Initial residence and work authorisation for employees: how to hire legally in Spain

Updated on 27 September 2026. Reviewed against the Immigration Regulation in force since 20 May 2025 and the Supreme Court judgment of 8 July 2026 (published in the BOE, Spain's Official State Gazette, on 22 September), which strikes down the regulatory duty for individual employers to file this application online. We have corrected the length of the initial permit, which is one year at most, and added deadlines, current fees and common mistakes.

Hiring a national of a country outside the European Union who does not live in Spain is possible, but before they start work the employer must obtain an initial temporary residence and work authorisation for employed work (autorización inicial de residencia temporal y trabajo por cuenta ajena), and the person cannot start until that authorisation takes effect. It is the standard route for someone who is outside Spain. Citizens of the EU, the European Economic Area and Switzerland do not need it.

The procedure has two stages (the Oficina de Extranjería (Immigration Office) in Spain and the consulate abroad) and a chain of deadlines. A formal error or an inconsistent file can mean months of delay or an avoidable refusal. This guide follows the Regulation implementing Organic Law 4/2000, approved by Royal Decree 1155/2024 of 19 November (the Regulation).

What it is and what it allows

• What it authorises: living in Spain and working as an employee from the age of 16, initially for the employer that applies. It is not tied to that employer alone: a change of employer is possible later in the cases provided for (arts. 72 and 79 of the Regulation).
• Duration: as long as the planned activity, up to one year at most (art. 73.4). The range of "more than 90 days and less than five years" is the general definition of temporary residence, not the duration of this permit.
• Scope: one autonomous community and one occupation, except where the national employment situation test does not apply (arts. 73.1 and 73.4).
• Self-employment: it also allows self-employed work, provided the job remains the main activity. If the job comes to an unforeseen end for reasons beyond the worker's control, they may carry on with the self-employed activity even though it is no longer secondary, notifying the Immigration Office that granted the authorisation within three days (art. 73.5).
• Who applies: always the employer, whether a company or an individual (art. 77.1).

When you can hire: the national employment situation

The general rule is that the post cannot be filled by people already available on the Spanish labour market (the situación nacional de empleo, art. 75). It is met in one of three ways:

1. The occupation is in the Catálogo de Ocupaciones de Difícil Cobertura (catalogue of hard-to-fill occupations), which the SEPE (State Public Employment Service) publishes every quarter. The one for the third quarter of 2026, valid until 30 September, is very short. In every province it covers professional athletes and sports coaches; merchant navy occupations are listed in coastal provinces plus Lleida and Madrid. Every province also lists aluminium, metal and PVC carpenters and fitters, electrical installers and crane operators. Check the catalogue for the current quarter before you apply.
2. Certificate of insufficient jobseekers (art. 75.2), the usual route for most posts:
   • you file a job offer with the public employment service for the area where the post is, worded precisely and without requirements unrelated to the job;
   • the service manages it for eight days;
   • you report which candidates you accepted or rejected and why;
   • the certificate is issued within three days at most;
   • the Immigration Office weighs that certificate together with any urgency of the hire that you can prove.
3. Exempt cases (art. 40 of Organic Law 4/2000 and art. 74.2 of the Regulation). They include:
   • children or grandchildren of a Spaniard by origin;
   • foreign nationals born and resident in Spain;
   • managers, positions of trust and highly qualified professionals;
   • staff of the same corporate group in another country;
   • nationals of states with an international agreement that provides for it.

A post that is not in the catalogue can still be filled: it just means going through the job offer first.

Requirements

Employer and contract

• A contract signed by both parties on the official form, guaranteeing continuous work while the authorisation is valid and with its start date depending on the authorisation taking effect (arts. 74.1.b and 77.2.b).
• Terms in line with the law and the applicable collective agreement. For a part-time contract, total pay must reach the annual full-time national minimum wage (SMI): €17,094 in 2026 (art. 74.1.c; Royal Decree 126/2026).
• Being up to date with the Agencia Tributaria (Spanish Tax Agency) and Social Security (art. 74.1.d).
• Sufficient means for the business and to pay the salary (art. 76). Subsidies and welfare benefits do not count, except for long-term care and childcare (art. 77.2.c). If the employer is an individual (for example, a family hiring a domestic worker), they must also keep minimum monthly means after paying the salary:
  • 50% of the minimum wage if they have no dependants;
  • 100% for a two-person household;
  • a further 25% for each additional member.

