Spain work visa 2026 with a job offer: requirements, shortage list and process

The initial temporary residence and employee work permit (autorización inicial de residencia temporal y trabajo por cuenta ajena) is requested by an employer who wants to hire a foreign national over 16 for more than ninety days and less than five years ¹. It is governed by articles 72 to 79 of the Immigration Regulation (Reglamento de Extranjería), approved by Real Decreto 1155/2024 and in force since 20 May 2025 ².

The order is always the same:

1. The company files the application with form EX-03 at the immigration office of the province where the workplace is, or online through the Mercurio portal ^{1 2}.
2. The office has three months to decide. If it notifies nothing in that time, the application counts as refused ¹.
3. If the permit is granted, you have one month from the notification to the employer to apply for the visa in person at the Spanish consulate where you live ¹.
4. The consulate decides within one month and, once the visa is granted, you have one month to collect it ¹.
5. You enter Spain within the three months the visa is valid, the company registers you with Social Security (Seguridad Social) within three months of your arrival, and in the month after that registration you apply for the TIE, your foreigner identity card ¹.

The company always starts the process. In the meantime, you can prepare your passport, your criminal record certificates, the medical certificate and proof of your qualifications.

The permit is only granted if the national employment situation (situación nacional de empleo) allows the company to hire you ². There are four ways to meet this ^{1 2}:

• The occupation is on the shortage occupation list, the Catálogo de Ocupaciones de Difícil Cobertura, which the State Public Employment Service (SEPE) publishes every quarter for each province.
• The company proves it cannot find candidates in Spain. It posts a job offer on the Empléate portal and with the public employment service ¹, which handles it for eight days; the company then reports the result of its selection, and within three days the service issues a certificate that there are not enough job seekers (certificado de insuficiencia de demandantes).
• You are a national of Chile or Peru, countries with international agreements with Spain.
• Your case is covered by article 40 of Ley Orgánica 4/2000, the Immigration Act, which lists cases where the national employment situation is not taken into account.

The list is short. The one for the third quarter of 2026, published in the BOE (Spain's official gazette) on 2 September 2026, includes professional athletes and coaches in all provinces, merchant navy occupations in coastal provinces plus Lleida and Madrid, and, in all provinces, aluminium, metal and PVC carpenters and fitters, electricians and crane operators ³. If your trade is not on it, the usual route is the certificate that there are not enough job seekers.

The contract. It must be signed by both parties, guarantee continuous work while the permit is valid and start when the permit takes effect ². The terms must respect the law and the collective agreement (convenio colectivo) for the sector, the job category and the location ². If it is part-time, the annual salary must reach the full-time Spanish minimum wage (salario mínimo interprofesional, SMI) ¹, which in 2026 is €1,221 a month over 14 payments, or €17,094 a year ⁴.

The company. It must be registered with Social Security, up to date with the tax agency (Hacienda) and Social Security, and have the means for its business and to pay your salary ¹. It proves this with income tax (IRPF), VAT (IVA) or corporate tax (Impuesto de Sociedades) returns, or with the company's employment history report for the last three years, plus a description of the job ¹. If the employer is an individual, on top of the salary they must show 50% of the SMI a month for themselves, 100% if there are two people in the family and another 25% for each additional member ².

You. You need the skills for the job and, when the profession requires it, a qualification recognised in Spain (homologación) ¹. You cannot be in Spain without legal status, you must have no criminal record in Spain or in the countries where you lived in the last five years, and you cannot be within the period of a commitment not to return to Spain (compromiso de no retorno) ¹.

Once the permit is granted, you apply for the visa in person at the Spanish embassy or consulate for the place where you live ¹. At this stage the ministry asks for ¹:

• A passport valid for at least one year.
• A criminal record certificate from your country or from the countries where you lived in the last five years.
• A medical certificate.
• Proof that you paid the visa fee.

Each consulate sets out its own list. The Embassy of Spain in Tegucigalpa (Honduras), for example, asks for the stamped permit, two photos, a passport valid for more than six months, a criminal record certificate from the Honduran judiciary (Poder Judicial) with an apostille, a medical certificate from the Honduran medical association (Colegio Médico) issued in the last three months with specific wording on the International Health Regulations of 2005, and the copy of the contract stamped by the immigration office ⁶. All documents must be in Spanish ⁶.

Foreign public documents that the company files in Spain must be apostilled or legalised, and translated by a sworn translator (traductor jurado) ¹.

The fees are paid within ten working days of filing ¹. The amounts come from the annex of Orden PJC/617/2025 ⁵:

Fee	Who pays	When	Amount
Form 790, code 052, item 2.1.3	You, as the worker	Always	€10.94
Form 790, code 062, item 3.2.1	The company	If the permit lasts six months or more	€203.84 if the salary is below twice the minimum wage (SMI); €407.71 if it is twice the SMI or more

Twice the 2026 SMI is €34,188 a year ⁴. When the company pays its fee, it cannot charge the amount to you ⁵.

On top of that comes the visa fee at the consulate ¹. The amount depends on the consulate and on your nationality. Under an agreement with Spain, nationals of Honduras do not pay the consular fee for this visa or the fee for the initial temporary residence permit ⁶.

The fee is charged for processing, whatever the outcome. Check the current amount on form 790 on the day you pay.

The initial permit lasts as long as the contract, up to one year, and limits you to one region (comunidad autónoma) and one occupation ². It also lets you work as self-employed if your main activity is still the one in the contract ¹.

From three months into the permit and during the first year, you can change employer within the same occupation ². If the company seriously breaches the contract, or something outside your control prevents you from starting work, the change is allowed at any time, with its own notice periods ².

You apply for renewal in the two months before the permit expires ². It is granted, among other cases, if you keep the same employment relationship, or if you worked at least three months per year and have a new contract ². The renewed permit lasts four years and lets you work as an employee or self-employed anywhere in Spain; if the initial permit lasted less than a year, the renewal is granted for the length of the activity, up to one year ².