The note
Rafael is a welder from Barranquilla, in Colombia, and a shipyard on the Ría de Vigo has offered him a contract. He is invented, but the path he follows is the usual one for a first job in Spain on a passport from outside the EU, and it starts long before he boards a plane.
The first move is not even his. A non-EU worker cannot simply arrive and sign: the employer must first obtain a residence and work authorisation for him. In Vigo, the Oficina de Extranjería at Rúa Teófilo Llorente 4, part of the Delegación del Gobierno en Galicia, lists this kind of authorisation, and the shipyard files the application with the contract it proposes and the documents the procedure asks for.
While that is decided, Rafael gets his side ready in Colombia: a passport with plenty of validity left, a criminal record certificate, a medical certificate, all papers the Spanish consulate will want to see. Documents issued in Colombia travel to Spain with an apostille.
Once the authorisation is granted, he applies for the work visa at the Spanish consulate that covers his home. The visa is stamped into his passport, his NIE already printed on it. He lands, and the shipyard registers him with Social Security before his first shift; that registration is what brings his authorisation into force.
Now the police side. Because he will be here for more than six months, Rafael needs a TIE, and the application is expected within a month of his entry. On the cita previa service he selects the province of Pontevedra and the procedure for the TIE prints. His confirmation names the office, and he goes there with the EX-17, the passport carrying his visa, a colour photo, the paid 790-012 and a padrón volante.
The volante dates from his first week. He rents a room in Teis and, with the lease and his passport, goes to the Concello’s statistics office on Praza do Rei: a ticket from the machine, the registration form signed, and with the folder complete he is on the padrón that morning.
At the fingerprint appointment he is given a resguardo, and he collects the card at the same office once it is ready. With the TIE in his wallet, a Social Security number on his payslip and his NIE on every page, his papers at last match his job.
His advice to the next welder through the yard gates? Let the employer start early, book the fingerprints the week you land, and diary the end date of your authorisation from day one. When it approaches, the renewal goes back to the list of Teófilo Llorente.
