The rule, and the way the Ministry reads it
The Startup Law describes international telework as an activity carried out remotely for a company outside Spain through the exclusive use of computer, telematic and telecommunication means. The word that matters is exclusive. The Ministry’s questions-and-answers document on these permits spells out what that excludes: the functions of the post must not require on-site supervision or management at the company’s base of production tasks, control of human resources, sales visits and the like.
Then it adds the sentence that decides borderline cases. The UGE may ask for additional information about the size of the company, its activity and its structure in order to decide whether the position is genuinely one that can be done remotely. That is a judgement, not a checkbox. A role that sounds remote on paper and is not remote in practice is exactly what the question is designed to catch.
Three profiles that fail
These are the shapes of job I would not file without restructuring the description first, and sometimes not at all.
- The operations lead of a physical business. Head of operations for a restaurant group, a logistics company, a manufacturer, a construction firm. The title says management; the work is presence. Someone has to walk the floor, and if that someone is you, the role is not telematic.
- The field seller. A territory sales manager whose quota depends on visits, trade shows and client sites. The Ministry names sales visits explicitly. Inside sales, account management by video and email, and sales engineering that lives in demos and documents are a different matter and file well.
- The owner-operator. A small business owner whose company has staff, stock and premises in the United States, applying as the person who runs it. The UGE will ask who supervises the staff and the stock while the owner is in Valencia. If the honest answer is nobody, the case fails. If there is a general manager on site and the owner’s own functions are strategy, finance and remote coordination, it can be built, and the explanatory letter has to build it.
What passes, without drama, is the work most of my clients do: software, product, data, design, marketing, customer success, finance and accounting, HR, legal and compliance, research, writing, consulting delivered on screen. The guides by profession go role by role.
How to describe the job
The document that carries the description is the employer letter, and the Ministry’s list is specific about what it must contain: the profile of the post, its main functions, an express declaration that the work can be performed by telematic means, the salary to be received in euros, and the other conditions of the remote arrangement. A letter that says only that you are permitted to work from Spain does not meet that list, and it invites the question the UGE is entitled to ask.
Two habits make the difference.
- Describe functions, not titles. “Director of Operations” tells the officer nothing and hints at a floor to walk. “Owns the company’s financial planning, vendor contracts and reporting, working through cloud systems with a team in three time zones” tells the officer what you do and how, and every verb in it is telematic.
- Say where the physical work happens and who does it. If the company has a warehouse, name the warehouse manager. If there are on-site staff, say who supervises them. The officer’s doubt is specific, so the answer should be specific too.
For roles that sit near the line, I add a short explanatory letter to the file that walks through the functions and the company’s structure before the officer has to ask. The Ministry recommends an explanatory note whenever the documents do not fit the standard list exactly, and this is one of the cases where it earns its place. The employer letter template is written to carry every element the list requires.
The self-employed version of the test
Freelancers and contractors face the same question with a twist. The UGE looks at the commercial contract with the foreign client and at what the invoices are for. A consultant delivering reports and calls is telematic. A contractor whose deliverable requires being somewhere, an installer, an inspector, a trainer who runs workshops in person, is not, however remote the client relationship looks on paper. The contractor guide covers how the relationship is proved.
When the company is already in Spain
If your employer has a branch or subsidiary in Spain, the Ministry treats a move here as an intra-company transfer, a separate permit with its own rules, not as international telework. The question is whether the Spanish entity is your employer or in your reporting line. An engineer at a U.S. company that also has a Madrid office, employed by the U.S. entity and reporting there, is usually still a teleworker. An employee who will in practice be working with or for the Spanish office is not. This comes up with large technology companies more than anywhere else, and the big tech guide goes into it.
The bottom line
The permit is for work done through a screen, and the UGE can check that yours is. Describe your functions, show who handles anything physical, put an express telework declaration and a salary in euros in the employer letter, and add an explanatory note if the role sits near the line. Done that way, the question is answered before it is asked. If you are not sure which side of the line your job falls on, the free assessment is where I look at it first.
Sources: Ley 28/2022 and Law 14/2013 as amended · Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, “Preguntas frecuentes. Autorizaciones de residencia y trabajo de teletrabajadores internacionales” and the document list for initial applications. Last updated: 27 September 2026.