Working in Spain: The Employer-Sponsored Routes

Reviewed September 2026. This is the one route on this site you cannot start yourself. A Spanish employer applies for it, not you, which is why most relocation guides skip past it in a sentence. Skipping it is a mistake, because there are two work routes and they behave nothing alike — and which one your prospective employer uses decides whether you are waiting three weeks or arguing about the Spanish labour market.

The two routes, side by side

	Ordinary employed authorisation	Highly qualified professional
Legal basis	General immigration regime	Ley 14/2013
Who processes it	The Oficina de Extranjería	UGE-CE, telematically
Labour market test	Yes. The national employment situation must permit the hiring	Not applied in the same way
Decision deadline	Not published as a fixed figure	20 days from electronic submission
If they miss the deadline	—	Granted by administrative silence

Twenty days with positive silence is an unusual thing to find in an immigration system. It exists because Ley 14/2013 was written to attract this category deliberately. If your role plausibly falls inside it, that is the single most useful question to raise with a prospective employer, early, because many HR departments default to the ordinary route without considering the other.

The labour market test, and the list that bypasses it

On the ordinary route the hiring has to survive the situación nacional de empleo: broadly, whether someone already in the Spanish labour market could do the job. There are two ways through it.

1. The occupation is in the Catálogo de Ocupaciones de Difícil Cobertura. The Servicio Público de Empleo Estatal publishes this shortage list every quarter, after consulting the tripartite labour commission on immigration. The current edition was published by Resolución of 28 January 2026. If the occupation is on it, the employment situation is treated as permitting the hire.
2. The employer proves the difficulty. Where the occupation is not listed, the employer has to evidence to the Oficina de Extranjería that the vacancy could not be filled from the internal labour market, supported by a report from the public employment services and evidence that the hiring is urgent.

Check the current quarter, not a copy of it. The catalogue changes four times a year and is published in the BOE. Any list of shortage occupations reproduced on a blog is a snapshot of a quarter that has probably ended.

What the ordinary route actually covers

Item	Detail
Who applies	The employer, not the worker
Contract length	More than 90 days and less than five years
Form	EX-03
Where	Oficina de Extranjería

The ninety-day floor matters more than it looks. A short contract does not get you here, which is why a trial period arrangement or a three-month project is not a route into Spain even when the employer is willing.

What you can actually do, given you cannot apply

• Ask which route the employer intends to use. Ordinary or Ley 14/2013. The answer changes the timetable completely, and asking it signals you understand the process.
• Ask whether they have done this before. An employer who has sponsored before has the internal machinery. One who has not may not realise what they are taking on.
• Find out whether your occupation is on the current shortage catalogue. If it is, say so. It removes the employer’s hardest step.
• Have your documents ready before the offer. Qualifications may need apostilles and sworn translations, on the same chain as everything else — see the apostille and translation guide.
• Do not resign anything until the authorisation exists. An offer is not an authorisation.

Before you assume this is your route

Two checks first, because both are lighter than persuading a company to sponsor you.

• If anyone in the household holds citizenship of another EU member state, the family route gives you the right to work without any of this.
• If you already work remotely for a company outside Spain, the teleworking route does not need a Spanish employer at all.

The work permit is the right answer when a Spanish organisation specifically wants you. It is the wrong answer when you are hoping a job will materialise to solve the immigration problem, because the sequence runs the other way round.

Where these rules are published

Consulted 30 September 2026. The shortage catalogue is reissued every quarter, so check the current one rather than this description of it.

• Ministerio de Inclusión — initial residence and work authorisation, employed: that the employer applies, the ninety-day and five-year contract limits, the national employment situation, and what the employer must evidence when the occupation is not on the catalogue.
• BOE — Catálogo de Ocupaciones de Difícil Cobertura, first quarter 2026: the quarterly shortage list and how it is made.
• UGE-CE — highly qualified professionals: telematic submission, the twenty-day resolution period and silence in the applicant’s favour.

We have not published a salary threshold for the highly qualified route. One is set by ministerial order and we have not verified the current figure against the order itself, so ask the employer or check the order rather than taking a number from here.

Compare this against the other options in which visa route fits your move.

Common questions

Can I get a work visa for Spain as an American?

Not by yourself. A Spanish employer applies for the authorisation, for a contract longer than 90 days and shorter than five years. There is no version of this route the worker starts.

What is the situacion nacional de empleo?

The labour market test the ordinary route has to pass. It is satisfied when the occupation appears in the Catalogo de Ocupaciones de Dificil Cobertura, the shortage list the state employment service publishes every quarter.

What is the Catalogo de Ocupaciones de Dificil Cobertura?

A quarterly list of occupations Spain treats as hard to fill. If your occupation is on the current edition, the employment situation is treated as permitting the hire. The first quarter 2026 edition was published by Resolucion of 28 January 2026.

Is there a faster Spanish work permit?

The highly qualified professional route under Ley 14/2013 is processed telematically by UGE-CE with a twenty-day resolution period, and the authorisation is deemed granted by administrative silence if that period passes without a decision.

How long does a Spanish work permit take?

Only the highly qualified route publishes a figure, which is twenty days from electronic submission. No fixed period is published for the ordinary route, so we do not print one.

Do I need a job offer before applying?

Yes, and more than that: the employer is the applicant. An offer is not an authorisation, so do not resign anything until the authorisation exists.