Working in Spain as a foreigner: the four routes that actually exist
Almost every route into a Spanish job is filed by an employer in Spain while you are still in your home country. This guide explains which of the four applies to you, what each one requires and where the paperwork actually happens.
- 1.The four routes, in one table
- 2.Where you apply from: the part that trips people up
- 3.The general route and the national employment situation test
- 4.The Spanish shortage occupation list, and why it rarely helps
- 5.GECCO: recruitment in your country of origin
- 6.Arraigo: only if you are already in Spain
- 7.Before the route: is your profession regulated in Spain?
- 8.The order that actually works
Updated: 2026-08-22
The four routes, in one table
Most questions about working legally in Spain are answered by picking correctly between four procedures. What separates them is not difficulty: it is who starts the file, from where, and what has to be proved.
The first three routes are started by an employer inside Spain while you are still in your country of residence. Arraigo works the other way round: it is filed by someone who has already spent time in Spain. Confusing the two is the most expensive mistake in this whole area, because it decides whether the file can be opened at all.
| Route | Who files it | What has to be proved | Indicative timeline |
|---|---|---|---|
| General employed-work route | The employer, from Spain | That the post was advertised and could not be filled by residents (the national employment situation test) | 3 months maximum, negative silence (art. 77.6) |
| Shortage occupation list | The employer, from Spain | That the occupation appears on the quarterly SEPE list — this skips the test above | 3 months maximum, negative silence (art. 77.6) |
| Recruitment in country of origin (GECCO) | Companies and public bodies, by call | That you match the profile of an open call for your country and sector | Depends on the call |
| Arraigo | You, already in Spain | Documented prior residence in Spain plus the requirements of the specific category | 3 months maximum, negative silence (art. 77.6) |
Maximum decision period set by article 77.6 of the Immigration Regulation, with negative silence. It is the legal ceiling, not a forecast of how long a specific file will take, and it does not include the consular visa step that follows. No deadline guarantees a grant.
Where you apply from: the part that trips people up
If you are reading this from Lagos, Karachi, Manila, Cairo or Kochi, this is the section that matters most, and it is the one that Spanish-language guides tend to skip because their readers are already in the country.
Every route filed from abroad has two separate steps with two separate authorities. First, your employer files the application for the initial temporary residence and employed-work authorisation with the immigration office in the Spanish province where the job is. That decision is taken in Spain, and you are not present for it. Only once it is granted do you apply for the residence and work visa at the Spanish consulate — or its outsourced visa centre — with jurisdiction over your place of residence. Two steps, two waiting periods, and the second one has its own calendar per consulate.
Two practical consequences. First, you cannot start this yourself: without a named employer there is no file to open on the first three routes. Second, entering Spain on a tourist visa does not shorten anything — an employed-work authorisation applied for from inside Spain on a short-stay visa is not the same procedure, and overstaying makes the situation worse rather than faster.
The documents your consulate will ask for — degree certificates, transcripts, criminal record certificates — normally need legalisation for Spain: an apostille if your country is party to the Hague Convention, or consular legalisation if it is not, plus a sworn translation into Spanish. Getting attestation and legalisation moving early is what keeps the visa step from becoming the bottleneck.
The general route and the national employment situation test
This is the default procedure. An employer in Spain wants to hire you, and before your initial temporary residence and employed-work authorisation can be granted they must show that the post cannot be filled by someone already legally resident in the country. That is the national employment situation test, and in practice it means advertising the vacancy through the public employment service and waiting out the management period without a suitable candidate appearing.
It is the slowest route and the one that depends most on the employer's willingness, because it is the employer who has to document the process. In exchange, it is open to any occupation: it depends on no list and no call.
For employers hiring at volume, this is the step where files stall — not because candidates are unqualified, but because the supporting evidence about the candidate's credentials arrives late, unlegalised or in the wrong format.
The Spanish shortage occupation list, and why it rarely helps
Article 75.1 of the Immigration Regulation approved by Royal Decree 1155/2024 instructs the public employment service, SEPE, to publish each quarter a catálogo de ocupaciones de difícil cobertura — a shortage occupation list of jobs for which there are not enough available candidates. Since May 2025 the default scope is the autonomous community, dropping to province or island only where that community formally requests it. If your occupation appears on the list, the employer skips the national employment situation procedure of article 75.2, which cuts the process down substantially.
Set expectations before building a plan around it. The list in force as of August 2026 is the one for the first quarter of 2026 (Resolution of 28 January 2026, BOE-A-2026-4944). It contains 27 occupations, and twenty of those are merchant marine and professional sport. The only entries that apply across all provinces are metal and aluminium carpentry, electrical installers and crane operators. Comparing the five resolutions published in the BOE since the third quarter of 2023 — BOE-A-2023-18467, BOE-A-2024-9303, BOE-A-2025-3161, BOE-A-2025-16768 and BOE-A-2026-4944 — the 27 occupation codes are identical in all five: no additions and no removals in three years. Publication is not punctual either: as of August 2026, the second and third quarters of 2026 have not been published.
So if you are a nurse, a doctor, an engineer or a truck driver, expect not to be on it. That is the normal case, not the exception, and it closes nothing: the general route stays open, as do the other options in this guide. The list is published in Spanish in the BOE as a PDF with no search function; if you want to check it, search by the Spanish name of your occupation rather than the English one.
GECCO: recruitment in your country of origin
The collective management of recruitment in countries of origin selects workers where they live, to cover specific needs of the Spanish labour market — mostly agricultural campaigns and other seasonal demand. It is governed by annual ministerial orders, Orden ISM/1547/2025 of 23 December (BOE-A-2025-27014) for the current cycle, which set the quotas, the sectors and the countries involved.
