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How can I get someone to sponsor me for a work and residency permit to live and work in Spain?
The easiest way to get a job in Spain is probably through a multinational company in your home country that transfers you to an office in Spain. But if you’re impatient and want to get to Spain ASAP, there are a few tried-and-true methods for getting a work permit in Spain. (It will still take some time to get the permit, but you can probably work “under the table” until the papers come through.) It’s important to remember, however, that what works during one political administration may not work in another. A change in the political landscape can make life significantly more difficult for non-Europeans who want to move to Spain and work.
The thing to remember is that any Spanish employer that wants to hire a non-European must first demonstrate that no qualified and capable EU citizen has presented themselves for the job. This makes it difficult, because if an employer is simply looking for a native English office administrator, for example, they will probably have at least a few qualified British applicants. So if you don’t hold a work visa and you respond to a job advertisement seeking native English speakers, you probably won’t get the job, because you’re competing against a lot of legal European citizens.
So how can a non-European get a work permit? It’s all about connections. Expect to spend at least six to 12 months working under the table as you get to know people and determine who – if any – of your Spanish and European acquaintances can help you out. Then you can choose one of these options: have a business in Spain design a job for you based on your qualifications and experience or have a friend or business hire you for a job that nobody else wants. Your future employer will need to request authorization from the Spanish government to hire a non-EU worker. Once that is granted, you can apply for a visa to work in Spain (which you must do in your home country.)
Option 1: Find a business to design a job just for you If you’re lucky enough to know someone who owns a small business, they may be able to create a job offer with requirements that only you can meet. Of course, the position has to make sense for the company. If your background is information technology and your friend owns a bakery in Barcelona, it’s doubtful they can justify to the authorities that they absolutely must have an IT expert from Sydney. But say you know someone who owns a small technology consulting firm. In that case, they may be able to convince the authorities that they want to branch into the Australian market and thus need a native English speaker with a degree in computer science from an Australian university, X number of years experience working in Australia in X and X industries, and with the ability to speak X and X languages. The Xes are filled in with bits of information from your CV.
The hope is that the business can post the job description on the necessary job boards for a few weeks, and no qualified, legal applicants will apply. The idea is to tailor the description as much as possible to your background and qualifications to eliminate any potential competitors. Once the business has demonstrated that the job was offered to the general public and there were no qualified applicants, they can request permission from the labor authorities to hire a non-European. | |
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Option 2: Have someone you know hire you for a difficult-to-cover job The Spanish government publishes a list each trimester called El Catálago de Ocupaciones de Difícil Cobertura. It identifies the jobs for which employers in each Spanish province had difficulty finding legal workers in the previous period. If a job appears on the list, a Spanish person or business can apply for permission to hire a non-European without needing to advertise the job to the general public.
Of course, most of the jobs are difficult to cover because they are jobs that nobody wants. They are often low-paid and have undesirable schedules: cleaning lady, home health aide, cook, etc. You may not be thrilled at the idea of working as your friend’s cleaning lady for a year, but it may be your easiest option for getting a work permit. Whether or not you actually clean your friend’s house is up to the two of you – the important thing is that the government receives its taxes. So some people go through this process to get their papers and work in another job (getting paid under the table) while paying their taxes as if they were working as a cleaning lady, cook, etc.
Note: This is not legal (unless you actual perform the job in question), but it is common. If you want to be safe, consider getting one of these “undesirable” jobs for a year and actually doing it. Working in a bakery may be better than teaching English, for example, anyways.
What is the actual process to get a Spanish work permit?First your prospective employer arranges a meeting with the Ministerio del Interior to apply for permission to hire you. They should call to schedule the meeting as soon as possible – when we did it, the next available date was three months later. At the meeting, the employer must turn in a copy of your passport certified by a Spanish consulate or government. This means you must go to the closest Spanish embassy or consulate in your home country with a copy of every single page of your passport (including covers) and have them stamp each page. This is so the authorities in Spain can verify that you are not in Spain illegally at the time of the application or any time in the past. So if your passport shows that you have been living in Spain illegally, you can probably forget about getting approved for a work permit. You’ll have to wait until you get a new passport or just hope that the person who reviews your file is forgiving. (NOTE: If you are in Spain legally at the time your prospective employer meets with authorities, you can get copies of your passport notarized in Spain and theoretically stay in Spain until your employer is given authorization to hire you. However, if you stay longer than you are legally permitted to stay in Spain and then get approved by the authorities in Spain, you still run the risk of being denied when you apply for the actual visa back in your home country.) After the meeting, the government reviews the employer’s request. It can take anywhere from three to nine months for them to make a decision. Once they do, they send a certified letter to the employer. Assuming the request was approved, you have one month from the date on which the employer signed for the letter to turn in all necessary documents (work visa application, approval letter, passport, etc.) to the Spanish consulate or embassy in your home country. If you are at home, the employer needs to send you the letter (have them do it express if possible – Spanish mail can be very slow); if you have decided to wait it out in Spain out, they can give it to you in person. But if you are in Spain at the time the work authorization is given to your employer, you must return to your home country to apply for the work visa. Since you must turn your passport in at the Spanish consulate when you apply for the work visa, you will have to wait in your home country until the decision is made on your visa application. This can take anywhere from a few weeks to several months. If the visa is approved, you go to Spain. The approval letter will give you instructions on what to do when you enter Spain (such as going to the Oficina de Extranjeros).
Does the work permit allow me to work anywhere in Spain or the rest of Europe?Eventually, yes. But you’ll have to be patient. Most Spanish work permits function in the following way:
1st year: You are restricted to jobs in the sector and province for which the permit was granted. If your work permit was based on a job offer to be an office administrator in Andalucia, you can only work (legally) for the first year as an office administrator in Andalucia.
2nd and 3rd years: Towards the end of the first year, you can apply for a renewal. This shouldn’t be a problem, as long as you’ve been keeping up with your taxes. For the second and third years, you can take on any job in the same province as your original permit. So, following the same example, you could then work in any job you like in the province of Andalucia.
4th and 5th years: Towards the end of the third year, you can apply for another renewal. This one lets you work anywhere in Spain, in any type of job.
After five years, you can apply for a new permit that allows you to work anywhere in Europe, in any job.
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