EU nationals
Spain announced that
it will be opening its borders for workers from all EU countries in spring
2006. Therefore, as of that date, if you are an EU national you will not need a
work permit to work in Spain — you can enter the country as a tourist and
register with the Spanish national employment office (Instituto Nacional de
Empleo - INEM) to look for a job. You then have 90 days to find employment
— you can obtain an extension after that date or leave Spain and re-enter for a
further 90 days. Once you find a job, you will need your employment contract in
order to apply for your residence permit.
Non-EU nationals
Non-EU residents who
wish to work in Spain must obtain a work permit. They must also obtain a visa
before moving to work in Spain.
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. 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.
The supporting
documentation needed is quite extensive and can take some time to collect. It
must be submitted in Spanish, so translations should be taken into both time
and financial budgets. Once the application has been lodged, processing takes
between 3 and 6 months due to the highly bureaucratic systems designed to protect
the resident labour markets.
There are two possible ways for the candidate to
be employed with a work permit for
the first time:
- As the direct employee of Spanish company. In the first instance this would be a type b,
which is for a maximum of 1 year. This may be extended and would become a
type B, valid for a maximum of 2 years.
- As the employee of a foreign company that is providing services to Spanish
company. This foreign
company may not be a recruitment agency and must produce a service
contract as part of the application. In this scenario, a Spanish
accountant must administer the pay rolling of the candidate to ensure that
all tax and social security is duly paid. This would be a type A permit
and would be valid for a maximum of 9 months.
!!!!The European court made a ruling that any EEA company
should be able to provide services to its EEA clients without the need to
obtain additional work permits for its employees. i.e. if a British software
house sells its product to a Spanish company and to install the product on its
client's systems needs to send some non-EEA employees who have UK work permits
to the client's offices in Spain they should not need a Spanish work permit.
A work permit is permission for a company to employ a foreign
worker given by the labour authorities. It does not allow the candidate to
travel to or reside in Spain. Once the work permit has been approved the
candidate should apply for a residence visa.
