1. What is remote work?
Remote work is the growing trend of employees who don’t walk into their traditional office every day, instead opting to work remotely part or full time from home. The main advantage of this working style for the employee is to choose where he would like to live without changing job.
We are going to see why remote workers should choose Valencia in Spain as their new home !
2. Evolution of the remote working trend
Due to the current COVID-19 health crisis, many companies from all over the world have had to face restrictions from their government, and had to implement when possible remote working. Challenging at first for both employees and companies, many people realized later on the opportunities offered by this new way of working in the name of flexibility, technological progress and productivity. This is now considered as “the new normal” despite the lifting of existing restrictions and it is expected to keep growing over the next few years.
Whether you are a full time employee or a digital nomad and working on your own, we recommend you to choose Valencia for living. This dynamic city offers plenty of advantages and has recently been chosen as the best city to live for expatriates in the world. Here is the link to the study : https://www.internations.org/expat-insider/2020/the-best-worst-cities-for-expats-40063
3. What are the advantages of working from home?
The advantages of remote working are twofold:
- On one side, it allows the employee to choose where he would like to work and therefore where he would like to live. It also allows him more flexibility in his diary and to better juggle between professional and personal life.
- On the other side, it allows the employer to save on office costs and to recruit more easily. Indeed, not only local candidates will apply for the job. And finally, you will improve your productivity with more motivated employees.
4. Why choose Valencia (Comunidad Valenciana) for remote workers?
In addition to the reasons to choose Valencia as a place to live that we have detailed in our post 5 Reasons for choosing Valencia, the Comunidad Valenciana has all required facilities for working from home in good conditions:
- Many coworking spaces.
- Two international airports (Valencia, Alicante) for business trips abroad.
- Good WIFI connection with fiber optic in all urban and some rural areas, as well as growing installation of 5G network.
- Great public transport system (metro, bus).
- Low cost of living in comparison with many major cities.
- Constant temperature and sunshine throughout the year. And yes, this last parameter has a huge impact on motivation!
As we have just seen, the health crisis has given us the opportunity to implement the remote working and to improve this way of working. It is now possible work anywhere in the world with Valencia being one of the preferred destinations of many expatriates and new remote workers.
5. What are the administrative procedures in order to work from home in Spain ?
To be able to work from home in Spain, you will need to go through a number of administrative procedures. These latter depend on the number of days you will spend in Spain per year (and therefore where you have to pay your taxes) and your nationality.
In general, if you are from the European Union, the European Economic Area or Switzerland, you must carry out at least the following procedures:
- Obtain your NIE (Foreigner Identification Number)
- Obtain your Certificado de Registro de Ciudadanos de la UE
- Register with the social security system
- Obtain your Empadronamiento (municipal register)
If you are from a different country you will need to :
- Obtain your NIE (Foreigner Identification Number)
- Obtain your TIE (Foreigner Identity Card)
- Obtain a work permit and a residence visa
- Register with the social security system
- Obtain your Empadronamiento (Municipal Register)
Again these procedures are on a case by case basis and depend on the personal situation of each individual, so it is essential to be up to date with the current legislation in order to work from home legally in Spain.
If you have any questions about working from home in Spain, you can contact us at [email protected] and we will be happy to help you.
