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🏢 Digital Nomad residency permit · employersEmployer requirements for the Spain Digital Nomad residency permit
Your employer is a for-profit company outside Spain that has been active for at least 1 year. You have worked with it for at least 3 months by the filing date, you hold no controlling stake and you are not its general director. Below: a 6-question check, what the company letter says, and how Deel fits in.
4 employer requirements
- Who employs you
- A for-profit company outside Spain
- How long it has been active
- At least 1 year
- How long you have worked with it
- At least 3 months
- Your role in it
- No controlling stake, not general director
Does your employer fit? A 6-question check
Answer 6 questions about the company you work for. At the end you will see whether it fits the Digital Nomad residency permit, whether you apply as an employee or as a freelancer, and which documents to collect.
What the company letter says
The company your contract is with writes and signs the letter. The points depend on whether you are an employee or a freelancer.
Employee on an employment contract
Contract date and term
When the contract was signed or the work with the company began, and for how long: open-ended or until a set date. The dates match the contract itself.
Your post and duties
Specific about what you do, with no hint of offline work: no warehouse, no shop, no client meetings.
The work is remote, and you may do it from Spain
The company states that the work is done by computer and internet and that you may do it from Spain.
Your work from Spain serves the company’s aims
The company states that sending its employee to work from Spain is in line with its aims.
Your pay
UGE’s document list says euros; in practice the letter states the pay in the currency you are actually paid in, so that it matches your payslips or invoices and your bank statement.
Freelancer on a services contract
Contract date and term
When the contract was signed or the work with the company began, and for how long: open-ended or until a set date. The dates match the contract itself.
The services you provide
Which services and functions you perform for the company, again with no offline tasks.
The work is remote, and you may do it from Spain
The company states that the work is done by computer and internet and that you may do it from Spain.
Your pay
UGE’s document list says euros; in practice the letter states the pay in the currency you are actually paid in, so that it matches your payslips or invoices and your bank statement.
There is no template. A letter copied from someone else describes someone else’s job and contradicts your contract, and UGE can conclude the documents were falsified. The points above are what the letter covers; the words are yours.
A controlling owner or general director cannot sign this letter to themselves. UGE treats it as entrepreneurship and does not approve the application, even when someone else signs under a power of attorney.
The contract and official documents (the commercial-registry extract, the criminal-record certificate, civil-status certificates) go in with a sworn translation into Spanish (traducción jurada). The company letter, the payslips and the bank statement go in with a simple translation.
3 months is about you, 1 year is about the company
These are 2 different periods, shown by different documents.
You and the company
- Period
- At least 3 months
- How it counts
- From the start of the contract or of your work with the company to the filing date
- Shown by
- Your contract with the company
The company
- Period
- At least 1 year
- How it counts
- Real activity, not just registration
- Shown by
- Commercial-registry extract
If you moved from an employment contract to a services contract, or the other way round, the 3 months start again.
Questions about your employer
Yes. Most often the service is a payment agent and you are a freelancer. What matters is the role it plays:
- Payment agent. Your contract is with the company, and the service only sends the money. It fits. The file shows your contract with the company, your contract or terms of service with the agent, and the payments from your account there.
- Employer of Record outside Spain. The service’s foreign company employs you to work for a client. That is employment, and it fits. The hard part is social security: these services rarely issue the posting order and other papers needed for an A1 form or a certificate of coverage.
- The service’s Spanish company. If a Spanish Employer of Record hired you, you are employed in Spain, not working remotely for a foreign company. The Digital Nomad residency permit does not fit; work like this calls for the EU Blue Card.
No. The law speaks of remote work for companies («empresas»). The company can be in any line of business, but it has to be a for-profit legal entity: a non-profit, foundation or association does not fit. In 2026 UGE refused one of our cases on this ground alone, and it refused straight away, without asking for documents first.
Not with a controlling stake or as general director. UGE treats that as entrepreneurship, not remote work, and does not approve these applications. A power of attorney does not help: UGE does not approve them either when someone else signs the letter for the director, as its staff say at meetings with advisers.
- A small stake without control is fine.
- Your contract should name another role: an operational director (COO) is fine, a general director or CEO is not.
If the business is yours and it is innovative, the Startup residency permit (the startup visa) may fit.
No. The work has to be fully remote, and nothing in the contract or the letter should hint that you need to be there in person. A marketplace analyst is fine; managing a warehouse, a shop or any premises is not, because UGE will conclude you have to turn up on site. Client meetings and site visits are out too.
Your time. You have worked with the company for at least 3 months by the filing date, and your contract shows it. The company has its own rule: at least 1 year of activity, shown by a commercial-registry extract. On a renewal the 3 months are not checked again.
On an employment contract, no: you may work only for a company outside Spain. As a freelancer, yes, on a services contract and up to 20% of your work. The contract with the company outside Spain stays in place: without it the permit is not renewed.
A sworn translation for the contract and official documents: the commercial-registry extract, the criminal-record certificate, civil-status certificates. A simple translation for the company letter, the payslips, the invoices and the bank statement.
No. A letter copied from someone else describes someone else’s job and contradicts your contract, and UGE can conclude the documents were falsified. The ChatGPT prompt in the letter section drafts your own letter from your contract.
Show us your contract
We read your contract and the company letter and tell you what to fix before you file.
Laws and official links
Show laws and official links
the holder of the international remote-work authorisation may work only for companies based outside Spanish territory
Spanish original
«el titular de la autorización por teletrabajo de carácter internacional solo podrá trabajar para empresas radicadas fuera del territorio nacional»
the existence of real and continuous activity for at least one year on the part of the company or group of companies with which the worker has the employment or professional relationship
Spanish original
«La existencia de una actividad real y continuada durante al menos un año de la empresa o grupo de empresas con la que el trabajador mantiene relación laboral o profesional»
it must be shown that the relationship has existed between the worker and the company not located in Spain for at least the three months preceding the submission of the application
Spanish original
«se deberá acreditar la existencia de la misma entre el trabajador y la empresa no localizada en España durante al menos, los últimos tres meses anteriores a la presentación de la solicitud»
a letter from the foreign company authorising the work to be carried out from Spain, evidencing the profile of the post, the main functions, an express declaration that it can be performed by telematic means, the salary to be received in euros, and the remaining conditions under which the activity will be carried out remotely
Spanish original
«Carta de la empresa extranjera, autorizando el desarrollo del trabajo desde España acreditando el perfil del puesto, las principales funciones, la declaración expresa de que puede realizarse mediante medios telemáticos, el sueldo a percibir en euros, y el resto de las condiciones en las que se va a ejercer la actividad a distancia»
- Ley 14/2013, art. 74 bis.1: on an employment contract, work only for companies outside Spain; on a services contract, Spanish companies too, up to 20% of the work.
- Ley 14/2013, art. 74 ter a) and c): the company has been active for at least 1 year; your relationship with it has lasted at least 3 months by the filing date.
- UGE documentation sheet for the main applicant: what the company letter contains.
- UGE FAQ, question 6: an employer outside Spain registers with Spanish social security as a non-resident unless the employee stays covered at home.
- Ley 14/2013, art. 74 bis: who you may work for
- Ley 14/2013, art. 74 ter: requirements, both periods
- UGE: international teleworkers (teletrabajadores de carácter internacional)
- UGE: documents for initial applications (main applicant)
- UGE: frequently asked questions
- Joint instruction on applying Ley 14/2013 to telework (2023)
We are a consultancy, not a law firm. This is general information, not advice on your case. UGE decides.