Who is allowed to work in Barcelona?

On this site you will find all necessary, up-to-date information regarding work in Barcelona. Sometimes the Spanish bureaucracy can be hard to understand for foreigners. That is why all the information is summarized here nice and neat. There are many things to take into consideration - so let’s start with the simplest one:
 

 1. European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA) citizens

 

EU/EEA citizens and their family members have right to live and work in Spain under the same conditions as Spanish citizens.   
 

2. Non-EU and non-EEA citizens

 
Non-EU/EEA residents need to apply for a visa and a work permit before moving to Spain for work reasons. A work permit can be requested at the Foreigner’s Office in Spain as well as at the Spanish consular office in the applicant’s home country (before coming to Spain). There are exceptions as in the case of Switzerland.
 
Usually you have to take care of all the paperwork yourself - companies or recruitment agencies are not eager to take care of the process for you, though this might be the case when you are applying for a very specific position which requires extraordinary knowledge and/or experience.


(Note: Information on this site is mainly targeted at European Union and European Economic Area citizens.)