From student stay to work and residence in Spain: converting an intern into staff

A non EU student holding a Spanish student stay can move to work and residence as an employee through a modification filed with the Oficina de Extranjería in the province where the job sits. The procedure is set out in the immigration regulation approved by Royal Decree 1155/2024, in force since 20 May 2025. The company signs the application.

What the student stay allows before the modification

While on a student stay, the holder may work as an employee for up to 30 hours a week, provided the work is compatible with the studies and does not displace them. That route covers the internship and the part time contract many companies use while the student finishes the course, but it is not a residence authorisation: it does not count the same way towards arraigo or long term residence, and it ends when the stay ends.

Conversion to work and residence changes the title. The worker stops being a student with an accessory right to work and becomes a resident employee, full time if the contract provides for it, with no 30 hour ceiling.

The regulation approved by RD 1155/2024 loosened this conversion compared with the previous regime. Under the repealed rules, the applicant had to show a prior period of residence in Spain as a student before the status could be modified, which forced companies to wait even when the candidate had been on an internship since month one. The regulation in force since 20 May 2025 removes that prior residence requirement as a general condition, so the modification can be filed as soon as there is a contract and the company meets its own conditions.

What the company has to prove

The company files the application and most of the file is its own, not the candidate's. The Oficina de Extranjería checks three blocks.

• Solvency. The company must show it can sustain the post and the offered salary for the life of the authorisation, through accounts, tax returns or payroll history depending on its size.
• Clean standing. Certificates from the Agencia Estatal de Administración Tributaria and the Tesorería General de la Seguridad Social. An outstanding debt with either one stops the file.
• Contract terms. The contract must respect the statutory minimum wage and, where a collective agreement applies to the sector and province, that agreement's salary table, which in most cases sits above the statutory floor.

The post itself is documented exactly as in an ordinary hire from abroad, with one difference: the worker is already in Spain and there is no consular visa. The employer file is set out in the Spanish work and residence permit procedure.

Deadlines, cost and the two steps that get missed

The general decision deadline is three months from the date the application is registered with the competent body. Article 80.9 of RD 1155/2024 provides that once that period passes with no express decision, silence is positive and the authorisation is deemed granted. In practice it is worth requesting the certificate evidencing the silence before registering the worker, because the Tesorería needs a document to work from.

Direct cost is low compared with a hire at origin. Two fees are paid: the employee work and residence authorisation fee, payable by the employer under form 790 code 062, and the foreigner identity card issuance fee, form 790 code 012, payable by the worker. There is no consular fee and no flight, because there is no entry from abroad. The full fee comparison sits in the cost of hiring a foreign worker in Spain.

Once the authorisation is granted, social security registration is filed through Sistema RED with form TA.2/S and must predate the actual start of work. A registration dated after the first day worked is an infringement the Inspección de Trabajo finds by cross checking the contract against the employment history, and a correctly granted modification does not cure it. The registration circuit is described in social security registration through Sistema RED.

The second step is the foreigner identity card. Article 209 of RD 1155/2024 gives one month from registration to apply at the Policía Nacional station covering the worker's address. In high volume provinces the appointment slots are taken weeks ahead, so the appointment should be booked when the decision arrives, not when the month is already half gone.

The failure that delays these files most often is calendar based rather than documentary: the company files the modification three weeks before the student stay expires, the Oficina de Extranjería requests a Tesorería certificate, the request consumes ten working days, and the stay lapses with the file still open. Filing two months ahead leaves room for one request without losing the underlying stay.

For an employer who already has the student on an internship, the modification is the shortest of the routes the 2024 regulation opens: one employer file, a three month clock, and a worker who never leaves the country. The planning that matters sits in the expiry date of the student stay and in the state of the AEAT and TGSS certificates on the day of filing.