Working in Torrevieja: the numbers, and the permission if you need it

No permit is needed: you can start at once. You still need a NIE, the foreigner’s identity number, and a Social Security number. If you will live here beyond three months, register on form EX-18: the green certificate carries your NIE, and your contract is the evidence. For a short job while your home stays elsewhere, the NIE alone, on form EX-15, is enough.

A NIE is not a right to work. You need an authorisation that includes work, which the employer normally requests, or a residence that already allows it, as a Withdrawal Agreement TIE or the card for a relative of an EU citizen does.

Permits to work and reside come from the Oficina de Extranjería, which the State runs, not the police. In this province, the Subdelegación del Gobierno lists them at its premises on Calle Ebanistería 4 y 6, Alicante.

This is your Social Security number. The TGSS issues it: the Tesorería General de la Seguridad Social, treasurer of the social security system. Employers often obtain it for new staff; otherwise you apply yourself, with passport and NIE. It is yours for good, whatever jobs follow.

The Seguridad Social’s office finder gives Torrevieja a TGSS office of its own at Calle Urbano Arregui 8 (03185), with the INSS information centre for benefits, the CAISS, at the same address, by appointment. For job seekers, Espai LABORA, the regional employment service, is at Calle Galeón 6, on the corner of Calle Capitán García Gea.

• The NIE, on its own certificate, a green certificate or a TIE
• The número de afiliación
• A Spanish account the wages can be paid into
• Registration on the padrón where you actually live
• For non-EU workers, the authorisation or card that includes work

Setting up as autónomo, self-employed, means registering with the tax office and with the Seguridad Social. Europeans can do it with their NIE. Without an EU passport, a separate authorisation for self-employment is needed, unless your card already covers it. A gestor, an administrative agent, often handles the registrations.