Travel
Spain Last Minute
Work in Spain
Work in Spain
Search for all types of work in Spain, whether a Spanish summer job, or full-time employment in Spain, our Spanish job vacancies are from all types of businesses, big and small, and include job offers placed through employment agencies. If you are a business or recruitment agency who wishes to post a job vacancy on ThinkSpain click here.
How long will it take to get an employee on site with an Spanish
work permit?
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.
Spain has just acknowledged the provision of service ruling by the European Court, which means that some candidates may be able to be placed on-site within a week. See the section below.
When the work permit is approved the candidate must apply for a residence
visa to travel to Spain and start work.
Can my company obtain Spanish work permits?
There are two possible ways for the candidate to be employed with a work
permit for the first time:
As the direct employee of an 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 an
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 payrolling 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.
Does the candidate qualify for an Spanish work permit?
The candidate must be shown to have sufficient experience to fill the
position.
If the application is for an assignment permit then the candidate should have at least 6-12 months experience with the service provider, to justify the claim that they have experience with the company's systems.
Preference is given to candidates with some demonstrable link with Spain and Latin American citizens
How do I apply for an Spanish work permit?
The application is generally lodged through the Direccion Provincial de
Trabajo, seguridad Social y Asuntos Sociales (local labour office), however
they may also be lodged at the office for foreigners, the Gereral directorate
for Migration, or even the post office. When the application is for provision
of service and the employer has no presence in Spain, the Spanish consulate
will accept the application.
Once the work permit application is approved, the candidate will need to make a residence visa application in their usual country of residence. The candidate will probably need to present a police clearance certificate and an original birth certificate to be granted this visa, so it is worthwhile assembling these documents in advance.
Provision of service ruling – van der Elst
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 it's employees. i.e. if a British software house sells
it's product to a Spanish company and to install the product on it's 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.
This ruling is being acknowledged very slowly across Europe, and was
acknowledged by Spain at the end of 1999. In order to fit into this category
the employee must have been employed in the EEA by the supplier for at
least 12 months before being seconded.