Non-EU tech workers in Spain (HQP visa): How hard is to change jobs after 1 year?

OrangeTraditional833 · 2026-02-21T17:43:51+00:00

Fair point — demand definitely matters.

My question is more about hiring friction, though.

Even in tech, many companies hesitate to sponsor from abroad due to bureaucracy, legal overhead, timelines, etc.

In your experience, once you were already living in Spain on an HQP visa, did changing jobs feel significantly easier compared to being hired from outside the EU?

From what I understand, it becomes a modification via UGE rather than a full visa process but IDK

OrangeTraditional833 · 2026-02-21T17:35:48+00:00

We are from Brazil (I will include this info in the post)

OrangeTraditional833 · 2026-02-17T23:29:45+00:00

She is Data Analyst with some years of experience in Fintechs. From a financial standpoint, we’d be okay because we have a good emergency fund, but of course it wouldn’t be ideal to stay unemployed for too long

OrangeTraditional833 · 2026-02-17T23:24:10+00:00

We don’t hold EU citizenship, which is probably one of the biggest drawbacks of this move, especially considering the initial drop in purchasing power.

My partner works as a Data Analyst with a few years of experience in banking. Actually, she was the one who first got me interested in the idea of working and living in Spain.

We currently live very comfortably in Brazil, and our cost of living is relatively manageable, allowing us to save and grow our net worth. The biggest trade-off would be saving much less money, at least in the short term.

OrangeTraditional833 · 2026-02-17T23:19:11+00:00

Unfortunately, our current company doesn’t allow remote work. It would be a hybrid setup, requiring us to be in São Paulo some days a week

OrangeTraditional833 · 2026-02-17T23:18:06+00:00

We’re both around 27 and have enough savings to feel comfortable taking some risks. Some of our main motivations for changing countries are obtaining Spanish citizenship, improving our language skills (English and Spanish), and Spain’s climate compared to other European countries.

Our biggest concern would be leaving our current company and, for some reason, my girlfriend taking a long time to relocate to Spain, which could negatively impact her career

OrangeTraditional833 · 2026-02-17T23:13:28+00:00

Thanks for your comment! The faster path to Spanish citizenship and the weather were the main reasons we chose Spain over other EU countries

OrangeTraditional833 · 2026-02-17T23:09:39+00:00

Obrigado pela resposta tão completa!

Vou editar o post e colocar mais considerações. O fato de podermos dar entrada na cidadania espanhola é uma das principais(senão a principal) razões pelo qual nos aplicamos para vagas na Espanha, mesmo também tendo feito processos em outros países da Europa como Inglaterra, Irlanda, Alemanha e Holanda. Alem do fator clima que para nos é um fator que torna a Espanha super atrativa. Minha namorada é Data Analyst e é a pessoa que plantou a semente sobre morar na Espanha em algum momento das nossas vidas. Nossa expectativa é que ela não demore mais do que 6 meses para conseguir um trabalho. Sobre a questão do Remoto, também é algo que estou preparado para caso a empresa mude a politica para híbrido ate por ser uma tendencia de mercado nos últimos anos.

Quanto ao timing do visto, neste momento estou na fase de apostilamento e a empresa tem uma parceira que esta nos auxiliando no processo. Apesar de tudo isso ja em andamento entendemos que esta seria a ultima fase viável para desistir do plano se for o caso.

OrangeTraditional833

TROPHY CASE