Spain Work Permit: Types, Requirements and How to Apply

If you are not a citizen of the EU, the EEA or Switzerland, you need permission from Spain before you do any paid work there, employed or freelance, from the age of 16 (Organic Law 4/2000, article 36). In the classic case you do not apply for it yourself. A Spanish employer files the application while you are still abroad, and you only pick up a visa once it has been granted.

That classic case is only one of several routes, and for many readers it is not the best one. Which permit you need depends on your situation more than on your passport: a job offer, a remote contract, a transfer inside your company, a business of your own, or time already spent living in Spain. This guide goes through each route under the current Immigration Regulation, Royal Decree 1155/2024, in force since 20 May 2025, and Law 14/2013, which covers skilled professionals and remote workers. The 2011 regulation (Royal Decree 557/2011) is repealed, so any checklist that still cites it is out of date.

Who needs permission to work in Spain

EU, EEA and Swiss citizens do not. They can take a job or open a business on the same terms as Spaniards. If they stay longer than three months they register as residents and get a registration certificate, under Royal Decree 240/2007. Non-EU family members of an EU citizen fall under the same decree and receive a residence card that lets them work or run a business on the same terms as Spaniards.

Everyone else does, and that includes British citizens who moved after Brexit. People who were already living in Spain before 2021 keep their rights under the Withdrawal Agreement; our page on UK citizens in Spain after Brexit explains the difference.

A short list of people can work without a work authorisation at all (article 88 of the Regulation). It covers researchers and lecturers hired by Spanish universities or public research bodies, accredited foreign journalists, ministers of religion and a few similar roles. Most of them still need a residence visa to come in. The list is narrow and each case is specific; you can see every exempt profession here.

Spain work permit types, matched to your situation

Find the line that describes you. Where we have a full guide to a route, we link it instead of repeating it here.

You have a job offer from a Spanish employer

This is the standard employee permit, called residence and work for employed activity (articles 72 to 81 of the Regulation). The hurdle is not you, it is the job. Spain only lets an employer hire from outside the EU if the post cannot be filled locally, a test known as the national employment situation.

There are two ways to pass it (article 75). Either the occupation appears in the catalogue of hard-to-fill jobs that the state employment service (SEPE) publishes every quarter for each region, or the employer advertises the vacancy through the public employment service and gets a certificate saying no suitable candidate turned up. Some people skip the test completely: children and grandchildren of Spanish-born nationals, family members already reunited in Spain, managers in positions of trust and several other groups listed in article 40 of Organic Law 4/2000.

You are a senior or highly qualified professional

If the role is highly qualified, Law 14/2013 offers a faster track run by the Large Companies and Strategic Groups Unit (UGE). There are two versions (article 71):

• EU Blue Card. You need a university degree of at least three years or five years of relevant experience (three years within the last seven for IT managers and professionals), plus a contract or firm job offer of at least six months. The gross annual salary has to reach a threshold that the law ties to Spain’s average gross salary (article 71 bis).
• National highly qualified professional permit. A lower bar: a degree or at least three years of equivalent professional experience, for a job that genuinely needs that level.

Either the company or you can file. The permit covers all of Spain and can run for up to three years. There is no labour market test, and the UGE has 20 days to decide; if it does not answer in time, the permit counts as granted (article 76). For the Blue Card in detail, see this EU Blue Card guide.

Your company is transferring you to its Spanish office

An intra-company transfer permit fits managers, specialists and graduate trainees moved within the same company or group (Law 14/2013, article 73). You must have worked for the group for at least three months before the move and hold a degree or three years of equivalent experience. The EU version lasts as long as the transfer, up to three years for managers and specialists and one year for trainees. It also goes through the UGE.

You work remotely for a company outside Spain

Then you do not need a Spanish employer at all. The digital nomad visa lets you live in Spain while working for foreign companies, and freelancers may take up to 20% of their work from Spanish clients (article 74 bis). The income requirement is €2,850 a month in 2026. It is the route we suggest most often to people whose job already moves with them.

You want to work for yourself

Freelancers and small business owners apply for residence and self-employment (articles 82 to 87). You must be over 18, meet the licensing rules a Spaniard would meet for the same activity, show the professional qualification or experience it requires, and prove the investment is enough to get the project going. You apply at the Spanish consulate, and the first permit lasts one year, limited to one region and one sector of activity. Our guide to starting a business in Spain covers the practical side. For innovative or scalable projects, the entrepreneur visa under Law 14/2013 is usually the better fit.

You don’t have a job offer yet

The Regulation includes a 12-month visa to look for work, but only for two groups: children and grandchildren of Spanish-born nationals, and people in specific occupations and regions (articles 43 to 45). Places only exist when the yearly collective hiring order sets them. The 2026 order, Order ISM/1547/2025, allows the Ministry to offer these visas but does not set a number itself. Who can apply in practice, and the route open to graduates of Spanish universities, are on our job seeker visa page.

You are studying in Spain

A higher education student visa already lets you work, employed or self-employed, with no extra paperwork, as long as the job fits around your studies and stays at or below 30 hours a week (article 57). Once you graduate you can move to a full work permit from inside Spain, without a new visa and without the labour market test. The window runs from two months before your student permit ends to three months after (article 190).

