Your work permit file: what you and your employer each provide

Key rules

• Who files first: Your employer files the work authorisation before you can apply for any visa.
• Visa deadline: After the authorisation is granted, you have 1 month to apply for the visa at the consulate.
• Your papers: You supply the personal documents: police records, medical certificate, passport and translations.
• Who this covers: This route is for non-EU workers hired from abroad, not EU/EEA citizens.

The order: employer first, then you

If you are a non-EU citizen, your employer files first. You cannot start your part until the work authorisation is granted. Only then do you apply for the visa. This route does not apply to people who already have the right to work in Spain.

What your employer provides

Your employer files the application for the initial residence and work authorisation, starting with application form EX-03. Filing is electronic and needs a digital certificate. It goes to the Oficina de Extranjería (the immigration office) of the province where you will work. Large-company and highly qualified routes go to a special unit, the Unidad de Grandes Empresas y Colectivos Estratégicos.

The employer pays the €73.78 fee for this authorisation with modelo 790 code 038. The immigration office has 3 months to decide, and silence means the application is refused. If it is refused, the employer can file a recurso de reposición within 1 month, or go to court within 2 months.

The employer normally supplies:

• The signed application form.
• Their own ID, or the company's tax ID with its deeds and proof of the representative's powers.
• Proof they are up to date with tax and Social Security.
• A signed contract or job offer stating job, pay and hours. Pay must meet the collective agreement or the minimum wage.
• Proof the company has the economic and material means to employ you, plus a description of the job.
• Proof the job could not be filled locally. This is needed unless the job is on the national list of hard-to-fill occupations.

You do not prepare these papers. Your part is to ask your employer to confirm the filing and to send you a copy of the granted authorisation.

What you provide

Apply for the visa at the Spanish consulate in the country where you live, through the channel that consulate sets. The national visa fee is €80, paid at the consulate when you apply. You need:

• The national visa application form.
• A passport valid for the whole stay and for at least one year.
• A recent passport-style photo.
• Police record certificates from every country you lived in during the last 5 years, legalised or apostilled.
• A medical certificate stating you have no diseases under the International Health Regulations.
• Proof of your qualification or experience, if the job requires it.
• A copy of the granted authorisation.
• Proof you paid the visa fee.

What a foreign document needs depends on where it was issued:

• EU country: no apostille and no legalisation, and a multilingual standard form replaces a translation.
• Non-EU country in the Hague Convention: an apostille and a sworn Spanish translation.
• Non-EU country outside the Hague Convention: full legalisation through that country's foreign ministry and the Spanish consulate, plus a sworn Spanish translation.

Consulates can add requirements, so check the consulate's own list. The police and medical certificates are valid for 3 months from issue, so lodge within that time.

After the visa

Enter Spain within the visa's validity. Your employer registers you with Social Security. Within one month of arriving, apply for the TIE. You pay the €16.40 card fee with modelo 790 code 012 before the TIE appointment.

If you already live in Spain

Your status decides whether you can stay in Spain for this.

• Other residence, such as students after studies or arraigo: you can apply in Spain for a modification to a work authorisation.
• Short-stay visitors: you cannot change status in Spain. You must apply from abroad.

If you are self-employed, a remote worker, a UK citizen or an EU citizen's relative

Employer filing is not your route.

• Non-EU family member of an EU citizen: use the EU family route; no employer files a work authorisation for you.
• Self-employed (autónomo): use the entrepreneur and self-employed file.
• Remote worker for a foreign employer: use the digital nomad file.
• UK citizen with Withdrawal Agreement rights who lived in Spain before the end of 2020: your rights follow their own rule, not this employer-sponsored route.

If you bring family

Your family follows its own rule for each relationship:

• Spouse: can apply with you or later, with the marriage certificate and proof of the relationship.
• Registered partner: can join you when the partnership is entered in a public register, with the registration certificate.
• Unmarried, unregistered partner: has no automatic right to join you. The consulate decides each case, and you must show the relationship is durable.
• Children: minors and dependent adult children; the birth certificate, plus proof of dependence for adults.

Employment route: from authorisation to entering Spain

If your answer to “When was your work authorisation granted?” is 2 Nov 2026, your steps fall on these dates: