Given the large number of temporary layoffs in Spain lately, many foreigners are wondering the same thing: “can I renew my residence card in an ERTE?”. Their residence card is about to expire, and they do not know if they will be able to renew it since they have applied for an ERTE.
So, is it possible? Can you renew your residence and work permit even if you have been fired? In this article, we will answer all those questions.
COVID-19 and layoffs in Spain
A few weeks after the coronavirus entered Spain, the Government declared a State of Alarm. Its purpose? To stop the spread of the virus as much as possible. And because of this, many companies have been forced to close.
And that has had (and continues to have) some important consequences. If a business is unable to open its doors to the public it does not generate any income. And without it, the company cannot meet its fixed costs, like its costs for the purchase of supplies or payments for employees.
Thus, most of these companies have been forced to lay off workers in order to survive.
Hence, we now have the pressing situation of many foreigners in the country with a residence and work permit whose renewal depends directly on having a job. So, how does this dismissal affect the renewal?
In order to answer this question, we must first understand what kind of layoffs are taking place.
What is an ERTE?
An ERTE or Temporary Employment Regulation File is a dismissal in which the job is suspended in a timely manner due to force majeure.
This is a labor measure enabled by the government through a Royal Decree-Law.
With the current situation of COVID-19, and seeing that so many companies were forced to reduce costs in some way, the Government of Spain has made this labor measure available to all the employers who need to mitigate the economic effects of the health crisis over their business.
There are already almost 3 million employees who have been affected by this measure; Andalusia being the region with the most cases.
Undoubtedly, among all of them, there are many foreign citizens with residence permits who are being affected by this crisis.
What is a temporary layoff?
During your temporary layoff, you will find yourself unemployed or in “Paro” as commonly known in Spain. Due to it, you will be able to receive a benefit from the government equivalent to 75% of what you were receiving in your job up to now.
An unemployment benefit that even those people who would not be entitled to receive because of time worked, in this exceptional case will be able to do so.
The government has confirmed that, as an extraordinary measure, all those who apply for an ERTE and get approved, regardless of the time worked, will be able to receive said unemployment compensation.
Is it the same as a dismissal?
No. Being in an ERTE is not like a general layoff. We find an important distinction: an ERTE, which is a temporary dismissal (basically until the State of Alarm ends), and an ERE which is a final dismissal.
Understanding this will be essential to know if the renewal of your residence card will be affected or not.
In the case of an ERTE, your employment relationship with your company or employer does not end, it is simply suspended for a certain time.
How does an ERTE affect the renewal of your work permit?
Consider the case of a foreigner whose work permit expires in April, in the middle of the State of Alarm. Unfortunately, and due to the current situation, the company where he works is unable to assume all its current costs, and is forced to send him to a Paro situation. In other words, he is put on an ERTE.
Will he be able to renew his card?
Well, the fact is that the answer does not depend on the ERTE. As we have stated before, a temporary dismissal does not end the employment relationship, so the said contract is still valid.
For that part, you can renew your residence and work permit without any problem.
From a legal point of view, we are talking about a situation similar to complying with all their labor obligations. That is to say, it is as if the foreign citizen is still registered with Social Security and paying contributions.
Therefore, the contractual relationship with the company, even if it does not work these days, is still valid.
The most important requirement to know if you can renew your card or not
Thus, with an ERTE it is perfectly possible to renew your work permit.
However, there is another requirement that can prevent and invalidate the renewal in some cases, and that has nothing to do with temporary dismissal.
We are talking about the period of time that the cardholder has been working during the last year. In the case of it being less than 6 months, the renewal will not be possible. In the case of being more, then there will be no problem.
Regarding immigration purposes, the ERTE will not affect you at all.
The only thing you have to take into account is the temporary period that you have been employed during the last 6 months.
So how do I renew my residence card in an ERTE?
We have a whole article dedicated to explaining how to renew your residence card during the State of Alarm, which you can find here.
However, we will give you a brief summary.
Basically, you have to keep in mind that even though the Immigration Offices are closed to the public, you still have the obligation to renew your card if it expires.
In the same way, as in normal situations, you must renew it between 60 days before and 90 days after its expiration date. We advise you do it as soon as possible to avoid problems with the Administration.
And you must do it online. Luckily, there are many immigration procedures that can be done on the Internet, and renewing your residence card is one of them.
You simply need to have a digital certificate and use the common electronic registration or the Mercurio Platform; in them, you must upload all the scanned renewal documents required for the procedure.
Contact us!
If you want to do any immigration procedure, make sure it has an expert team in the field. In Entre Trámites we invite you to know our immigration services here. Fill in our contact form and we will call you to help you as soon as possible, schedule your online consultation, or just text our WhatsApp.
