Work Is Applied for by the Employer, and the Labour Market Is Asked First
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Argentina on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
91 exceptions recorded across 34 countries · none match Argentina to Spain · Residency through work
A first permit to live and work in Spain for someone else is not applied for by the worker. The employer files it, at the immigration office of the province where the workplace is, with a signed contract whose start date is tied to the permit taking effect. Before anything about the worker is considered, the national employment situation is consulted: whether the post can be filled from the labour force already here. The employer must also show it can pay - and if the employer is a person rather than a company, that it can support its own household on top of the salary. The worker's own requirements are short: the qualification the profession legally requires, no criminal record in Spain, no outstanding commitment not to return, and the fee.
At a glance
- Who applies
- The employer, at the immigration office of the workplace's province
- Labour market test
- Applied, unless an exception reaches you
Article 74(1)(a), with the exceptions in article 74(2).
- Part-time contracts
- Total pay must still reach the full-time minimum wage, counted annually
- If the employer is an individual
- 50% of the minimum wage for themselves, 100% for a household of two, 25% more per further member
Article 76(2), as percentages of the SMI and after deducting the salary in the contract.
- Nationals of states with a convention on this
- The labour market test does not apply
Article 74(2). Which states have such a convention is not in this Regulation and we have not read them.
Requirements
- A job contract signed by both sides, for continuous activity through the permit's validity
- Pay and conditions matching the collective agreement for that activity, category and place
- The national employment situation permitting the hire, unless an exception applies
- The employer current on tax and social security obligations
- The employer able to meet the contract, and if an individual, to support their own household besides
- Professional capacity and any qualification the profession legally requires
- No criminal record in Spain and no threat to public order, security or health
- The processing fee
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Argentina
We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.
What the law says
«Para la concesión de una autorización inicial de residencia temporal y trabajo por cuenta ajena será necesario cumplir los siguientes requisitos específicos: a) Que la situación nacional de empleo permita la contratación de la persona trabajadora extranjera en los términos previstos en el artículo 75 o, en el caso de que la autorización se encuadre en un procedimiento de gestión colectiva de contrataciones en origen, en los términos que se establezca en la orden correspondiente. b) Que el empleador presente un contrato de trabajo firmado por la persona trabajadora y por él mismo y que se establezca para la persona trabajadora una actividad continuada durante el periodo de vigencia de la autorización inicial de residencia temporal y trabajo por cuenta ajena. La fecha de comienzo del contrato deberá estar condicionada al momento de eficacia de la autorización de residencia temporal y trabajo por cuenta ajena. c) Que las condiciones fijadas en el contrato de trabajo se ajusten a las establecidas por la normativa vigente y el convenio colectivo aplicable para la misma actividad, categoría profesional y localidad. En el caso de que la contratación fuera a tiempo parcial, la retribución total a percibir por la persona solicitante deberá ser igual o superior al salario mínimo interprofesional para jornada completa y en cómputo anual. d) Que el empleador se encuentre al corriente del cumplimiento de sus obligaciones tributarias y frente a la Seguridad Social. e) Que el empleador cuente con medios económicos, materiales o personales, suficientes para su proyecto empresarial y para hacer frente a las obligaciones asumidas en el contrato frente al trabajador en los términos establecidos en el artículo 76. f) Que la persona trabajadora tenga la capacitación y, en su caso, la cualificación profesional legalmente exigida para el ejercicio de la profesión. g) No encontrarse, en su caso, dentro del plazo de compromiso de no retorno a España que la persona extranjera haya asumido al retornar voluntariamente a su país de origen. h) No representar una amenaza para el orden público, la seguridad pública o la salud pública, circunstancia que se acreditará mediante la comprobación de la inexistencia de antecedentes penales en España y la valoración del informe policial correspondiente. i) Haber abonado la tasa por tramitación del procedimiento.»Nine requirements, of which the first is about the labour market and not about the applicant.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Spain's official state gazette, which also publishes consolidated texts carrying their own amendment history.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: A deadline set by Council of Ministers decision rather than written into a statute will not appear in the consolidated text at all, which is exactly the case with the Democratic Memory Law's option period. The statute gives the mechanism; the date that mattered to applicants lives in a separate decision we have not read.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«Sin perjuicio de lo previsto en el apartado anterior, no se tendrá en cuenta la situación nacional de empleo en los supuestos establecidos en el artículo 40 de la Ley Orgánica 4/2000, de 11 de enero, o por Convenio internacional. Igualmente, se autorizará a trabajar sin atender a la situación nacional de empleo a las personas nacionales de Estados con los que se hayan suscrito convenios internacionales a tal efecto,»The origin-dependent limb. Nationals of states that have signed a convention to this effect are authorised to work without the labour market being consulted. The Regulation does not name the states and we have not read any of the conventions, so this record cannot say who is inside it.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Spain's official state gazette, which also publishes consolidated texts carrying their own amendment history.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: A deadline set by Council of Ministers decision rather than written into a statute will not appear in the consolidated text at all, which is exactly the case with the Democratic Memory Law's option period. The statute gives the mechanism; the date that mattered to applicants lives in a separate decision we have not read.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«Cuando el empleador requerido sea una persona física, deberá además acreditar que cuenta con medios económicos suficientes para atender sus necesidades y las de su familia. La cuantía mínima exigible se basará en los siguientes porcentajes del salario mínimo interprofesional según el número de personas a su cargo, descontado el pago del salario reflejado en el contrato de trabajo que obre en el procedimiento: a) En caso de no existir familiares a cargo del empleador: una cantidad que represente mensualmente el 50 % del SMI. b) En caso de unidades familiares que incluyan dos miembros, contando al empleador solicitante: una cantidad que represente mensualmente el 100 % del SMI. c) En caso de unidades familiares que incluyan más de dos personas, contando al empleador solicitante: una cantidad que represente mensualmente el 25 % del SMI por cada miembro adicional.»What an individual employer must show beyond the salary, as percentages of the statutory minimum wage.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Spain's official state gazette, which also publishes consolidated texts carrying their own amendment history.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: A deadline set by Council of Ministers decision rather than written into a statute will not appear in the consolidated text at all, which is exactly the case with the Democratic Memory Law's option period. The statute gives the mechanism; the date that mattered to applicants lives in a separate decision we have not read.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
Practical notes
This record is the ordinary employed route and nothing else. Spain has separate regimes for highly qualified workers, intra-corporate transfers, researchers, entrepreneurs and digital nomads under Ley 14/2013, and none of them is read here.
The labour market test is the part that decides most refusals, and the Regulation leaves its mechanics to article 75 and to a catalogue of hard-to-fill occupations, which this record does not reach.
- issuesReal Decreto 1155/2024, artículo 74
Agencia Estatal Boletín Oficial del Estado
About this source
Spain's official state gazette, which also publishes consolidated texts carrying their own amendment history.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: A deadline set by Council of Ministers decision rather than written into a statute will not appear in the consolidated text at all, which is exactly the case with the Democratic Memory Law's option period. The statute gives the mechanism; the date that mattered to applicants lives in a separate decision we have not read.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source