Hiring a non-EU professional: international mobility under Law 14/2013

~14 min read · Published 15 September 2026 Updated and checked against official sources 15 September 2026 Print / PDF

A page for HR and for the person signing the offer. The subject is the Law 14/2013 route: a decision in 20 working days, positive administrative silence, no labor market test. The general regime is named here for contrast and covered separately. Below is what the company does and what it risks, rather than what the worker does.

Contents

• Two hiring regimes
• Who files and what the company shows
• Which roles qualify
• The salary threshold and what counts toward it
• The EU Blue Card from the employer’s side
• Who pays what
• Timings and what filing itself achieves
• What happens once the card is issued
• When the role does not qualify
• How we work with companies

Two hiring regimes

There are two ways to hire a third-country national in Spain. They are two procedures. The authority, the application form and the timings all differ.

The general regime. The Immigration Regulation RD 1155/2024, an employed work permit. The employer applies for the permit at the immigration office of the province where the person will work. The worker then obtains the visa at the consulate for their place of residence, which is a separate stage before a different authority.

The international mobility regime. Title V of Law 14/2013, section 2: highly qualified professional, intra-company transfer, researcher, entrepreneur, digital nomad. Handled by the Unidad de Grandes Empresas y Colectivos Estratégicos (UGE-CE).

This page covers the second route. The general regime appears below where it explains a mistake or provides a contrast, and is covered in our guide to the work visa.

Requirements from the two regimes bleed into each other. Three examples below: all three hold in the general regime and all three appear in public material about highly qualified professionals.

The closest thing to a clearance requirement is art. 62.5 of Law 14/2013: the Act applies “sin perjuicio del cumplimiento, por los sujetos obligados, de las obligaciones … tributarias o de Seguridad Social correspondientes.” That is a reference to the general duty to pay tax and contributions, not a document to be filed.

How to tell them apart. Every requirement belongs to one regime and rests on a named provision. Where no provision is named, the statement cannot be checked.

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Who files and what the company shows

Under art. 71.1 of Law 14/2013 there is a single requirement: a company needs a foreign professional for a highly qualified employment or professional relationship. The current wording contains no employer categories at all, no headcount of 250, no turnover figure, no project of general interest. All of that belonged to the wording before the reform by Law 11/2023 and is no longer in the Act.

The application is filed either by the company or by the professional. In the second case the UGE-CE notifies the company that an application has arrived.

The register of companies at the UGE. Under art. 76.4 the company evidences compliance once and stays registered with the UGE-CE. The entry lasts three years and is renewed for as long as the conditions hold. The second and third hire do not rebuild the corporate pack.

Changes are reported within 30 days. Miss that and the company ceases to be registered. The consequence is in the provision itself. There is no separate electronic procedure, the notice goes through the same channel as applications, under “comunicaciones de variación de situación.”

The register is not open to everyone. Article 74.2 of Law 14/2013 expressly excludes from the simplified collective procedure and from the register any company which, in the three years before the application, has “sido sancionadas por infracción grave o muy grave en materia de extranjería e inmigración,” or which has “no hayan acreditado el cumplimiento de los requisitos en las comprobaciones de oficio efectuadas por la Administración.” An immigration penalty therefore closes the fast track to the company for three years, and an unanswered compliance check by the administration produces the same result. For HR that is an argument for keeping personnel files on foreign staff in order whether or not an application is pending.

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Which roles qualify

The requirement about the role sits in the departmental criteria, not in the Act. Under criterion 4.1.3 of the Criterios de aplicación the role has to sit in major groups 1 and 2 of the national classification of occupations CNO-2011, approved by RD 1591/2010.

The test takes one move: an occupation has a four-digit code, and the first digit is the major group. Groups 1 (managers and directors) and 2 (technical and scientific professionals) qualify. Groups 3 and 4 do not.

The line runs through IT. Employer-facing material lists “analysts, programrs and developers” together as suitable. In the classification those occupations sit in different major groups.

A pure programr under code 3820 does not pass criterion 4.1.3. A software analyst and designer under code 2712 does. HR roles qualify: 1212 Directores de recursos humanos is group 1, and 2624 and 2625 are group 2.

Classification follows the work actually performed, not the job title in the offer. Where the professional really does design systems, the duties clause in the contract has to show it, because the authority reads the document and not the interview. Where the professional writes code to someone else’s specification, renaming the role fixes nothing, and a file built around an attractive title comes apart at the first question about duties.

