Working in Spain: no work permit, but a number, a minimum wage and a qualification that has to be recognised

Working in Spain is possible without a permit: as an EU citizen you don't need one, not as an employee and certainly not as a self-employed person. What there is to arrange is what people underestimate: a social security number, and a qualification that has to be recognised for regulated professions. Whoever comes to look for work on a Dutch unemployment benefit has three months for it, and a form to apply for before departure.

Do you need a work permit?

No. Your Europe, the EU portal, is brief about it: as an EU citizen you generally don't need a work permit to work anywhere in the EU, and for the self-employed one is never required. What does apply is the residence side: whoever stays longer than three months registers, and work is the easiest ground for that. An employment contract or a registration as self-employed is your evidence; the income and health-cover requirement then doesn't apply.

Which number do you need, and who applies for it?

The Número de la Seguridad Social is the key to pay and healthcare. Every citizen or worker who doesn't yet have one can apply for it, but if you take a job, it's your employer who has to apply for it. Applying yourself is done with modelo TA.1 and your passport or NIE at the Tesorería General de la Seguridad Social; the decision period is at most 45 days and after that the application counts as granted. Once you start working, the number becomes your affiliation number, and your entitlement to healthcare runs through it.

What do you earn at minimum, and what does a Spanish wage look like?

Spain has a statutory minimum wage, the salario mínimo interprofesional. For 2026 it has been set at € 40.70 a day or € 1,221 a month, with retroactive effect to 1 January 2026, an increase of 3.1 percent on 2025. Only pay in money counts; pay in kind may not reduce the amount.

What	Amount or deadline	Source
Minimum wage 2026	€ 1,221 a month or € 40.70 a day	BOE, Real Decreto 126/2026
Social security number	decision within 45 days; employer applies for employees	Seguridad Social
Recognition of a regulated profession	acknowledgement within 1 month, decision within 3 months of complete documents	Your Europe
Taking unemployment benefit (U2)	at least 3 months, extendable to 6; register within 7 days of arrival	Your Europe

The decree also checks the minimum wage on an annual basis, so always compare a Spanish offer as an annual amount and not as a monthly one. If you work as a self-employed person, everything runs differently, from contributions to tax; that story stands on its own.

Does your qualification have to be recognised?

That depends on one question: is your profession regulated in Spain? A profession is regulated if you have to hold a specific degree, sit a state exam or register with a professional body to practise it. If not, you don't have to apply for anything and you work under the same conditions as a Spaniard. If so, you apply for recognition before you start, and the EU rules give the authority one month to acknowledge receipt and three months after complete documents to decide. Doctors, nurses, midwives, dentists, pharmacists, architects and veterinary surgeons are recognised automatically; they submit their proof and wait for permission. Sworn translations of qualifications may not be demanded.

Look up your profession in the EU database of regulated professions, not in your own dictionary. A profession that's free in the Netherlands can fall under a different, regulated profession in Spain. If it isn't listed, ask the Spanish contact point for professional qualifications before you sign a contract.

Apart from that there's the homologación of your qualification itself, at the Ministry of Education for non-university qualifications and at the Ministry of Universities for university ones. For the non-university route you pay a fee (code 079) with modelo 790 before the file is processed; only the homologation to the Spanish compulsory secondary school certificate is free. Whoever starts on this from the Netherlands is months ahead on arrival.

Looking in Spain on an unemployment benefit

Whoever has become unemployed in the Netherlands can take the benefit along to look for work in Spain, under conditions: wholly unemployed, registered as a jobseeker in the Netherlands for at least four weeks, and a U2 form from the UWV applied for before departure. In Spain you register within seven days with the regional employment service and hand in the U2; the benefit is then paid for at least three months, and on request up to six. Whoever wants to keep their entitlement is back in the Netherlands before the end of that period.

Registration as a jobseeker (demandante de empleo) is done in person at the employment office of your autonomous region, with an identity document and your residence document, and with your qualifications if you have any.

What this means for your order

Work is in Spain the fastest way to being settled: number, healthcare and ground of residence in one go. But recognition and homologation take months and preferably begin before departure. How that falls into the phases is in the journey at /spanje.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 1 of 5 of the journey, step 1.2: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Spain or go straight to step 1.2 in the open plan.