I'm an EU citizen: do I need a work permit in Spain?

Short answer: no. If you’re a citizen of the European Union, the European Economic Area, or Switzerland, you have free access to the Spanish labor market — there’s no work authorization to apply for, and no fee to pay for one.

The one thing you do need if you stay more than 3 months

If you’re going to live in Spain for more than 3 months, you need the EU citizen registration certificate (form EX-18) — a separate procedure, with its own law and its own administration: it’s handled by the National Police (Central Registry of Foreign Nationals), not the Immigration Office. The deadline is 3 months from your entry, and it’s issued on the spot.

Don’t confuse this certificate with a NIE, or with the residence authorization someone from outside the EU needs: it’s a different legal regime altogether (the free-movement regime, Royal Decree 240/2007), not a simplified version of the general one.

The four registration categories

Article 7 of RD 240/2007 sets out four situations, each with its own documentation (detailed further by Orden PRE/1490/2012):

Employed: an employer’s hiring declaration or an employment certificate, with the company’s name, address, tax ID, and Social Security contribution account code.
Self-employed: registration in the Census of Economic Activities or the Commercial Registry, or registration with Social Security (RETA).
Student: enrollment at a recognized/accredited institution, health insurance (public, private, or a valid European Health Insurance Card), and a signed declaration of sufficient means.
Sufficient economic means (if you’re neither working nor studying): health insurance and proof of sufficient resources.

The nuance almost no one explains correctly: “sufficient means” isn’t IPREM

It’s common to see this requirement described in terms of IPREM (a Spanish public income indicator), but art. 7 of RD 240/2007 itself doesn’t set a fixed figure: it says the amount depends on your personal circumstances and, in any case, can’t exceed the threshold below which Spain grants social assistance or the non-contributory pension — a different reference than the one used by, for example, family reunification (which is genuinely IPREM-based). They’re two different procedures with two different rules, even though some gestorías use the same shortcut for both in practice.

We give you the exact figure that applies to you when preparing your file, against the correct official reference — we don’t guess it here or simply equate it to IPREM.

The fee

The registration certificate has a single €12 fee. There’s no additional work-authorization fee, because — again — you don’t need one.

What if your family member isn’t an EU citizen?

This certificate is only for you, the EU citizen. If you have a spouse, partner, or other family member from outside the EU who wants to live with you in Spain, their procedure is a different one: the EU family member residence card (EX-19), which also requires that you register first.

Verified directly against the National Police’s Sede Electrónica, Royal Decree 240/2007 (BOE-A-2007-4184), and Orden PRE/1490/2012 (BOE-A-2012-9218), both against the BOE’s consolidated text.