For citizens of the rest of the world
Working remotely from Gran Canaria: your papers depend on your passport
Your passport decides the route. A European who works remotely from Las Palmas registers for the green certificate once the stay passes three months; anyone else must first obtain a visa or authorisation for international teleworking, and only then comes the padrón and the TIE. What you do on your laptop matters far less to Spain than the passport you hold.
Ask for help about this procedure; we reply by email
If your passport is European
No permit is needed for you to live and work on the island. Past three months of stay, the rules ask you to register: form EX-18, and in return the green certificate, NIE included. In the city that procedure belongs to Plaza de la Feria 24, not to Luis Doreste Silva.
The proof you bring depends on how you work. An employee of a foreign company, a freelancer with clients abroad and a person living on savings do not hand in the same papers. Describe your set-up to us and we work out which category fits it.
From outside the EU: a visa or authorisation first
A visit as a tourist is not residence, whatever you do on your laptop. Spain has a route for international teleworking, but its first step is a visa, requested at a Spanish consulate, or in some cases an authorisation applied for from within Spain. It is not granted by the offices on Gran Canaria.
We do not list its conditions here: the administration sets and revises them, and each case deserves a careful look. If you would like the whole move organised, AnchorLess, a private relocation firm, works on visa routes like this one.
Once you are approved: the island steps
- Register on the padrón of the municipality where you live
- Fingerprints for the TIE: Plaza de la Feria 24 in the city, or Maspalomas or Santa Lucía de Tirajana in the south
- For that appointment: the EX-17, your passport and visa or your resolution, a photo, the paid 790-012
- Collect the card when it is ready
Taxes are a separate conversation
Living on the island can make you a tax resident of Spain, and the Canary Islands have their own indirect tax. Those are questions for a tax adviser, not for us; we tell you when it is time to see one.
Questions
Can I get a NIE before my visa, to sign a lease?
Yes. Ask for it as a non-resident on the EX-15, giving the rental contract as your reason. It gives you no residence.
I am French and work for a company in Lyon. Do I register?
Yes, if you stay longer than three months. You register as an EU citizen with form EX-18; how you work decides which proof you bring.
Where do non-EU remote workers give their fingerprints?
At a police office that handles the TIE: Plaza de la Feria 24 in the city, or the stations of Maspalomas and Santa Lucía de Tirajana in the south.
Is the teleworking route the same as the non-lucrative visa?
No. Non-lucrative residence is for people who do not work at all. Remote workers look at the teleworking route instead.
Where these facts come from
- policia.es: Policía Nacional units with foreigners’ procedures in the province of Las Palmas (Luis Doreste Silva, Plaza de la Feria, Maspalomas, Santa Lucía de Tirajana, Telde)
- sede.administracionespublicas.gob.es: the official cita previa for foreigners’ procedures
These sources were last checked on .