This is not something you sign up for on your own whenever you like. It runs through calls, and the selection is made by companies and public bodies in coordination with the authorities of the country of origin. If your country has an agreement in place and your profile fits an open call, it is among the fastest routes there is; if it does not, it is simply not on the table, however well you match the profile. Morocco, Colombia, Ecuador and Honduras have historically been the main origin countries, so for most readers of this English guide GECCO is worth knowing about rather than planning around.
Arraigo: only if you are already in Spain
Arraigo lets someone who has already spent time in Spain regularise their situation without an employer filing from abroad. Royal Decree 1155/2024, in force since 20 May 2025, reorganised these categories: there are versions tied to training, to employment, to family circumstances and to social ties, each with its own prior-residence and evidence requirements.
If you are reading this from outside Spain, arraigo is not your route today, and it is not a plan: it requires documented prior time in the country, which cannot be manufactured retroactively. It matters here only so you can recognise it when an intermediary offers it to you as a shortcut for someone who has never been to Spain, which it is not.
No route guarantees an outcome. Whether an application is granted depends on the individual file, the province and the rules in force on the day it is decided. This guide explains the procedures; it is not advice on your particular case, and outcomes depend on the receiving country's authorities.
Before the route: is your profession regulated in Spain?
There is a prior step that too many people skip, and skipping it invalidates the whole plan. If you intend to practise a regulated profession in Spain — healthcare, engineering, architecture, law, teaching and a number of others — your foreign degree has to be recognised through homologación, or declared academically equivalent, before you can practise. It is not a parallel errand to sort out later: without it there is no registration with the professional body, and without that registration there is no contract in that profession.
The procedure is governed by Royal Decree 889/2022 and decided by the competent ministry, with an official fee of 166,50 € paid on form 790-107 for university degrees. Article 18.3 sets a maximum decision period of six months from the date the application enters the electronic register, after which it may be deemed refused by administrative silence. The ministry does not publish average decision times, so any figure you find about real-world duration has no official source behind it. What can be stated: it is the longest procedure in the set and the only one you can start without an employer, so starting it late delays everything else.
If your profession is not regulated, you do not need recognition in order to work: you only need to evidence your education to the employer. Knowing which of homologación, equivalencia and convalidación applies to you decides which procedure you file, and getting it wrong costs months.
The order that actually works
The most common sequencing error is waiting for a job offer before starting the degree recognition. Because the ministerial file is the slowest piece of the set, anyone who starts it last ends up with a live offer and a degree that does not yet entitle them to the job.
The order that works: check whether the profession is regulated; if it is, start the recognition immediately and, in parallel, have the degree verified at the issuing university, which is the evidence the file rests on; at the same time get documents apostilled and translated, because the consular step will ask for them; and look for an employer already knowing which route they will have to file.
What people ask us most
Can I get a Spanish work visa without a job offer?
Not through the employed-work routes. The general route, the shortage occupation list and GECCO all require a named employer to open the file from Spain. The exception is arraigo, filed by someone who has already spent time in Spain, and that is not available to you from abroad. The visa itself is only issued after the work and residence authorisation has been granted in Spain.
Do I apply in my own country or in Spain?
Both, in that order but not by you at both ends. Your employer files the work and residence authorisation with the immigration office of the Spanish province where the job is. Once it is granted, you file the visa application at the Spanish consulate or visa centre covering your place of residence. Only the second step happens in your country.
Is nursing, medicine or truck driving on the Spanish shortage occupation list?
No. The list in force contains 27 occupations, twenty of them merchant marine and professional sport, and it has not changed since 2023. Not being on it does not block anything — it just means the employer has to run the national employment situation test on the general route, which lengthens the procedure without preventing it.
Do I have to homologate my degree to work in Spain?
Only if you will practise a regulated profession: healthcare, engineering, architecture, law, teaching and others. In that case homologación or a declaration of equivalence is a precondition, not a parallel step, because without it there is no registration with the professional body. If the profession is not regulated, evidencing your education to the employer is enough.
How long does the whole thing take?
It depends on the route and on whether degree recognition is involved. The work authorisation runs two to eight months depending on route and province, and the consular visa is added after that. Recognition of a university degree can run from several months to more than a year, so in regulated professions it is the recognition that sets the calendar for everything else.
Is there a faster route for highly qualified professionals?
Law 14/2013 provides separate residence permits for highly qualified professionals, intra-company transfers, researchers and entrepreneurs, processed by a specialised unit with shorter statutory deadlines than the general route. It is employer- and salary-threshold dependent, so it is worth asking a prospective employer whether they can use it rather than assuming it applies to you.
What changed with Royal Decree 1155/2024?
It did not reform the previous regulation: it approved a new one, in force since 20 May 2025, and repealed the one approved by Royal Decree 557/2011. Numbering changed — the shortage occupation list moved from article 65 to article 75 — and the default scope of the list became the autonomous community. Royal Decree 316/2026 then amended it again with effect from 16 April 2026, adding the extraordinary arraigo of the twenty-first additional provision, whose application window closed on 30 June 2026.
Verified against official sources
- Royal Decree 1155/2024, Immigration Regulation in force (BOE)
- Royal Decree 316/2026, amending it from 16 April 2026 (BOE)
- Shortage occupation list, Q1 2026 (BOE)
- Royal Decree 889/2022, recognition of foreign degrees (BOE)
- Servicio Público de Empleo Estatal (SEPE)
Informational guide. It does not replace the legal text or the instructions issued by the competent authority.
The other guides in this series
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