Employees: the foreign company and nobody else

If you hold the visa as an employee, W‑2 or otherwise, the Ministry’s guidance is strict.  In Spain you may work only for the company outside Spain that you telework for, the one on your application.  Nothing else.

That rules out more than people expect.

  • A Spanish employer, even part time.
  • Freelance clients, Spanish or foreign.
  • A second job with another U.S. company.

The permit describes one working relationship.  Adding another, even a foreign one, means the permit no longer matches what you do.  If you want to change employer, that is possible, with its own steps, and the guide on changing jobs explains them.

Self-employed: up to 20% with Spanish companies

Self-employed holders have more room.  Alongside the foreign clients of the application, you may also work for companies in Spain, on three conditions.

  1. It is a professional relationship, never employment. You invoice the Spanish company as an independent professional.  A Spanish payroll contract is out.
  2. It stays within 20% of your total professional activity.
  3. The foreign relationships of the application continue. The Spanish work sits on top of them, never in their place.

Spanish clients are a limited extra on a remote career built abroad.  A file that leans on them, or a year where they grow into the main income, works against the permit.

How the 20% is read

The rule speaks of your total professional activity.  In practice that is read from what you bill: your invoices, your income, and later your Spanish tax returns.  Keep it simple.

  • Track Spanish billing as a share of everything you bill, month by month and across the year.
  • Keep invoices to Spanish clients separate and easy to find.
  • Stay comfortably under the line, not at it.  A year where one Spanish project lands at once can tip a 15% habit over 20%.

A worked example.  You bill $9,000 a month to two U.S. clients and take a Spanish client at €1,500 a month.  At today’s rates that Spanish work is about 16% of your total.  If the Spanish client doubles while the U.S. work stays flat, you are over.

When it shows up

Nobody audits your clients the week you land.  It surfaces on paper, at the moments the permit is looked at again: the renewal, a change of situation, and your Spanish tax returns, which report what you billed and to whom.  A renewal file where Spanish clients carry most of the income is hard to reconcile with a teleworking permit.

Before you take the first Spanish client

You need to be registered as self-employed in Spain, in RETA, and with the tax authorities.  That registration is part of the visa for self-employed holders anyway: the Certificate of Coverage route is only for employees, and not registering after approval can cost you the permit.  The autónomo registration guide covers the steps.

Invoicing a Spanish company brings Spanish VAT and income tax withholding into your invoices.  Those are tax questions for a Spanish tax adviser, and worth settling before the first invoice rather than after the first quarter.

If you are not sure which you are

Some people are both: a W‑2 job and a side business.  The visa follows the relationship on the application.  If that is the W‑2, the employee rule applies to you, side business included.  The guide on multiple income sources walks through the combinations, and the free assessment tells you which rule you will live under before you file.

Only if you are self-employed, and only within limits.  The work for Spanish companies must be a professional relationship, never employment, and must not pass 20% of your total professional activity.  An employee on the visa may work only for the foreign company on the application.

No.  The Ministry’s guidance is that an employee may work in Spain only for the foreign company named on the application.  That rules out a second employer and freelance work, in Spain or abroad.

Against your total professional activity, which in practice the UGE reads from your invoices and income.  Track it as a share of what you bill over the year, and keep the foreign clients of the application as the clear majority.

The authorisation rests on remote work for companies outside Spain.  If Spanish work becomes a large part of your activity, the permit no longer describes what you do, which matters at renewal.  If a Spanish client is growing, talk to me before it crosses the line.

Do not build the application on them.  The file is about your foreign clients.  Spanish work is a limited extra once you hold the permit and are registered as self-employed in Spain.

Sources: Ley 28/2022 (BOE) · Ley 14/2013, article 74 bis (BOE) · Ministry of Inclusion, frequently asked questions on teleworkers of an international nature (UGE).