Worker

• Training and, where applicable, the legally required qualification, with degree recognition and professional registration if the profession is regulated (art. 74.1.f of the Regulation and art. 36.3 of Organic Law 4/2000).
• Not being bound by a no-return commitment accepted under a voluntary return programme (art. 74.1.g).
• No criminal record in Spain. The police report is assessed case by case: police records do not by themselves lead to refusal (arts. 74.1.h and 77.5).
• For the visa (art. 38) the worker must also:
  • not be in Spain irregularly or listed as someone to be refused entry in the Schengen area;
  • hold a passport valid for at least one year;
  • provide criminal record certificates from the countries where they have lived in the last five years;
  • provide a medical certificate.

Step by step and deadlines

1. Preparation. Check the employment situation and prepare the contract. Gather the company's documents and proof of means, the worker's full passport and their qualifications. Foreign documents usually need legalisation or an apostille and a translation.
2. Application. The employer files it, in person or through an authorised representative, with the Immigration Office of the province where the workplace is (arts. 77.1 and 197.4). In Madrid, this is the office of the Delegación del Gobierno (Government Delegation). In autonomous communities that have taken over powers for initial work authorisations, such as Catalonia, it is filed with the competent regional body instead (art. 194.2).
3. Missing documents and reports. If anything is missing, you have ten days to provide it; otherwise the file is closed as withdrawn. The reports from the Tax Agency, Social Security, the criminal records registry and the police are issued within seven days (arts. 77.4 and 77.5).
4. Decision. Within three months at most. With no answer, the application is deemed refused (art. 77.6).
5. Visa. Within one month of notification to the employer, the worker applies at the Spanish consulate for their place of residence, which is not always their country of origin. The consulate decides within one month and the visa must be collected within a further month; otherwise it is treated as renounced (arts. 26.1, 28.4, 40.1.b and 40.3).
6. Entry and registration. Social Security registration must take place within three months of entry. Until then the authorisation has no effect and the person cannot start work (art. 77.8).
7. Card. If the authorisation lasts more than six months, within one month of registration the worker applies in person for the tarjeta de identidad de extranjero, TIE (foreigner's identity card) (arts. 73.3 and 77.9).

Does it have to be filed online?

The Regulation required this application to be filed electronically (art. 197.2.c). The Supreme Court struck down that paragraph in its judgment of 8 July 2026 (case no. 19/2025), published in the BOE on 22 September, and repeated this in another judgment of 29 July. Since then:

• legal persons (companies, associations…) and entities without legal personality must still deal with the authorities electronically, because Law 39/2015 imposes that channel on them (art. 14.2);
• an individual employer who files the application personally may choose between filing in person and filing online; if they act through a lawyer, a gestor administrativo (licensed administrative agent) or another professional with compulsory membership of a professional body, that professional must file it electronically (art. 14.2.c).

Fees

The Order does not say whether the salary is compared with the annual or the monthly SMI. As a rough guide, with the 2026 minimum wage the higher fee would apply from about €34,188 gross per year (twice the annual SMI).

Exception: in part-time or discontinuous domestic service, the work authorisation fee is paid by the worker (art. 46.1 of Organic Law 4/2000). If the employer pays the fees, it cannot pass them on to the worker, and any agreement to the contrary is void (art. 46.2 of Organic Law 4/2000 and art. 3.2 of Order PJC/617/2025).

On top of this come the national visa fee, paid at the consulate (generally €90 under Order AUC/891/2024, although it may vary by nationality on the basis of reciprocity), and translations and legalisation. The amounts are set by ministerial order (art. 48.1 of Organic Law 4/2000) and are only updated each year if a budget act provides for it (art. 1.2 of Order PJC/617/2025). In 2026 there is neither a new order nor a budget act changing them; even so, check them on the official form when you pay.

After the grant: changing employer and renewal

• Changing employer:
  • From three months into the authorisation and during the first year, the worker may change employer within the same occupation (art. 79.1).
  • They may do so at any time if the employer seriously breaches the contract (art. 79.2) or if an unforeseen circumstance beyond the employer's control prevents the work from starting or continuing (art. 79.3). In the first case, the new employer must notify the change within three months of there being sufficient evidence of the breach. In the second, the circumstance must first be reported to the Immigration Office within fifteen days at most and, from then, there are three months for the new employer to notify the change.
  • In both cases, the office checks the new employer within one month; if it does not answer, the change is deemed refused (art. 79.4).
  • Changing occupation or region in the first year requires a modification (art. 192.1).
• Renewal:
  • Apply in the two months before expiry; applying on time extends the authorisation. Applications up to three months afterwards are also accepted, at the risk of a fine (art. 80.1).
  • It is granted, among other cases, if the employment continues or if the person has worked at least three months a year and has a new contract (art. 80.2).
  • If there is no answer within three months, it is deemed granted (art. 80.9).
  • It lasts four years and allows employed or self-employed work anywhere in Spain. If the initial authorisation lasted less than one year, the renewal is granted for the length of the activity, up to one year (art. 81.1).

