immigration law "al pie de la letra."

And the problem with that is neither the Spanish embassy here in the USA, nor other consulates here, nor a number of Spanish lawyers based in Spain can agree on what's really REQUIRED and what's DISCRETIONARY on the part of the Spanish immigration authorities.

The issue? Spain requires a petitioner seeking a visado de jubilado to document that, in additional to appropriate health insurance, s/he is receiving either a public or private pension of € 25,560/annually (or its equivalent in USD) plus € 6,390/annually (or its equivalent in USD) per each additional family member.

My spouse and I certainly don't have an annual pension of € 31,950. Do you? Do the majority of Spaniards themselves even earn that much each year when they are working?

We've consulted a number of attourneys (including our favourite, Maria de Castro) ... and have yet to receive a definitive answer about Americans qualifying for a Spanish residency visa. One tells us, "The rules and requirements are different if you own property in Spain. That shows the government that you are committed to Spain and the required income levels are far less." Another says, "If your spouse is still working, you can submit his/her U.S. tax returns from the previous year ... which will be accepted and added to augment your own retirement income." And still a third Spanish lawyer consulted a friend who works for Spain's immigration service in Malaga--and he wasn't certain of what the answer was, but promised to look into it. We're still waiting ...

For those of us with citizenship in non-EU nations, applying for a Spanish visado de jubilado is a long, tiresome, expensive, and drawn-out process ... one that a single bureaucrat in a far-flung consulate (Chicago) can make or break throughout the process. Which is why we're hoping that someone here might have a real answer that we can provide, along with our papers and apostilles, to the consulate of Spain in Chicago:

If one owns property in Spain, are the annual income requirements for non-EU citizens reduced? And, if so, how much must we document as annual income for a family of two? Will the prior year's tax return from the working spouse PLUS the retirement income documents from the other be sufficient to present to the Chicago consulate?

Thanks, all, for your patience and consideration.

This message was last edited by bhjoffe on 24/05/2016.