This test is not the shortage occupation list. Groups 1 and 2 apply to every role on this route, while the list only affects the reduced Blue Card threshold.

The full breakdown of subgroups with codes is in our guide to highly qualified professionals.

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The salary threshold and what counts toward it

The threshold is measured neither against the IPREM nor against the SMI, but against the average gross annual salary per worker in the INE structure of earnings survey.

Average gross annual salary per INE (2024 survey): €29,540.26. Salary threshold for highly qualified professionals: €41,356.36 a year, reduced €33,085.09current for 2026

The formula is set by Orden PJC/44/2026: 1.4 times the average annual salary. A 0.8 coefficient applies in two cases and only on the Blue Card route, where the occupation is on the shortage list within groups 1 and 2 of CNO-2011, or where the qualification was obtained no more than three years before filing. On the national route the UGE publishes a single threshold with no reduction.

What does not count. Criterion 4.1.4 of the Criterios de aplicación is explicit: “para el cálculo de las cuantías señaladas no se computará la parte variable de las retribuciones.” Bonuses and commission do not count at all. The same criterion caps payment in kind, which may not exceed 30 percent of the worker’s remuneration.

The guaranteed fixed component has to clear the threshold on its own. A modest base plus a generous bonus scheme does not clear it. That surfaces at refusal, long after the band was agreed.

Part-time work does not lower the threshold. The UGE criteria require the full 100 percent of the annual salary set for the status in any event. Part time only means earning the same amount in less time.

When the figure changes. Not in January. Under art. 3.2 of the order a new threshold applies to applications filed one month after a new INE survey is published. The survey comes out at the end of May, so the figure moves at the end of June. A file assembled in spring on last year’s figure no longer clears a July application. The ministry publishes the resulting figure on the UGE portal, and that is where to verify it before filing.

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The EU Blue Card from the employer’s side

The Tarjeta azul-UE is the second modality of the same article 71, not a separate permit. For the company the choice between it and the national route decides who can be hired and at what salary.

A degree is not mandatory for the Blue Card. An IT professional with no higher education but three years of relevant experience in the last seven qualifies for it, and with it for the reduced threshold.

Three things about the Blue Card that are stated wrongly.

The threshold is based on the national average salary, not on the average for the role’s contribution group. Article 71 bis.1 c and Order PJC/44/2026 refer to the INE survey for the country as a whole. Working from the average for a given category produces a different figure with no basis in the rule.

EU mobility opens after twelve months, not after eighteen. Eighteen was the rule of the repealed Directive 2009/50. What applies is art. 71 bis.4: twelve months of residence in one EU state, six where more than one state is involved. The same article separately allows the holder of another member state’s Blue Card to work in Spain for 90 days in any 180 without a Spanish permit.

After three years the requirement tightens rather than disappears. The reduced threshold holds until the first three years of the permit have run or 24 months from the first card, whichever applies. Renewal is then measured against the general threshold, so the contractual salary has to be raised in advance rather than at the moment of filing. Claims that the holder stops being tied to a specific employer in the third year are not supported by the rule.

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Who pays what

The general regime. Under art. 3 of Orden PJC/617/2025 the taxpayer is the person in whose favor the permit is processed, with an exception for employed work permits, where the taxpayer is the employer. Paragraph 2 of the same article: an employer who has paid the fee is not entitled to recover it from the foreign worker.

Law 14/2013. The fee is set by a separate order, Orden ESS/1571/2014, to which art. 62.3.g of the Act refers directly. Its article 3 is short: “Serán sujetos pasivos de las tasas previstas en la presente orden los solicitantes de autorización.” There is no split between worker and employer here at all. Whoever applies pays. Nor is there any bar on passing the cost to the worker, because that bar sits in the general order and does not reach this route.

Current amounts for each line are worked out by our full cost calculator. They are indexed at the start of each year by the budget act, which is why the figures are not repeated here.

What HR does. The split of costs between company and candidate goes in writing into the offer. On the Law 14/2013 route the rule does not decide it for the parties. The argument arrives once the person has already started.

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Timings and what filing itself achieves

Under art. 76.1 of Law 14/2013 the UGE-CE handles the application electronically and the permit itself is granted by the Directorate-General for Migration. The deadline is 20 working days from electronic filing, and positive administrative silence applies where no decision is issued. Decisions are reasoned and may be appealed by recurso de alzada under arts. 121 and 122 of Law 39/2015. Company size makes no difference to any of this.

