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What happens with my Spanish work visa if I get fired?

Understanding what happens with your work visa if you get fired in Spain is key to improving your prospects of staying in the country.

Published: 27 December 2023 15:20 CET

What happens with my Spanish work visa if I get fired?

If you are fired, you must immediately communicate your change in circumstance to Spain's Large Companies Unit. Photo: Glenn Carstens-Peters/Unsplash.

It’s something of a nightmare scenario for many people: you’ve studied long and hard, gained technical or specialist experience, and then found a dream job in Spain. You accept the position, are given a specialist work visa, then arrive in Spain and begin a new life, only to be fired — what happens then?

Do you automatically lose your visa if you lose the job? Can you stay in Spain or must you leave the country?

Highly Qualified Visa

The Highly Qualified Visa (HQV), sometimes referred to as the Highly Skilled Professional Visa (Autorización inicial de residencia y trabajo de profesionales altamente cualificados) is a work permit that allows non-EU citizens to legally live and work in Spain, so long as they have a specialist position in a Spanish company lined up, are filling a gap in the labour market, or they are brought in under a managerial or supervisory role.

According to immigration experts Balcells Group, there are several employment profiles that could be eligible for the HQV:

Managers (also positions like CEO, CFO, and so on) who oversee a large group of people inside a company.
Individuals who work in “really technical and specialised job positions” and have the relevant training.
People who have recently finished their studies “in a prestigious business school or university.”

Put simply, this HQV is a short-term, job-based visa. No job = no visa.

The HQV is usually a two-year work permit that effectively gives you temporary residency authorisation, can be renewed, and counts towards long-term residency or citizenship. Note that this visa is for specialist people with job offers, not self-employed people or digital nomads (known as “autónomos” in Spain). For more information on Spain’s digital nomad visa, you can read all The Local’s coverage of it below:

READ ALSO:

If you’re interested in the EU Blue Card, you can read our coverage of it here.

For many non-EU citizens with specialist training, however, particularly those who work in tech or industries where Spanish companies face a shortage of workers, the HQV can be one of the best ways to gain entry into Spain.

However, in order to get it, you must have a job offer from a Spanish company. As such, your HQV (and by extension, your temporary residency rights) are tied to that job contract, and the company must apply for you.

That raises some questions, namely: what happens with my Spanish work visa if I get fired?

What happens with my Spanish work visa if I get fired?

In Spain, getting fired as a foreign worker can (in some circumstances) lead to a loss of residency and work permit if it was granted with that employment contract, which is the case with HQVs. This isn’t always necessarily the case, however, and there are some steps you can take to avoid it.

If you are fired, the main thing is that you must immediately communicate your change in circumstance to Spain’s Large Companies Unit (UGE), within 30 days of being fired, and if you want to hold on to your visa you must begin the process of trying to find a new job in your specialist sector.

From there you essentially have two options to try and regularise your immigration status: (quickly) find a new job or, if you are eligible, claim unemployment benefits (known as el paro in Spanish) while you explore your options. Though for many HQV holders who could earn good salaries elsewhere, this might not be an overly appealing option.

How can you regularise your status in Spain after being fired?

According to Sergio Perez Parras, a lawyer at Pérez Parras Economists & Lawyers, the easiest way to regularise your residence status in Spain if you are fired is to be hired by another Spanish company. Note, as with the initial application, it would be your new company that must apply for a new HQV, not you. Like with this original visa, this would need to be a specialist position and satisfy all the relevant application criteria.

Or, if you are entitled to unemployment benefits in Spain, then you can give yourself a little breathing room to find a new company and restart the HQV application, or, if eligible, apply for another type of visa.

According to Law 14/2013: “In the event that the highly qualified professional informs the Large Companies Unit of his or her dismissal and is entitled to unemployment benefits, the authorisation shall be renewed in accordance with the provisions of article 71 of the Foreigners Regulations, approved by Royal Decree 557/2011, of 20th April”.

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What's the law on having two jobs in Spain?

Often it’s necessary to have more than one job at a time, particularly if they don’t pay well and you’re struggling to make ends meet.

In fact, historically that is part of the reason why establishments stay open so late and why siestas were so common – because people would have one job in the morning and then go home for a rest before starting their second.

This is still commonplace today and is in fact becoming more and more popular, with the rise in the cost of living, driving an increasing number of people to take up a second job.

Whatever your reasons for having two jobs or more – to save up more money or gain extra experience and work your way up, there are some financial implications you should be aware of.

What does the law say?

Currently in Spain, there is no restriction that prevents a person from having a second job, with two contracts in two different companies, for 80 hours a week.

According to data from the first quarter of this year from the Active Population Survey (EPA) prepared by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), the number of people with a second job in Spain stands at 591,300, although according to affiliation data of Social Security, some 800,000 people have more than one position.

This trend has been seen in each quarter of the EPA since 2022 and, right now, is close to a historic number.

Categories you should be aware of

There are two types of categories when you work in multiple jobs in Spain – these are pluriempleo and pluriactividad. Pluriempleo literally means multiple employment. This is understood as a person who works as an employee in two or more companies under the same Social Security regime.

In this way, it differs from pluriactividad or multiple activities, which is when people work for others and have their own business at the same time or their second job is under a different social security regime.

For example, if you work as a hotel receptionist in the morning and then in a restaurant at night, these positions are considered to be part of the same regime, but if you work in a hotel in the morning and then as a nurse in a hospital at night, these are two different careers and therefore social security regimes.

If you’re self-employed as well as having a contract job, this is a slightly different situation. To find out more, read our guide below.

READ ALSO – Self-employed in Spain: What are the tax rules if you do two or more jobs?

What are the tax and social security implications?

If you have two separate jobs, you are required by law to report your situation to Social Security, and to each of the companies you’re employed by.

When it comes to the Tax Agency, it’s important to note that you are obliged to submit your yearly Income Tax return (Renta), when you are paid by more than one employer and your income exceeds €22,000 per year.

READ ALSO – EXPLAINED: The key changes to Spain’s 2023/2024 annual tax return

In 2024, the maximum social security contribution base for employees has been set at €4,720.50 per month. This means, that regardless of whether your income from two positions exceeds this amount, the social security base will not be more than this.

The amount of IRPF (Personal Income Tax) must also be taken into account. If you are combining two contracts, it’s important to calculate the withholding tax.

This is because companies calculate personal income tax based on your annual compensation expectations. They do not take into account the existence of another job, so they apply the discount depending on what they are paying you only.

This means that they will keep less than what they should and when you’re filling out your Renta yearly income tax return, you will most likely have to pay the extra to make up the difference.

In this case, you should request that both companies calculate personal income tax according to your earnings, so that you can get a good idea of the amount you have to pay working two positions.

You may also consider hiring a gestor or accountant to file your yearly tax return for you if you have a particularly complicated situation and work three or more jobs for example.

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