Drawing Audiovisual Projects to Spain
On November 13th, Spanish Government has finally issued the concrete measures that will be implemented to apply for these residence and work permits of audiovisual projects employees.
After that many international projects came to Spain in order to record TV series or important and huge film projects, such as the last seasons of Game of Thrones or Terminator: Dark Fate, Spanish Government issued an Instruction which planned to regulate the residence of third-country nationals who are part of the production team of the audiovisual sector.
Audiovisual Projects
Firstly, it is important to distinguish what is considered an audiovisual project to be able to apply for these permits. According to this new regulation, these work permits will be granted to those foreigners who will develop audiovisual activities, artistic activities before an audience or recorded to be spread by mass media. All those foreigners who will work for such projects, will be able to apply for a residence permit.
This can be an amazing opportunity to many artists and employees of this kind of projects to travel to Spain, generating many opportunities for foreigners.
Coming to work in the audiovisual sector for 90 days
Bearing this new permit in mind, this regulation divides these permits in two modalities:Bearing this new permit in mind, this regulation divides these permits in two modalities:
When the foreigners will work in Spain for a maximum period of 90 days or for longer:
In the first case, the employees and the company will have two scenarios, depending on the third country their coming from:
- If the foreigners come from a country where a visa application is not required to travel to Spain for a period of 90 days or less, they will just have to travel to Spain and follow next steps to start to work.
- On the contrary, if the visa application is required to travel to Spain for a period of 90 days or less, they will have to request it.
In both cases, as soon as the employees travel to Spain, they will have to apply for a NIE and the company will have to enroll the employees at the Spanish Social Security if there is not a bilateral agreement between Spain and the home country.
If they need to apply for a visa, the competent Spanish Consulate or Embassy will solve these requests in a maximum period of 10 labour days, which means this procedure has a very fast solution.
A very good point of this regulation is in the case that the initial period of 90 days needs to be extended for an additional period (90 days maximum), the company will be able to apply for that extension at the Spanish Administration before the last 30 days of the first period, proving that the renewal is necessary because of the project.
Coming to work for a longer period than 90 days
In this case, the company will have to submit the applications electronically to the Spanish administration, which will have 20 labour days to solve them, being granted if that deadline expires.
According to this law, it will be granted for the contract time, with a maximum period of two years, but it will be renewable for additional periods of two years, until the end of the project.
Very good advantages
Regarding the previous notes, these permits have many advantages for those foreigners who come to Spain to develop any activity within the audiovisual sector, stressing the following ones:
- Fast procedures: In some cases, they will just have to travel directly to Spain., and in the rest cases, the applications have a rapid procedure that could take between 2-6 weeks, depending on the concrete case.
- Employee’s dependents can apply for a residence permit linked to the employee’s one, that will be granted at the same time.
- Any application will be granted after the expiration of the administration deadline, so it has a very fast procedure.
- It can be renewed until the audiovisual project finally ends.
- The company will be able to submit the whole team applications at once, avoiding delays and bureaucratic process.
Economic Growth
Summing up, this new approach will allow to draw international audiovisual projects to Spain, which will create different job vacancies at the same time our economy grows, with huge foreigner investment that will impact in multiple sectors at the end.
This could mean the beginning of a new economic market, which can help to creat many jobs for Spanish nationals.