Procedure · Autorización de residencia para profesionales altamente cualificados
EU Blue Card and the highly qualified professional permit in Spain
Decided in twenty days by a central unit, with silence granting rather than refusing. A degree is not required if you have the experience — three years of it for ICT roles.
Checked at source ·
- Official fee
- Processing fee for the authorisation. The salary threshold is set by regulation within a band the statute fixes, not by a figure in the law
- Official name
- Autorización de residencia para profesionales altamente cualificados
- Forms
- —
- Steps
- 14
- Documents required
- 5
Source: Boletín Oficial del Estado — Ley 14/2013, de apoyo a los emprendedores — sección de movilidad internacional, arts. 61 a 76 (texto consolidado). Checked .
Who needs one
Non-EU professionals a company needs to bring into Spain for a highly qualified role, and the companies that need them.
Step by step
Two permits, not one
The EU Blue Card is the European permit, with the higher qualification bar and the intra-EU mobility rights that go with it. The national highly qualified permit is the Spanish one, with a lower bar: a qualification equivalent to at least level 1 of the Spanish Framework for Higher Education, or knowledge and competences backed by at least three years of professional experience considered equivalent. Both are valid throughout Spain. Which one you want depends on whether you expect to move between EU countries.
The Blue Card qualification — and why a degree is not required
Either higher education of at least three years, equivalent to at least level 6 of the European Qualifications Framework; or a minimum of five years of knowledge, skills and competences backed by professional experience that can be considered equivalent to that qualification and relevant to the profession or sector named in the contract. For regulated professions, formal recognition of the qualification is required on top.
If you work in IT, it is three years, not five
For information and communications technology professionals and managers, the minimum equivalent and relevant professional experience is three years, and it must fall within the seven years before the Blue Card application. This is the single most useful exception in the article and it is almost never mentioned in English-language material, which tends to state the five-year rule as though it were universal.
The contract: six months minimum
A valid employment contract, or a firm job offer, for highly qualified work lasting at least six months, guaranteeing continuous activity for the life of the Blue Card. The conditions in it must match the rules in force and the applicable collective agreement — the same standard as any Spanish employment contract, not a lower one.
The salary threshold is a band, not a number
The gross annual salary in the contract must not fall below a reference threshold set by regulation after consulting the social partners, which the statute requires to be at least 1.0 and at most 1.6 times the average gross annual salary. The law itself fixes no euro figure, which is why none is published here: the operative number is the one in force in the regulation, and it moves.
And there is a lower threshold for two groups
Provided the contract complies with the rules and the collective agreement, the threshold drops to 80% of the one above — though never below 1.0 times the average gross salary — in two cases. First, for professions with a particular need for third-country nationals that fall within groups 1 and 2 of the International Standard Classification of Occupations. Second, for people who obtained the qualifying degree at most three years before applying. For that second group the lower threshold keeps applying on renewal while the three-year period is still running, or until twenty-four months have passed since the first Blue Card was issued.
Either of you can file it, and it goes to one central unit
The application may be presented by the company or by the professional; where the professional files it, the Large Companies and Strategic Collectives Unit notifies the company that it has been received. Everything is processed electronically by that unit, and granted by the Directorate-General for Migration. There is no provincial Immigration Office in this route and no appointment queue.
Where: Unidad de Grandes Empresas y Colectivos Estratégicos, electronically
Twenty days, and silence grants
The maximum period to decide is twenty days from the electronic filing. If it passes with no decision, the authorisation is granted by silence. Decisions must be reasoned and can be appealed. Filing also extends whatever residence or stay you already held until the procedure is decided — so applying from inside Spain does not leave you in a gap.
How long it lasts, and the renewal
Three years, or the length of the contract plus three months where the contract is shorter than that, never exceeding three years in total. In the sixty days before it expires you can apply to renew for two years if the conditions that created the right still hold. Filing the renewal extends the permit until it is decided, and so does filing within the ninety days after expiry, though that opens a penalty procedure. Long-term residence becomes available at five years.
If you lose the job: three months, or six
The Blue Card is revoked or its renewal refused where you no longer hold a valid contract for highly qualified work and you accumulate more than three months of unemployment having held the card for under two years, or more than six months having held it for at least two. But the same article gives you that time to look: three months to find new work, or six if you have held the card for at least two years. It is a deadline, not an immediate loss.
