Spain NLV information

@rosslincoff

Welcome to the expat.com forum and good luck with your potential move to Spain!

I believe the 183 days issue is related to tax residence, which means you would be filing two tax returns (one in USA by citizenship, one in Spain by residence).

I doubt that there's anything stopping you from your plan of 5 months per year in USA (or elsewhere), which would be 25 months out of 60. After 5 years of legal residence in any EU country, you are entitled to apply for permanent residence. The wording is "continuously and uninterruptedly", but this applies to the 5 years of holding your permit, without a break (i.e. you renew at/before any expiry date), not of being physically present in the country. However, I'm not sure exactly how many days outside are allowed. To add to the confusion, there are two options: the national PR (in your case, from Spain), and the EU long-term resident's residence permit.

This page discusses the residence options

https://www.expatica.com/es/moving/visas/spain-permanent-residence-163501/

This page explicitly deals with the absence from Spain issue, in relation to being able to renew your NLV. this says you must stay in the country for at least 6 months, each year.

https://balcellsgroup.com/how-long-outside-spain-without-losing-residency/

@gwynj Thank you very much for your response. We will continue to pursue our plans based on that information.