|
How to apply for a work permit
If you a~e an EU citizen, you can enter Spain as a tourist, go to the INEM (the National Institute of Employment) and register as a job-seeker just the same as a Spaniard. Then you look for work.
Once you have found your job, you go to the nearest Spanish police station which has a departamento de extranjeros, taking your job contract, social security card, passport, medical certificate issued by an authorised examination centre, and four photos. Fill in the application forms and wait for your permit to be granted. Along with the tarj eta comunitaria, you will be issued a NIE, a námero de identificacion de extranjeros, your Spanish tax identification number.
In fact, your employer will steer you through the entire process. If you later changejobs, your new employer will handle the paperwork.
If you are opening your own business, things will be more complicated, so be prepared to face a jungle of permits if you want to open a bar on the Costa Blanca. However, once you have obtained your licencia de ape rtura, your opening licence, you will be issued a work permit. For more details on starting a business, see next below.
If you are seeking a self-employed work permit, you will have to register yourself with the Spanish Social Security.
Non EU citizens
If you are a non-EU citizen, first you obtain your visa from the Spanish consulate in your home country. Without the visa, you will never obtain the work permit.
You will need to obtain from your home province or state a police certificate stating that you have no prison record. This is called a certificado penal. If it is not in Spanish, it must be translated into Spanish and legalised by a certificate of apostille before the Spanish authorities will accept it. Ask the Spanish consulate in your country for the proper forms.
Once in Spain, you need to get your health certificate, the certificado medico. It shows that you have no contagious diseases. Forms are available from the gestorias and government offices, as well as the authorised medical centres.
You need a certificate of registration with the consulate of your home country in Spain, showing that you are registered with their office.
Then you need the ever-present photos, five of them if you are a non-EU citizen. One photo stays with the police, one with the Sub-Delegado del Gobierno office of your province, one with the Delegacion de Trabajo file, one goes on the document itself, and I forget what happens to the other one.
As one veteran resident of the Costa del Sol remarked: “They must have nearly a hundred photos of me by now. I wonder what they do with them?”
This application is a complicated, time-consuming and frustrating procedure. You will probably need some expert advice from a gestoria or a lawyer
|