You already live in Spain

After two years of continuous stay in Spain, arraigo can give you residence with the right to work, even if you arrived with no permit. There are five types: second chance, socio-labour, social, socio-training and family (article 125). The socio-labour version needs one or more contracts that pay at least the minimum wage and add up to 20 hours a week or more. Family arraigo needs no minimum stay. The one-off regularisation opened in April 2026 closed on 30 June 2026 and is no longer available.

Your spouse or parent is a legal resident

Spouses and children brought over through family reunification can work as soon as they reach working age, with no separate work permit (Organic Law 4/2000, article 19).

One route is missing from this list on purpose. The non-lucrative visa does not allow you to work in Spain. If you plan to earn anything while living there, pick one of the routes above.

The routes side by side

Requirements and documents for an employer-sponsored permit

For the standard employee route, the conditions sit on both sides of the contract (article 74).

The employer has to be up to date with tax and Social Security, show it has the means to pay you for the whole contract, and offer a signed contract with continuous work for the life of the permit. Pay and conditions must match the collective agreement for that job and area. A part-time contract is allowed, but your total pay over a year must reach at least the full-time minimum wage, which in 2026 is €1,221 a month in 14 payments (Royal Decree 126/2026).

You need the qualification the job legally requires, no criminal record in Spain, and no pending commitment not to return (which applies to people who left through a voluntary return programme).

The employer’s file includes its tax ID, the contract on the official form, proof of its financial means, a copy of your full passport, your qualifications and, where it applies, the public employment service certificate (article 77). Your own visa application then adds (article 38):

• a passport valid for at least one more year;
• a criminal record certificate from every country you have lived in over the last five years;
• a medical certificate confirming you have no disease with serious public health implications;
• the visa form and fee.

Foreign documents normally have to be legalised or apostilled and translated into Spanish. We handle that through our sworn translators, so the certificates do not expire while they wait in a queue.

How to get a work visa for Spain, step by step

These are the legal deadlines for the employee route. Real timings depend on the province and the consulate, so read them as the outer limit.

1. The employer files. The application goes to the immigration office (Oficina de Extranjería) of the province where the workplace is (article 77). If anything is missing, the employer gets 10 days to fix it.
2. The office decides within three months. If it has not answered by then, the application is treated as refused, and that silence can be appealed.
3. You apply for the visa within one month of the employer being notified, at the Spanish consulate for where you live. The consulate has one month to issue it (article 40).
4. You travel and start work. The employer must register you with Social Security within three months of your legal entry. The permit only takes effect from that registration.
5. You apply for your TIE card in person within one month of the Social Security registration, if the permit runs longer than six months. The TIE shows your foreigner number (the NIE).

The Law 14/2013 permits (highly qualified, Blue Card, transfer and the digital nomad residence permit) skip most of this. They are filed online with the UGE and answered in 20 days, with silence counting as a yes. Where you need a visa, the consulate has 10 working days to issue it (Law 14/2013, article 75). If you are already in Spain legally, the highly qualified, Blue Card and digital nomad permits can be requested from there, and filing keeps your stay legal until the decision. A transfer still needs a visa from abroad.

How long it lasts and how renewal works

The first employee permit lasts as long as the job, up to one year, and is tied to one region and one occupation (article 73). It also allows some self-employed work on the side, provided the job remains your main activity.

You apply to renew in the two months before it expires (article 80). A late application within three months after expiry is still processed, but it can bring a fine. Renewal is granted if the same job continues, or if you worked at least three months in the year and have a new contract, or lost the job through no fault of your own and stayed registered as a job seeker. If the office does not answer within three months, the renewal counts as granted.

The renewed permit lasts four years and is no longer tied to a region or an occupation: you can work anywhere in Spain, employed or self-employed (article 81). After five years of continuous legal residence you can apply for long-term residence (Organic Law 4/2000, article 32), and later for Spanish citizenship. Law 14/2013 permits renew for two years at a time.

What working without a permit can cost

For the worker, working with no work authorisation and no valid residence permit is a serious offence, fined between €501 and €10,000 (articles 53 and 55 of Organic Law 4/2000). The employer faces a very serious offence for each foreign worker hired without a permit, fined between €10,001 and €100,000 per worker (article 54). Your employment rights under the contract survive, but you cannot claim unemployment benefit.

Questions we get asked about working in Spain

Can I come as a tourist and switch once I find a job?

Not on the employee route. That permit is built for workers who are still abroad, and you then collect the visa at a consulate. The exceptions are the highly qualified, Blue Card, entrepreneur and digital nomad permits under Law 14/2013, which you can request from Spain while your stay is still legal, and arraigo after two years.

Can I apply for a Spanish work permit online?

The permit itself, mostly yes: the UGE routes are online only, and employers usually file the standard permit electronically too. The visa is different. You still hand in your documents at the consulate in person or through a representative.

Is there a minimum salary?

For employees, the floor is the collective agreement for the job, and never less than the minimum wage over a year. The Blue Card has its own higher threshold linked to Spain’s average salary. Self-employed applicants prove the viability of the business rather than a salary, and digital nomads prove €2,850 a month.

Can my family come and work too?

Under Law 14/2013, your spouse or partner and children can apply at the same time as you, and if they do, their applications are decided together with yours. On the standard employee route they usually come later through family reunification, and from then on they can work.

If you are not sure which of these routes is yours, send us your situation: your nationality, the kind of work, and whether there is a Spanish employer involved. Our immigration lawyers will tell you which permit fits and what your employer, or you, need to prepare.