How to apply for a Spanish work permit

If you are an EU resident trying to find a job in Spain, congratulations, you’re already closer than most.

Since 2003 when Spain opened its borders to allow EU citizens to work in the country, EU nationals do not need a work permit to work in Spain.

People from EU countries or Switzerland may enter Spain on a tourist visa and stay for up to three months. If you plan to stay for more than three months you must apply for registration in the Central Resister of Foreigners to obtain the necessary Registration Certificate (Autorización de Residencia y Trabajo). Upon doing so you become entitled to the same legislation and equal citizens as Spanish citizens, including unemployment benefits should you be laid off.

Additionally, the spouse or registered partner of an EU citizen is allowed to work in Spain and so do their children until they are 21 years old. The legal age to begin working in Spain is 16.

Non-EU citizens:

If you are a non-EU citizen seeking a work permit in Spain, get ready because you have your work cut out for you.

If you are not in Spain, a work permit must be applied for at the Consular office of your home country. The provincial labour offices (Direcciones Provinciales de Trabajo, Seguridad Social y Asuntos Sociales) will decide whether the work permit will be issued or not.

Work permits must be applied for at the Foreigners’ Office (Oficinas de Extranjeros) or to the provincial office of the Ministry of Labour (Delegación Provincial del Ministerio de Trabajo), if you are already in Spain

Landing a job entails that the Spanish Employment Institute (http://www.inem.es/) agrees that this position cannot be filled by any other Spanish or EU citizen. If not, your employer will have to be interviewed to make a claim for you to work for them.

After this, begins the process of applying for a work visa. Here are the things you will be required to submit to the Subdelegación del Gobierno of the city in which you will be living.

Employees

• Official application form (EX-1), signed and stamped by your employer.
• Three passport photos (not high-gloss)
• Photocopy and original of passport (must be valid for duration of work-term)
• Official job offer form (EX-5), signed and stamped by your employer. The job offered must be full-time and 10 months or longer
• Original official company fiscal identity document (CIF)
• Original official company social security inscription document, as well as documents TC-1 and TC-2.
• Certified originals from the Tesoreria General de la Seguridad Social and the Agencia Estatal de Administración Tributaria proving that the company is fully up to date in its tax and social security payments.
• Official certification that the job on offer has already been advertised in the official Provincial Unemployment Office and that no suitable European candidate has applied.
• Document describing the services offered by the company and why a non-European should be employed to work there.
• Original and photocopies of degree transcripts/certifications and credentials, with the official seal of convalidatation of the Spanish Ministry of Education and Culture (Madrid)
• A translated into Spanish certificado penal from your home province stating you have no prison record.
• A health certificate or certificado medico showing you have no contagious diseases (Once you have arrived in Spain).

Self-employed

• Photocopy and original of passport (must be valid for duration of work-term)
• Certificate of criminal records issued by the authorities of your home country, except when it was presented upon application for the visa
• Official medical certificate
• Three passport photos (not high-gloss)
• Full description of the job and the company’s activity
• Proof of your professional qualification or that you meet the requirements needed to perform the professional activity in Spain, such as the appropriate licences to perform the activity or the registration to the Spanish Social Security system, or your NIE
• Any other documentation the Spanish Administration requires from time to time

Types of work permits

 

Employees

• Type A work permit: for seasonal or time-limited work. This may entail a specific contract or a specific geographic area. Its maximum duration is nine months, including renewal
• Type b initial work permit: It enables the foreigner to work in a specific profession, activity and geographic area for a maximum period of one year.
• Type B renewed work permit: This is issued to those b initial holders once it has expired. It entitles you to carry on various professions or activities within a maximum period of two years.
• Type C work permit: issued to the B renewed work permit holders once it has expired. This entitles the foreign worker to perform any professional activity throughout the Spanish territory.

Self-Employed

• Type d initial work permit: To carry on a specific activity for a maximum of one year. Spanish authorities could limit this to a specific geographic area.
• Type D renewed work permit: This is issued to those d initial holders once that permit has expired. It entitles him to perform various professional activities for a maximum period of two years. Spanish labour authorities could limit this to a specific geographic area and/or a specific activity.
• Type E work permit: This is issued to those holding the D renewed work permit once it has expired. This entitles the foreign worker to perform any professional activity throughout the Spanish territory for a maximum period of three years.

Either employed or self-employed

• Type F work permit: To perform professional activities within Spanish borders, provided their daily return to the foreign borders where they normally reside. This is issued for a maximum period of five years, after that it may be renewed.
• Permanent work permit: It enables the foreign worker to perform any professional activity where he has the qualification required. Type C or E work permit holders may obtain this permit once theirs has expired. It is mandatory to renew this work permit every five years.
• Extraordinary work permit: this is issued to the non-EU foreign citizens who have helped to the Spanish economic and cultural progress. It enables the foreign worker to perform any professional activity throughout the Spanish territory where he has the qualification required. It must be renewed every five years.

Visit Spain’s Ministry of Labour website at http://www.mtas.es just in case these rules change. On the website you can also find out about registering professionals in Spain.

Kejan Haynes / Expatica

Part of the article was by iAbogado Servicios Jurídicos SL (Madrid, Spain). Visit www.SpainLawyer.com  for more original content like this.