Visa requirements for Spanish citizens

Spain belongs to the European free movement area, so Spanish citizens need no visa anywhere in the Schengen area and can use a national ID card.

Of the 198 countries whose entry rules are known in both directions, Spain and 93 of them let each other’s citizens in without a visa obtained in advance (visa-free, on arrival or with an ETA; an e-visa counts as a visa).

No country asks holders of the Spanish passport for a visa beforehand while its own citizens enter Spain without one.

The reverse holds for 68 countries: holders of the Spanish passport get in without a visa obtained in advance, but their citizens need one for Spain (Angola, Armenia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus and 63 others).

12 countries ask holders of the Spanish passport for a visa obtained before travel from an embassy, a consulate or a visa centre. 8 of them have an embassy or consulate on record in Spain.

4 countries have no embassy or career consulate on record in Spain, so the application usually goes to one of their posts in another country. Counting the post an official diplomatic list names for Spain, or else the nearest one within 2,000 km, those posts are most often in France (2).

The United States refused 24% of visitor-visa (B1/B2) applications from citizens of Spain in fiscal year 2025, by the State Department’s adjusted refusal rate. 79 of the 197 nationalities with a published rate had a lower one and 117 a higher one; the middle value was 32%.

Visa-free travel with the Spanish passport

By continent, the Spanish passport is visa-free in 43 countries in Europe, 30 countries in the Americas, 22 countries in Asia, 15 countries in Africa and 12 countries in Oceania. The longest visa-free stays for Spanish citizens are allowed in Georgia (360 days), Antigua and Barbuda (180 days), Armenia (180 days), Costa Rica (180 days), Dominica (180 days) and Mexico (180 days).

Visa on arrival

Spanish citizens can get a visa at the airport or land border of Bahrain, Bangladesh, Burundi, Cambodia, the Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt and 22 others.

E-Visa and electronic travel authorisation

An e-Visa, applied for online before the trip, is how Spanish citizens enter Azerbaijan, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Cuba and 18 others. Australia, Canada, Israel, Ivory Coast, Kenya, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and 4 others ask instead for an electronic travel authorisation (ETA), a lighter online check than a visa.

Spain’s neighbours

Andorra, Portugal, France and Morocco admit Spanish citizens without a visa.

How the passport compares

Among neighbouring passports, the French passport ranks 6th (161 destinations), the Portuguese passport ranks 19th (160 destinations), the Andorran passport ranks 47th (147 destinations) and the Moroccan passport ranks 118th (72 destinations). Of the 198 passports in the data, 93 can enter visa-free and 105 need a visa from an embassy or consulate for Spain.