Indian QA Engineer (Client Company in India)

The Case & Challenge

The applicant, an Indian national, worked on a freelance basis as a Quality Assurance (QA) Engineer for a client company located in his home country, India. He chose to submit his Spain Digital Nomad Visa (DNV) application locally as a self-employed (autónomo) teleworker while staying in Spain.

During the review phase, the Unidad de Grandes Empresas (UGE) issued a formal request for additional documentation (requerimiento). Specifically, the evaluator demanded an official certificate of registration establishing his status as a self-employed individual in his country of origin.

This presented a significant administrative barrier because India does not issue a standardized, direct equivalent to a Spanish “self-employment certificate” or autónomo registration for independent digital professionals.

The Strategy & Solution

To bridge this regulatory gap and prevent a flat rejection, our team designed a robust compliance alternative:

• Sourcing an Equivalent Tax Certificate: We utilized the applicant’s official Goods and Services Tax (GST) Registration Certificate. Under Indian regulations, the GST certificate acts as the primary legal and fiscal registry confirming independent commercial and economic activity.
• Legalization and Translation: We guided the client through getting the GST registration certificate duly apostilled in India to satisfy international treaty standards. This was then processed by a certified Spanish sworn translator (traductor jurado) to ensure full admissibility before Spanish authorities.
• Drafting a Legal Explanation Letter: We supplemented the file with a comprehensive explanation letter written directly for the UGE evaluator. The letter broke down the structure of independent contracting within the Indian legal system, demonstrating explicitly why the apostilled GST certificate served as the closest authentic proof of self-employment available.

The Outcome

By demystifying the foreign tax documentation and mapping it successfully onto Spanish administrative expectations, we eliminated the evaluator’s grounds for hesitation.

On February 3, 2026, the UGE issued a full Approval for his initial residence permit. This success underscores that navigating the absence of specific, country-of-origin certificates is entirely manageable under the Spain Digital Nomad Visa program, provided alternative tax registries are properly legally framed, apostilled, and explained.