Remote work for a foreign employer

Key facts

Start with your visa, not your job

The real question is not "is remote work legal in Spain" but "does my residence status include the right to work". Two statuses dominate among new arrivals:

• The non-lucrative visa (NLV) is the residence-without-work route. It does not permit work of any kind, including remote work for a foreign employer. The consular wording is explicit — no gainful work "by any means, either on-site nor remotely (online)" — and the UGE’s FAQ confirms the authorisation "no autoriza a trabajar". Working without authorisation is an infraction under Título III of LO 4/2000.
• The digital nomad visa (DNV) was created for exactly the person the NLV excludes: someone whose income is active but foreign.

EU, EEA and Swiss citizens are outside this fork altogether: they need no work authorisation, only registration as residents once they stay beyond three months.

Route 1: the digital nomad visa

The DNV (Ley 14/2013, arts. 74 bis and following) is built around the foreign employer clause, and its fine print matters:

• Income. By the letter of the rules, 200% of the SMI — €2,442/month in 2026. Part of the consular network computes it from the annual SMI instead: €2,849/month. Showing at least €2,849 makes the fork irrelevant.
• Employees: you may work only for companies based outside Spain. A Spanish employment contract is not allowed on this permit — not part-time, not 20% of one.
• Self-employed professionals (contrato mercantil) may take Spanish clients up to 20% of total activity. The 20% allowance belongs to profesionales only; summaries that extend it to employees are wrong.

Decisions come from the UGE-CE within 20 days, with silence counting as approval.

Route 2: posted within the EU — the A1 certificate

If you already work for an employer in the EU, EEA or Switzerland and are being sent to Spain temporarily, the posting rules of Reglamento (CE) 883/2004 apply. The A1 certificate states which country’s social security legislation covers you, so you keep contributing at home instead of being enrolled in Spain twice.

The A1 is always issued by the institution of the sending country: a German institution for a worker posted from Germany to Spain, and Spain’s TGSS (Tesorería General de la Seguridad Social) when it is Spain doing the posting. The A1 settles social security only — it is not a residence or work permit, which is why it mainly serves EU citizens, who need neither.

Route 3: the employer of record

An employer of record (EOR) is a company in Spain that formally employs you, runs your payroll and contributions, and contracts your services back to your real employer abroad. Two things to know before relying on one:

• The term has no specific regulation in Spanish law. It is a market practice built on ordinary employment and commercial contracts — so the arrangement is only as good as the provider, and it matters who actually signs as your employer.
• An EOR gives you a normal Spanish employment relationship — payslip, contributions, severance rules and all, as described in Spanish employment contracts and payslips. What it does not do is fix immigration status: you still need a residence authorisation that allows employment in Spain.

The employer’s side: permanent establishment

Foreign companies hesitate over Spain-based staff for a reason of their own: an employee habitually working from Spain can create a permanent establishment — a taxable presence of the company in Spain, assessed under the non-resident income tax rules (LIRNR) and the applicable double-taxation treaty. Whether it arises depends on the facts, and the analysis is the employer’s to run with its advisers. It explains why many employers refuse a plain "keep your contract, move to Spain" and prefer an EOR or a contractor arrangement.

The contractor alternative

The remaining route is to stop being an employee: register as self-employed in Spain and invoice your former employer as a client. That is a real change of relationship, not a relabelling — and it moves you into the world of quarterly filings described in invoicing and IVA as a freelancer. On the DNV, this is the profile that may also take Spanish clients within the 20% cap.

⚠ Scams to avoid

• ✗ "Work on your NLV — nobody checks." Working without authorisation is an infraction under Título III of LO 4/2000 — and the risk at renewal is yours, not the adviser’s.
• ✗ "Our EOR package includes your right to work." An employer of record arranges employment, not immigration status. If the offer does not name the residence authorisation you will hold, there isn’t one.
• ✗ "Buy a remote-work permission letter." No such document exists in Spanish law. The right to work comes from your residence authorisation — never from a letter, and never from a NIE alone.