Is it better to get a job in Spain or keep a remote job as a software engineer moving there?

A local job, a local salary

Call them Ari. It isn't their name. Ari is a software engineer with a passport from a Latin American country. It lets them enter Spain without a visa, and, as they understood it, two years of work in Spain would make them eligible for Spanish citizenship. So they asked the group: what is the best way to find a job there? Do I need a visa first? "I'm a Software Engineer, which is a highly demanded field."

The first correction was about the plan itself. Working for two years is not what counts, one member wrote: "Even if you came here and worked for 20 years, if you didn't reside here legally and continuously, you wouldn't qualify." Entering without a visa, as a visitor, is not the same as being allowed to live and work in Spain.

Two routes came up again and again. One: a job with a Spanish employer, under the highly qualified professional permit (a residence and work permit for skilled roles, backed by the employer). Two: a remote job for an employer outside Spain, and the digital nomad visa.

On the first, the thread argued. One member said employers in Spain are supposed to hire a European before a foreigner. Others said that does not apply to the highly qualified professional permit: the employer is not required to show there was no one else for the job. But even they agreed it is much easier for an employer to hire someone who already has the right to work, and one member added that most companies will hesitate even to interview someone without working rights who is not yet in Spain.

Then the reply about money. A member's friend, also a software engineer, had come to Spain on the digital nomad visa with a US job. He wanted a job on Spanish working hours, and looked. The best salaries he found were about a third of what his US job paid. He kept the US job. Another member put it in general terms: salaries in Spain are a lot lower than in North America or Northern Europe.

A third route came up too: study in Spain, then switch to a job-seeker permit. But, the member said, time on a student visa does not count toward the residence needed for citizenship, and a student would have to show the means to live while studying.

We do not know what Ari chose.

The trap in a short phrase: a local job, a local salary. A permit through a Spanish employer can look like the most solid route, because the job comes with it. But the job also sets the pay, and the one figure in the thread pointed one way: about a third of what a remote job for a foreign employer paid.

This is one group's account of the rules, not legal advice. How permits and residence time are assessed can vary, and the official sources are where to confirm them before acting.

A quote for a permit prices the paperwork, and the paperwork is paid once. The salary a route allows is paid every month, and nothing on a quote shows what the job on the other side will pay.

If you moved for a job in Spain, how did the pay compare with what you earned before?

Based on a real case, shared publicly in an online group and anonymised.