After a digital nomad residence (teletrabajo de carácter internacional) is approved, you must be registered with the Spanish Social Security. How depends on how you work: as a self-employed professional with a commercial contract with a foreign client, or as an employee of a foreign company. Below is what follows directly from the rules and what depends on your situation.
The official UGE answers distinguish two cases. If you work on your own account (a commercial contract with a foreign client), you register yourself in the self-employed scheme (RETA), and this cannot be replaced by coverage under an international agreement. If you are an employee of a foreign company (cuenta ajena), the company registers you in the General Scheme, and the company must first be registered with Spanish Social Security as a non-resident with no establishment in Spain (UGE FAQ, question 6).
For employees there is a single exception: registration can be replaced by a document from your home country if a social security agreement exists between Spain and that country and the foreign authority issues a certificate that expressly states it covers you in Spain (UGE FAQ, question 6). An agreement existing is not enough. For example, under the 1994 Spain-Russia agreement a worker is subject to the law of the country where they work (art. 6), and the exceptions are listed in art. 7. The agreement applies to workers (art. 3). For other countries, the relevant agreement must be read separately.
Law 14/2013 sets no deadline for registration after the decision. The deadline comes from the general Social Security regulation: the registration request is filed before the activity starts, and no earlier than 60 calendar days before it (art. 32.3.1 of Royal Decree 84/1996). The residence application included a declaration committing to comply with Social Security obligations before work or professional activity starts: yours if you are self-employed, the company's if you are an employee (Joint Instruction 2023, instruction six, para. 2). If the company does not file the registration on time, the worker may file it directly once the failure is established (art. 32.3.1 of Royal Decree 84/1996).
In its official answers the UGE states that if a self-employed person does not register right after the authorization is granted and this is found in a later check, the authorization is terminated under the seventh additional provision of Law 14/2013, and both the holder and dependent family members lose the right to reside and work in Spain (question 7). Those answers do not state the same consequence for employees. That provision requires you to keep the conditions on which the authorization was granted, requires you to report changes within 30 days, and allows checks. The consequence for registration comes from the UGE clarification, not from the text of the provision, and it is worth keeping that in mind.
For a self-employed person, a registration requested outside the deadline takes effect from the first day of the calendar month in which the conditions for inclusion were met. Contributions for earlier periods remain due, with surcharges and interest, and the Treasury reports the delay to the Labour Inspectorate (art. 46.2.c of Royal Decree 84/1996).
On renewal, the authorities check that the conditions on which the authorization was granted are still met (Joint Instruction 2023, instruction eight, para. 5, and art. 76.3 of Law 14/2013). Keep proof of your registration.
A passport is sufficient proof for registration during the first six months of residence or stay, and when you do not yet have an NIE, which is requested afterwards (art. 76.5 of Law 14/2013). Waiting for the plastic card is therefore no reason to delay registration. You do have to apply for the TIE if the authorization is valid for more than six months (art. 76.2).
Under art. 43.2 of Law 39/2015, an electronic notification is deemed rejected if ten calendar days pass after it was made available and you have not opened it. A rejected notification is treated as served and the procedure continues (art. 41.5). A missing reminder message does not make the notification invalid (art. 41.6).
However, the ten-day rule applies only when electronic notification is compulsory for you or you chose it. Individuals generally choose how to deal with the administration unless a regulation obliges them to use electronic means (arts. 14.1 and 14.3 of Law 39/2015), and in procedures started on request, notification goes through the channel you indicated (art. 41.3). UGE applications under Law 14/2013 are processed electronically (art. 76.1 of Law 14/2013). In practice: check on your filing receipt which channel you indicated and, if it is electronic, open your mailbox regularly.
We found no direct answer in the rules to three common questions: how to register if the decision arrived while you were outside Spain; how to open an account to pay contributions without the TIE card; and whether your stay stays lawful during processing if your visa-free stay has run out. Claims on these topics that do not cite a rule are best checked for your own case rather than taken on trust.
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