Spain Startup Residence for Founders from Russia

Yes, your Russian company history counts as entrepreneurial experience. Provide the company registration documents, an EGRUL extract and proof of your role. For ENISA, focus on the innovation aspect of your new Spanish project rather than the Russian company structure.

There are usually a few routes to consider, and which one works depends on the file:

1. Funds already held in non-Russian banks — the EU, the UAE, Georgia and similar.
2. Funds in Russian banks, documented together with a plan to transfer them through available channels.
3. Investment from non-Russian investors.

The goal is the same — showing that you hold sufficient funds or can access them. The 2026 benchmarks, based on 200% of the annual SMI (€1,221 × 14 under Real Decreto 126/2026), are €34,188 for the main applicant, €47,009 with one family member and €51,282 with two. This is a means-of-support threshold, not a required investment into the project. How the statement itself should look is covered in the bank statements guide.

You can request it through Russian consulates abroad or via the MVD/GOSUSLUGI portal if you have access. The certificate must be apostilled and then translated by a sworn translator in Spain. Processing time varies by consulate. Start early — this is often the slowest document to get.

The entrepreneur route looks at the balance you hold, not at the money moving through the account. The document is a balance certificate (certificado de saldo) for a given date; transaction history and evidence of recurring income are not required here, unlike the Digital Nomad route.

What actually matters:

• Verifiability: bank identifiers, the date, and a signature or stamp or the bank's qualified electronic signature.
• Currency: if the account is not in euros, include the bank's conversion into euros.
• Legalisation: a balance certificate is a private document, so an apostille does not apply and a sworn translation is not requested — a simple translation into Spanish is enough.

The requirements are covered in detail in the bank statements guide. Which bank works for your case is something we go through individually.

Yes — founders from Russia are approved regularly. ENISA evaluates a project on its innovation and business substance, not on the founder's nationality; there is no refusal "for the passport" in this procedure.

Across our own cases the approval share runs at about 87% — our own figure, not official data, and it holds when there is a real, operating project behind the application.

What actually moves the outcome:

• A working product or MVP, not just an idea.
• Traction: customers, contracts, revenue.
• Investment, and documentary proof of it.
• The team's profile and the project's value for the Spanish economy.

UGE requests the ENISA report from the agency on its own initiative under article 70.1 of Law 14/2013, and it is mandatory; the decision clock is suspended while that report is awaited — how that works is covered in the silencio positivo guide. General route requirements are in the main startup residence guide.