Common mistakes

• Letting the worker start too early. Hiring without prior authorisation is a very serious offence: a fine of €10,001 to €100,000 per worker (arts. 54.1.d and 55.1.c of Organic Law 4/2000).
• Not registering them with Social Security on arrival. This is a serious offence, with a fine of €501 to €10,000 plus travel costs (arts. 53.2.a and 55.1.b), and it can block new applications by the company for three years (art. 78.1).
• Advertising the job with requirements that have nothing to do with it, which the Regulation expressly prohibits (art. 75.2).
• Not checking the company's history. Grounds for refusal include (art. 78):
  • unfair or void dismissals affecting the same posts in the previous 12 months;
  • an ERTE (temporary lay-off scheme) in force for those posts;
  • serious or very serious immigration sanctions in the last year.
• Missing the one-month window to apply for or collect the visa.
• Filing generic business reports or documents that do not fit together. The file is assessed as a whole: the company's activity, the post and the worker's profile must be consistent.

Situations that raise questions

• Previous refusals. They do not prevent a new application, but it is worth understanding the reason and fixing it first.
• People who have been in Spain before. This is not an obstacle in itself. An entry ban still in force or a no-return commitment is. Someone who is currently in Spain irregularly cannot obtain the visa (art. 38.b) and should look at other routes, such as arraigo (residence based on ties to Spain).
• Applicants for international protection. If the person's applicant document already bears the annotation autoriza a trabajar (authorised to work), you can hire them directly, without this authorisation, while the document remains valid. The annotation applies six months after the application, provided it was admitted for processing and is still undecided for reasons not attributable to the applicant (fourteenth additional provision of the Regulation). If it does not, keep in mind that this procedure is designed for people outside Spain and that, until the protection application has a final decision, they cannot apply for arraigo either (art. 126.a). The extraordinary arraigo route for asylum applicants added by Royal Decree 316/2026 closed on 30 June 2026. Each case needs its own analysis.
• Small or newly created companies. They can apply; the key is proving sufficient means (art. 76).
• People already living in Spain legally. There are routes without a visa:
  • someone with a study stay who obtains their qualification can move to residence and work without the employment situation test (art. 190);
  • other temporary residents can modify their authorisation (art. 191);
  • with a job-search visa, the application is decided within ten days (art. 43).
• Highly qualified profiles. The authorisation under Law 14/2013 is usually faster. It is handled by the Unidad de Grandes Empresas y Colectivos Estratégicos (Large Companies and Strategic Groups Unit), decided within twenty days with approval by default if there is no answer, and valid throughout Spain (arts. 71 and 76).

If it is refused

The decision ends the administrative route (ninth additional provision of the Regulation). If the refusal is express, you may lodge an optional request for reconsideration (recurso de reposición) within one month or go straight to a judicial review claim (recurso contencioso-administrativo) within two months before the Administrative Division of the Tribunal de Instancia (Court of First Instance) (art. 124.1 of Law 39/2015 and arts. 8.4 and 46.1 of Law 29/1998). If the refusal is by silence, the time limits are different: reconsideration can be requested at any time (art. 124.1, second paragraph, of Law 39/2015) and the judicial review claim is not subject to the two-month limit for express decisions (art. 46.1 of Law 29/1998), so take advice before deciding. Depending on the reason, it is sometimes more effective to fix the defect and file a new application. It is worth deciding before the time limits run out.

A decision worth getting right from the start

Hiring talent from outside the EU is possible, but it means choosing the right route, taking care over the job offer and the contract, and keeping track of the visa and registration deadlines. If you would like to check whether a specific hire is viable before you start, you can book an immigration consultation. For the wider context, see also our article on the 2026 immigration rules.

Legislation and sources

• Regulation implementing Organic Law 4/2000, approved by Royal Decree 1155/2024 (consolidated text)
• Royal Decree 316/2026 amending the Immigration Regulation
• Organic Law 4/2000 on the rights and freedoms of foreign nationals in Spain (consolidated text)
• Supreme Court judgment of 8 July 2026, case no. 19/2025 (BOE of 22 September 2026)
• Supreme Court judgment of 29 July 2026, case no. 21/2025 (BOE of 22 September 2026)
• Order PJC/617/2025 on immigration fees
• Order AUC/891/2024 on visa fees
• Catalogue of hard-to-fill occupations for the third quarter of 2026 (BOE of 2 September 2026)
• Royal Decree 126/2026 setting the national minimum wage for 2026
• Law 14/2013 supporting entrepreneurs and their internationalisation
• Law 39/2015 on the Common Administrative Procedure (consolidated text)
• Law 29/1998 regulating the Contentious-Administrative Jurisdiction (consolidated text)