Student stay authorisation in Spain (estancia por estudios)

Official fee

Set by the processing fee for the authorisation

Official name

Autorización de estancia de larga duración por estudios

Forms

—

Steps

10

Documents required

6

Source: Boletín Oficial del Estado — Real Decreto 1155/2024, por el que se aprueba el Reglamento de la Ley Orgánica 4/2000 (texto consolidado). Checked 27 August 2026.

Every immigration fee, with the official Spanish wording

Step by step

1. 1

   Check the course counts as higher education

   The best terms apply to higher education taken as your main activity, full time, at an institution recognised in Spain, leading to a recognised qualification. That covers university and non-university studies at the levels of the Spanish Qualifications Framework for Higher Education, universities' own títulos propios, and vocational training Master's degrees. Preparatory courses offered to students already admitted count as part of it, and so do compulsory training placements.

2. 2

   Check the institution is actually recognised

   The centre must be accredited, attached to a recognised centre, or entered in the Register of Higher Education Institutions and Centres. The authorities check this against the register of universities, centres and qualifications and the equivalent registers, so a school describing itself as recognised is not the same thing. International institutions based and authorised in Spain are included, provided the studies lead to a recognised qualification.

3. 3

   Know the rules on hybrid teaching

   University studies may be taken in person or in hybrid form, as the study plan provides. Other higher education may also be hybrid, but only where at least 50% of the programme is delivered in person. A course that is mostly online will not support this authorisation.

4. 4

   Get admitted, and pay the enrolment

   For higher education, the specific requirements are simply that you have been admitted by a recognised institution for a qualifying programme, and that you have paid the enrolment or registration fees it requires. The admission and the receipt are the heart of the file.

5. 5

   Understand the duration — it is not one year

   For every other category the authorisation lasts as long as the activity, capped at one year. For higher education it lasts the official duration of the studies. A four-year degree means a four-year authorisation, not four annual renewals. Where it runs for more than a year, you have to file proof of enrolment at the start of each academic year to keep it alive.

6. 6

   Note when it starts and when it ends

   Validity begins one month before the studies start. If you apply within the two months before they begin, it can start a month early or from the date of the decision, provided the course starts within a month of it. It then runs to fifteen days beyond the end of the studies, which is the small margin you have to leave or change status.

7. 7

   If you are in higher education, you can work — with no extra permit

   A student holding this authorisation for higher education is authorised to work, both employed and self-employed, automatically and without any additional procedure, provided the work is compatible with the studies. This replaced the old system of a separate work authorisation, and it is the single most out-of-date claim in English-language guidance on studying in Spain.

8. 8

   Other categories still have to ask

   For the other cases — post-compulsory secondary education, pupil mobility, voluntary service, training activities — employed work requires an application for a work authorisation, made by you or the employer, and self-employment requires its own application. In every case the work has to be compatible with the activity the authorisation was granted for.

9. 9

   Curricular placements need nothing extra

   Internships that form part of the study plan, carried out under a collaboration agreement between the institution and the host organisation and not constituting employment, are covered by the student authorisation itself. That includes external academic placements and the in-company training phase. No separate permit, no separate application.

10. 10

    If you work, your Social Security registration covers the insurance

    Where a student carries out work under these rules, the health insurance requirement is treated as satisfied by registration with the corresponding Social Security scheme. You do not have to keep a private policy running alongside it.

Common questions