Spanish residence permits

Switching from one residence permit to another without leaving Spain

The job ends. Or the opposite happens and a contract appears. Or the business your residence was built on closes down. You don't have to start again from abroad: Spanish law has a separate route for moving from one permit to another from inside the country. It's called modificación.

What it actually is

You live in Spain on one permit and want to live on a different one. Modificación is the way to swap one for the other right here — no visa, no trip home.

One thing to be clear about from the start. Modificación releases you from the visa, not from the requirements. If you apply for an employed work permit, you'll need the contract and everything else that goes with it, exactly like anyone else. The saving is elsewhere: no leaving the country, no waiting for a consular appointment, no filing your papers from home.

Are you eligible?

Almost certainly yes. The law works the opposite way round to what most people assume: it doesn't list who may apply. It sets out a short list of those who may not, and everything else is allowed.

Who counts as a cross-border worker

Someone who doesn't live in Spain but in the border area of a neighbouring state — Portugal, France, Andorra, Morocco — works in the Spanish border zone and goes home every day. They have never held Spanish residence: what they get is a work permit only, restricted to the region they live next to and normally lasting as long as their contract.

That is why they aren't among those who can request modificación: there is nothing to change, because they were never residents. The law says so plainly — holding a cross-border permit creates no entitlement to a residence and work permit, though it will be taken into account if they later file an ordinary application.

One year or four?

This is where the real decision is made. The new permit can be granted for one year or for four. The gap is wide, and it comes down to two things.

Where to file and how long it takes

• Where: the Oficina de Extranjería for the province you live in. Not wherever your previous permit was issued.
• Who files: you or your employer — either works.
• Form: EX-26 (solicitud de modificación), the same form for employed work and for self-employment.
• Timeframe: up to three months.

And one unpleasant rule worth knowing in advance: if three months pass with no reply, the application may be treated as refused. Silence works against you here, not for you. So keep track of the file rather than waiting for a letter to arrive.

Decisions in a week do happen — the workload varies enormously between offices. But plan around three months.

What it costs

Your share is small:

There's a second, larger fee for the work permit: between €81.54 and €407.71 depending on salary and permit type. That one isn't yours to pay.

Special case: Ley 14/2013 permits

If your permit was issued as an international teleworker, highly qualified professional, entrepreneur or intra-company transferee, you carry an extra obligation the others don't.

From the moment the conditions your permit was granted on change, you have 30 days to notify the UGE — the unit that handles this type of permit.

Made redundant, contract ended, work for that company stopped — that is when the clock starts. And it is not the same thing as the modificación application — these are two separate filings with two separate bodies. The notification goes to the UGE; the application goes to Extranjería in your province.

What happens if you say nothing: should a check find the conditions are no longer met, the permit can be terminated. Not instantly and not automatically — you'll be given the chance to respond — but it is a real risk, and an entirely avoidable one.

Three more situations

You studied in Spain

You hold a stay permit for study rather than residence, so the procedure is a different one. You can file in the two months before and the three months after your stay ends or you obtain your qualification. One upside: once the application is accepted for processing, you can already work full time without waiting for the decision.

You were the family member of an EU or Spanish citizen and no longer are

There's a dedicated route: without a visa, you can obtain a non-lucrative permit, a residence and work permit as an employee or self-employed person, or residence with an exemption from the work permit. The length depends on the document you previously held.

You want to change job or region, not permit type

This isn't modificación in the sense above but a simpler procedure with friendlier rules. It's decided within one month, and silence means yes: no answer, permission granted. It applies during the permit's first year. The same route covers moving from employment to self-employment.

Four expensive mistakes

• Assuming your residence died with the job. While the permit is still valid you remain a resident, and you can move to a different basis from inside the country.
• Not counting the year. A year of residence is the line between one year and four. Sometimes it pays to file later, not sooner.
• Staying silent for 30 days, if your permit comes under Ley 14/2013.
• Paying the employer's fee out of your own pocket.

Where to start today

• Check yourself against the exclusion list above. The odds are that you aren't on it.
• Count how long you've been a resident and recall whether your previous permit allowed you to work. That decides the length: one year or four.
• Pick a direction: employed work or self-employment.
• Gather documents against the set of requirements that applies to your case specifically. The sets differ, and mixing them up is the most common reason for a request for further documents.

Legislation: RD 1155/2024 (art. 74, 80, 84, 86, 128, 156, 158, 190, 191, 192, 193) as amended by RD 316/2026; LO 4/2000 (art. 31.1, 43.1, first additional provision); Ley 14/2013 (seventh additional provision, thirteenth final provision); Orden PJC/617/2025.