Working in another EU country, and coming here from one
A Blue Card issued by another member state lets you carry out professional activity in Spain for ninety days in any 180 with no further authorisation. After twelve months residing in another member state as a Blue Card holder — or six, if you have held cards in more than one — you have the right to enter, reside and work in Spain, applying for a Spanish Blue Card. The application can be filed by employer or employee while you are still in the first state, or within a month of entering Spain if you are already here.
And you may start work the day you file
A Blue Card holder from another member state is authorised to begin working in Spain from the moment the complete Spanish application is filed, whatever the eventual decision turns out to be. Very little else in Spanish immigration law works that way.
Your family, and the one-month deadline
Family members may accompany you or join you under the same section. Where their applications are not filed at the same time as yours, they must be filed within a maximum of one month from the family members entering Spain. Missing that window turns a simple filing into a different procedure.
Two practical rules worth knowing
Where the permit runs more than six months, the foreigner identity card must be applied for. And for the first six months of residence under this section, a passport is sufficient documentation to register with Social Security where you do not yet have a foreigner identity number — which is what stops the NIE queue from delaying a start date.
Documents you need
Proof of the qualification
Higher education of at least three years at EQF level 6, or evidence of five years of equivalent professional experience — three for ICT professionals and managers, within the last seven. Regulated professions also need formal recognition.
Employment contract or firm job offer
For highly qualified work, at least six months, guaranteeing continuous activity, on terms matching the rules and the applicable collective agreement.
Evidence of the salary threshold
The gross annual salary in the contract, against the reference threshold in force — or against the reduced one, where the occupation or the recency of your qualification brings you within it.
Valid travel document
And, for the first six months, enough on its own to register with Social Security where you have no NIE yet.
For a transfer from another member state
The Blue Card issued by the first state, a valid travel document, the contract or firm offer of at least six months, proof of the salary threshold, and recognition of qualifications for regulated professions.
Common questions
Do I need a university degree for the EU Blue Card in Spain?
Not necessarily. Higher education of at least three years at EQF level 6 qualifies, but so does a minimum of five years of professional experience equivalent to that qualification and relevant to the job. For ICT professionals and managers it is three years, within the seven years before the application.
What salary do I need?
The law does not name a figure. It requires the gross annual salary to reach a reference threshold set by regulation, which must be between 1.0 and 1.6 times the average gross annual salary. A reduced threshold of 80% of that — never below 1.0 times the average — applies to shortage professions in ISCO groups 1 and 2 and to people who qualified within the last three years.
How long does the decision take?
Twenty days from the electronic filing, and if that passes with no decision the authorisation is granted by silence. Filing also extends any residence or stay you already hold until the procedure is decided.
What is the difference between the Blue Card and the national permit?
The bar and the mobility. The Blue Card needs higher education at EQF level 6 or five years of equivalent experience, and carries rights to work in other EU states. The national highly qualified permit accepts a lower qualification — level 1 of the Spanish higher education framework, or three years of equivalent experience — and is a Spanish permit only.
What happens if I lose my job?
You get three months to find new highly qualified work, or six months if you have held the card for at least two years. The card is revoked where unemployment passes those periods without a new valid contract.
I hold a Blue Card from another EU country. Can I work in Spain?
For ninety days in any 180, with no further authorisation at all. To stay longer you apply for a Spanish Blue Card after twelve months in the other state — six if you have held cards in more than one — and you are authorised to start working here from the moment the complete application is filed.
How long does the permit last?
Three years, or the contract length plus three months where the contract is shorter, capped at three years. Renewals run two years, applied for in the sixty days before expiry, and long-term residence becomes available at five years.
Can I apply myself, or must my employer do it?
Either. The company or the professional may file it, and where the professional does, the unit notifies the company that the application has arrived.
Sources
Every fact on this page comes from one of these. We do not cite other guides, because a copy gives us no way to notice when the original changes.
- Ley 14/2013, de apoyo a los emprendedores — sección de movilidad internacional, arts. 61 a 76 (texto consolidado)Boletín Oficial del Estado
- Unidad de Grandes Empresas y Colectivos Estratégicos — movilidad internacionalMinisterio de Inclusión, Seguridad Social y Migraciones
This is information, not advice
Your own case depends on your nationality, your current status and your history with the administration — none of which a web page can see. Confirm anything that matters with the responsible authority or a qualified professional before you act on it.