Filing extends the current status. The application extends the validity of the existing residence or stay until the procedure is decided. A worker switching status from inside Spain does not fall out of legal status while the file is pending.

The passport is enough for Social Security registration. Under art. 76.5 the passport is a sufficient document for registration with Social Security during the first six months of residence or stay in the categories of this section. The NIE is applied for later. The start date does not wait for it.

How long the permit runs. Under the official UGE criteria (Criterio de gestión DGGM 2/2025, art. 71.3 of Law 14/2013) the initial permit is granted for 3 years where the contract runs for 3 years or more. Where the contract is shorter, the permit matches the contract plus 3 months, capped at 3 years in total. Renewal is for 2 years, applied for during the sixty days before the card expires under art. 71.3.

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What happens once the card is issued

Changing employer means a new permit, not an amendment to the existing one. Under criterion 4.2.2, where the professional wishes to remain the holder, a fresh application is filed and a new initial permit is issued for the full term. The same applies to a move to another company in the same group. There is one exception: on a merger or acquisition evidenced under art. 44 of the Workers’ Statute, what is processed is a renewal for the remaining term. The change is notified by the worker, under the seventh additional provision of Law 14/2013, within 30 days.

In the general regime art. 79 of RD 1155/2024 lets the worker change employer once three months of the permit have run and during the first year, within the same occupation. The Law 14/2013 route has no such mechanism. For the hiring company that is an advantage.

Dismissal. The permit does not lapse automatically. Under the UGE criteria of June 10, 2025 residence is preserved for as long as the former employee draws contributory unemployment benefit and is entitled to it, provided the dismissal has been notified to the UGE-CE. A Blue Card holder also has their own job-search window under art. 71 bis.3. Jobseeker registration is run by the employment service of the autonomous community, not by the SEPE, and it goes by a different name in each region: Trabaja Asturias in Asturias, Servei d’Ocupació de Catalunya in Catalonia, Lanbide in the Basque Country, SAE in Andalusia. Ceuta and Melilla are the only exception.

A full treatment of dismissal, part-time work and change of employer is in our guide to highly qualified professionals.

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When the role does not qualify

A role in group 3 or 4 of CNO-2011 closes the Law 14/2013 route. What remains is the general regime, and the rules there are different.

The labor market test applies. The exemption in the fifth additional provision covers only section 2 of Law 14/2013. In the general regime the role either sits on the shortage occupation list (art. 75 RD 1155/2024) or the employer documents that no candidate was found on the local market.

The work permit fee is paid by the employer, who may not recover it from the worker (art. 3 Orden PJC/617/2025).

The worker may move to another employer after three months and during the first year, within the same occupation (art. 79 RD 1155/2024).

AEAT and TGSS clearance certificates are required here (art. 74 RD 1155/2024), unlike on the Law 14/2013 route.

The general regime in full is in our guide to the work visa.

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How we work with companies

We run the matter end to end. We check the role and the salary band before the offer is signed. We assemble the corporate pack and place the company on the UGE register. We file through MI-T and carry the correspondence with the authority. The family goes through in one package.

What gets checked before the offer is signed. The CNO-2011 occupation code and the duties clause in the draft contract, the guaranteed fixed component against the current threshold, the share of remuneration in kind, the contract term where the Blue Card route is used, and whether the company holds a current register entry and is clear of the circumstances in art. 74.2. Cheaper than rebuilding a file after a refusal.

Who runs the matter. We handle the administrative side ourselves, including appeals by recurso de alzada and recurso de reposición, for which Spanish bar membership is not required. Judicial review (recurso contencioso-administrativo) requires an abogado and a procurador: we prepare the case, and a collaborating Spanish abogado represents the client in court.

What the price does not include. Government fees, sworn translations, apostilles and legalization, medical insurance and consular charges. These are third-party costs paid directly, and we work them out in advance in the full cost calculator so that the hiring budget is known before the start.

How the price works. One price for the matter, known before work begins, split into stages. The 100 euro entry, plus VAT, is the first stage rather than a separate product: by the end of it the company has an assessment of the role and a filing plan. Prices for each status are on the services page.

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Author Aleksandr Nazarov