Working while studying in Spain

Under the current rules on long-duration stay for study, student mobility, voluntary service and training activities, holders may carry out an employed or self-employed activity where it is compatible with the studies for which the stay was granted.

"Compatible" means the activity fits alongside your studies — in schedule, workload and the conditions attached to your own authorization. Not every course or authorization sits in the same position, so the specific rules for yours decide the outcome. For how that authorization is granted in the first place, see our student visa guide.

The statutory general maximum is 30 hours per week for activity carried out alongside the studies.

There is a specific exception for intensive vocational training, where the applicable sector rules govern the arrangement rather than the general limit. That exception is narrow and depends on the type of training involved.

The hours rule does not guarantee that any particular job is compatible, and it does not override conditions in your own authorization or the requirements of your programme.

Employed activity. Work under a contract with an employer, who takes on the corresponding obligations. This is the most common case and the easiest to document.

Self-employed activity. Working on your own account brings its own registration, invoicing and contribution duties, assessed on the same compatibility test.

Casual arrangements — cash payments, "helping out", unregistered freelancing — are not a lighter version of these categories. They are undocumented work, and they create risk for both sides.

Where activity is carried out as an employee, the ordinary employment and Social Security framework applies: the employer must fulfil registration and contribution obligations, and the relationship must be properly documented.

What that means in practice for a student:

• Ask to see that you are being registered before you start.
• Keep the contract, payslips and registration evidence together with your immigration file.
• Expect the employer to ask for your documentation; that is normal and protects both parties.

Self-employed activity carries its own registration and contribution duties, which fall on the student rather than on an employer.

The document that decides your position is the resolution granting your stay, read together with the rules of the route it was granted under.

Look specifically for the type and duration of the authorization, any condition limiting activity, location or hours, and whether it is a long-duration study stay or something else.

Even where work is permitted in principle, the arrangement can become incompatible in practice:

• Schedule clashes with compulsory classes, placements or exams.
• Hours creep from overtime, a second job or busy periods pushing you past the limit.
• Location or authorization conditions restricting where or in what terms activity may take place.
• Changing course or status, which changes the basis on which the activity was compatible.

If your circumstances change materially, review the position rather than assuming the earlier answer still holds.

Working while studying does not turn a study authorization into an ordinary work residence. The stay remains a study stay, with its own duration and extension rules.

Moving to a work-based residence is a separate modification procedure, with its own requirements and timing — see the student visa guide for how authorizations and extensions work, and the TIE guide for the card process once a new authorization is granted.

• Ministry of Inclusion — information sheet 4 bis: access to employment for holders of a long-duration study stay
• Ministry of Inclusion — studying in Spain

Official requirements can change. Check with the competent authority, and read your own resolution, before accepting work.