How to work in Spain being a foreigner

Work in Spain

There are three ways of working in Spain, but of course, you need to go through a lot of procedures to get the appropriate visa:

• Trabajador independiente (Independant worker): People who enter the country to install their own business, who arrive with an idea and enough money to invest in it, becoming entrepreneurs.
• Trabajador en Relación de Dependencia (Worker Employed by a Third Party): People who arrive in Spain with a job offer and that will become a salaried worker.
• Contingente de Trabajadores Extranjeros (Foreign Workers Contingent): Once a year, the Spanish government determines a number of people who’ll be able to enter Spain to work, depending on the employment rate at the time. A person usually enters in these contingents as Spanish descendants (son or grandson, daughter or granddaughter), and he/she is allowed to enter Spain to look for a job. Likewise, some people enter solely for a determined industrial activity. Those people are called “Contingentes de Empleo Dirigido” (Oriented Workers Contingents).

Legal requirements to obtain a Job Permit

First, it is important to be at least 16 years old to enter Spain to work. Also, it is essential to obtain a Green Card (to be able to stay for a long time in the country). People coming from some countries of the European Union do not need this. Once installed in Spain, you will have to obtain a Degree or Title Homologation, plus a validation of your professional association membership (only for inmigrants of some countries).

The Green Card must be requested by the employer. For this, he/she needs the following:

• To prove that there is no job offer like the one you intend to get in the other country. Even though there are several exceptions to this rule, the most commonly used are:
• Filling of a trustworthy position.
• Technical workers needed for the assembly of productive equipment.
• Son/daughter of a current Spanish resident (with a minimum of a year of residence) or partner of a Spanish person.
• Titulars whose job permit is about to expire.
• Sons/daughters or grandsons/granddaughters of Spanish origin.
• Holder of a temporary job permit (usually, people who come to perform agricultural recollection jobs), for 4 years, who will then go back to their country.

In this way, completing all the procedures, foreign people can live and work in Spain with the peace of mind of doing it under the current applicable laws.