Spain: Brexit – What are the current provisions in Spanish residence and employment law?

Immigration and residence

After the end of the transitional period, British citizens in Spain basically have the same rights as all non-EU foreign citizens since 1 January 2021. However, the withdrawal agreement concluded between the EU and the United Kingdom offers some relief in various respects.

Residence before 01.01.2021

If British citizens have lived in Spain before 31.12.2020, they can apply for residence in Spain as if they were EU citizens from 2021.

British citizens who have been in possession of an "EU membership certificate" for more than 5 years have direct access to permanent residence before their document. This new residence document will be valid for 10 years and will be marked as "permanent"

Residence after 01.01.2021

From that date, every British citizen who wants to live over 3 months in Spain needs to request a valid residence permit.

Employment

In order to work as an employee in Spain, British citizens will have to opt for one of these two routes:

Residence and work permit for employees.

For this purpose, the applicant must have a job offer that fits within the occupations provided for in the National Employment System (SNE) or prove that he is exempt from the application of said system and can be hired with any job offer.

Highly Qualified Worker Permit.

To process this permit, it is required to have higher education related to the position offered and that the job offer involves a high salary (more than 54,500.- euros per year for directors and managers and more than 40,500.- euros for other professionals).

In all other cases, if the British citizen does not wish to come to Spain as an employee, there are the general visa options, for example:

  • Investor’s visa, if the interested party intends to make an investment in real estate to obtain residency.
  • Student visa, which allows the interested party to modify it afterwards to a work permit.
  • Non-lucrative residency, which requires the possession of sufficient economic means and private health insurance.

Employees can be temporarily posted to Spain by their employer for a specific task. For this, various requirements must be fulfilled, including that the employee must have "habitually" carried out the activity in his/her country of origin and have done so for more than one year. In addition, the employee must have been employed by the posting company for more than nine months.