Pakistani Managing Director (Client Company in the United Arab Emirates)

The Case & Challenge

The applicant, a Pakistani Managing Director, applied for Spain’s Digital Nomad Visa from within Spain while holding a valid stay authorization. He provides services as an independent contractor for an equipment rental company in the United Arab Emirates — a business specializing in the rental of loading, lifting, and construction machinery, together with cargo loading and unloading services.

He has served the company as Managing Director since December 2020 under a professional services agreement, earning AED 50,000 per month — a gross annual income equivalent to about €141,800. His responsibilities span executive leadership and strategic direction, business management and development, commercial coordination, and representing the company in business matters. The company also confirmed that he holds a 50% shareholding and is recorded as a manager on its trade license — with the file making clear that his ownership interest and his professional management role are distinct, and that his duties are performed as services to the company.

Although the company’s physical operations — equipment handling, transport, and site work — take place in the UAE, his own management and coordination duties can be performed entirely remotely, using email, telephone, and video calls. That separation between the company’s on-site work and his remote management role was central to the application.

The Strategy & Solution

We submitted the application electronically through UGE on September 10, 2026. The file brought together the sworn-translated services agreement, the company’s remote-work authorization letter, the company’s trade license with its legalizations and sworn translation, the company’s VAT registration and tax records, bank statements evidencing his professional income, invoices, his university degree and experience documentation with his résumé, and proof of entry into Spain. It also included his full passport, criminal record documentation with the accompanying responsible declaration, the application form and fee-payment evidence, representative designation, and a commitment to register as an autónomo in Spain.

The Requerimiento: Management Role and Income Evidence

UGE issued a requerimiento — a request to correct or supplement the documentation — dated October 6, 2026, with two points to address:

• Clarify the management role: the specific functions performed as the company’s Managing Director, the level of involvement in management, decision-making, and execution of the company’s activities, and participation in its actual projects.
• Bank certificate of professional income: a certificate stamped and signed by the bank — notarized, in the case of online banking — covering the three months before the application, showing income from the professional contract, with the payments matching his invoices expressly marked and identified separately from the rest.

In a response dated October 7, 2026, the company answered the first point with a detailed letter. It confirmed his day-to-day duties — business management and planning, commercial coordination with customers, operational oversight of equipment availability and service schedules, and financial and administrative oversight with the finance team — together with his direct participation in management through instructions, follow-up, and resolution of operational matters. It also documented his participation in the company’s actual projects: tendering, contracting, safety inductions, and daily-operation follow-up for a mobile crane rental engagement with a concrete products manufacturer, and a lowbed trailer rental for a general contracting company. The letter confirmed that all of these duties are performed fully remotely, including from Spain, with physical site work handled by the company’s personnel in the UAE.

The second point was answered with the bank certificate covering the three months before the application, with the income payments expressly marked to match his invoices, as UGE had requested.

The Outcome

The application was approved on October 13, 2026, the signing date recorded in the official signature report. The signed resolution granted an Initial Residence Authorization for International Teleworkers valid until October 12, 2029. The story’s publication date follows the signed approval date, not the submission or requerimiento date.

Following approval, the next steps include completing the required autónomo registration and applying for the residence card (TIE).

This case shows that being a shareholder and director of the company you work for does not disqualify a Digital Nomad Visa application — what matters is documenting the professional arrangement, the effective participation in the company’s activities, and income evidence in exactly the form UGE requests. Each application is assessed individually, and this outcome does not guarantee approval in another case.