Residence permit for job search in Spain after a degree: 24 months, no work allowed

In short: the residence permit for job search in Spain (or to start a business project) lets you stay 24 months, with no extension, if you hold a student stay and have finished at least a university degree (level 6 of the European Qualifications Framework). You apply on Mercurio from 60 days before your stay expires until 90 days after. It does not allow you to work: when you find a job or start the project, you apply for another authorisation.

In person or by representative? The application is electronic: it is filed on Mercurio and addressed to the Government Delegation or Subdelegation of the province where you will live. The foreign national or a representative can file it (Hoja 60, authorised applicants). You request the foreigner's card (TIE) in person, at the police station or police service of your place of residence, within one month of the notification (Hoja 20). How Mercurio works: filing an immigration application on Mercurio.

Requirements

• Hold a long-stay student authorisation or its extension.
• Have finished your studies at an authorised higher-education institution in Spain, at level 6 of the European Qualifications Framework or above, which corresponds to a university degree (Law 14/2013, additional provision 17, and Hoja 20 say «at least»: an official university master's or a doctorate also qualifies). With a lower qualification, for example a vocational (FP) course, this route does not work; see the change from the student stay to residence and work.
• Health insurance, public or private, with an insurer authorised to operate in Spain. On student insurance: medical insurance for a student visa.
• Financial means: each month, 100% of the IPREM for you (EUR 600), or 50% (EUR 300) if you show your accommodation is prepaid. For family members: 75% of the IPREM (EUR 450) for the first and 50% (EUR 300) for each of the others, with the same accommodation exception.
• Not be an EU, EEA or Swiss citizen, or a family member of one under the EU regime; not be in an irregular situation; not be listed as inadmissible in the Schengen area; not be a threat to public order, security or public health.
• No criminal record in Spain or in the countries where you have lived in the last five years, for offences that are also crimes in Spain.
• Not suffer from any disease with serious public-health consequences under the 2005 International Health Regulations.
• Pay the fee.

The Delegation or Subdelegation checks, under the law itself (additional provision 17, paragraph 2), that you have the degree or certificate, health insurance and sufficient resources; resources are shown with a responsible declaration (declaración responsable) in which you detail the means you have.

Documents

• Application form EX-26, filled in and signed by you (official form in the «Modelos de solicitud» section of Migraciones).
• Responsible declaration with the financial means that show you have sufficient resources.
• Degree: documents showing you finished your studies with at least a university degree.
• Copy of a valid passport or travel document recognised in Spain, with at least one year of validity.
• Documents showing your health insurance.
• Criminal record certificate from your country of origin or the countries where you lived in the last five years, only if your student stay lasted less than six months.
• Foreign documents must be translated into Spanish (or the co-official language of the territory) by a sworn translator, and legalised or apostilled under the Hague Convention, unless a treaty exempts them. The list of sworn translators and the legalisation rules are in Hoja 20.

Deadlines

• To file: during the 60 calendar days before your student stay expires, or within the 90 calendar days after, without prejudice to a possible penalty procedure if the stay had already expired.
• If you file within that window, the application extends the validity of the previous stay until a decision is made (additional provision 17, paragraph 3).
• To decide: 20 days from the day after filing. With no express answer, it is treated as granted by administrative silence (additional provision 17, paragraph 4).
• Duration: 24 months, no extension.
• TIE: within one month of the notification.

Cost

• Fee: form 790, code 052, EUR 10.94 (Order PJC/617/2025, item 2.1.6, which covers the holder and family members; Hoja 20 cites item 2.1.1, with the same amount). Hoja 20 mentions ten working days from filing to pay; Order PJC/617/2025 (art. 2.3) says that, when you file electronically, the fee is paid at the moment of filing. Pay before you submit and keep the receipt (NRC).
• Health insurance and sworn translations are paid separately.

You cannot work with this permit. Hoja 20 says so expressly: while it is valid you are not authorised to work, and neither are the family members accompanying you. Those family members are only the ones who already accompanied you as holders of a family stay authorisation during your studies, and their stay depends on yours (additional provision 17, paragraph 5).

When you find a job or start your project. You must apply for the relevant authorisation among those regulated in Organic Law 4/2000 or Law 14/2013 (additional provision 17, paragraph 6). For self-employment, see residence and work as self-employed. According to Hoja 20, for the national employment situation (the check of whether the job can be filled by workers already in Spain) not to apply, you must have spent at least one year in Spain in residence status. The student stay does not count as residence: the Regulation classes it as a long-term stay (art. 47.3 of RD 1155/2024).

Steps

1. Check that your student stay is still valid, note the date it expires and confirm you have finished a degree or a higher qualification.
2. Gather the documents: degree, health insurance, passport with one year of validity, responsible declaration and, if your stay lasted under six months, a criminal record certificate (translated and legalised).
3. Fill in form EX-26 and pay the fee (form 790, code 052).
4. File the application on Mercurio, addressed to the Delegation or Subdelegation of the province where you will live, between 60 days before the stay expires and 90 days after.
5. Wait for the decision (20 days; with no express answer it is treated as granted) and request the TIE in person within one month of the notification.
6. If you find a job or set up your project, apply for the work or self-employment authorisation that applies.

Official source: Hoja 20, Migraciones; Law 14/2013, additional provision 17; Immigration Regulation, art. 190.10.

Informational only; check the official source and a professional for your specific case.