Good news! As a non-European citizen, you are allowed to work up to 20 hours per week in Spain under a student visa. Any student with a student visa can work up to 4 hours per day on a special work permit. This permit is not difficult to obtain, but many times students and companies prefer full-time work. This permit is useful if someone wants to earn additional money by working as a barmen or waitress, for example. The permit that allows students to work full-time, up to 3 months, is only valid when there are no classes. This typically means that students will be able to work outside the normal academic year, during the summer break. This avenue is preferred when the job cannot be qualified as an internship, and it does not relate to the student’s studies.
Working in Spain
Being a foreign student at GBSB Global Business School does not inhibit you from working at public or private institution or company. In order to work while you are conducting your studies, you must meet a series of requirements:
- Managing a job with your studies. You must have balance. | The work you decide to engage in must consist of activities on a part-time basis that do not interfere with the success of your studies.
- If the employment contract is full-time, it cannot exceed a three-month duration nor overlap with the university terms during which you are studying.
- Must not be necessary. | The income obtained must be complementary but not essential for your comfort and livelihood during your stay in Spain.
- You cannot work with a student card or student visa alone. | You must apply for a work permit and this is where it can get tricky, as stated before.
- The period of validity of the work permit must be the length of the duration of your contract and cannot be exceed the duration of your student visa or study permit.
Students can receive a work permit once the employer submits the application and as long as they meet the requirements documented in the Regulations of Royal Decree 2393/2004, of 30 December, which amended Organic Law 4/2000.
A work permit can be renewed if the conditions that allowed it to be issued continue to be existent, as long as the student’s study permit, student visa, or research residency permit has also been renewed.
Full-Time or Part-Time Internship
There is another option as well. Most masters programs are coupled with internships or the university or business school will help students in this process of procuring one. This is an option for all students who wish to get experience related to their studies. Internships can be full-time if the study schedule allows it. There are both paid and unpaid student internships available across a variety of industries. It takes some research, but it is very possible to find a student internship that will offer you both experience and some amount of compensation.
A work permit is not required for students’ internships at public or private organizations forming part of the curriculum of the studies for which the student visa was issued and taking place within the framework of the corresponding collaboration agreements between the organizations in question and GBSB Global Business School. While GBSB Global Business School does not require students to complete an internship to earn their degrees, the school does provide students with exclusive internship offers from many companies in their private career service portal. GBSB Global encourages students to look for their own internship in addition to what information and offers the school posts. GBSB Global is always happy to help in the process and answer any questions or filter any inquires. In all cases, a work permit will only be needed if the collaboration agreement requires a contract to be signed.
Want to work in Spain after graduation? This is possible!
The icing on the cake, for those individuals that want to remain in Spain after graduation, is that anybody who has lived in Spain for 3 years on a student visa can get a work permit and obtain full residence. This is especially interesting to BBA students at GBSB Global, as they study 3 years. In the United Kingdom, this is no longer possible. The country cancelled these options and students must return home after graduation.
If you have further questions in regard to this process, please contact our academics department.
