Alta en la Seguridad Social: Registering Each Job in Spain

Filed by your employer, or by you as self-employed in RETA

Every job, internship or self-employed activity in Spain should start with an alta, the registration that places you in the right Social Security scheme. This explanation covers who files it, why checking it matters for healthcare and benefits, and how it differs from afiliación, the medical alta and the padrón.

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As written locally

Alta en la Seguridad Social

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Each job or activity, in the right scheme

What an alta records

Why Spanish Social Security registers every job separately, and what that means for your healthcare and benefits.

Alta en la Seguridad Social is the registration that tells the General Treasury of Social Security (TGSS) that a person has started a job or self-employed activity in a specific scheme. For employees the employer files it before work starts; self-employed workers file their own alta in the self-employed scheme (RETA). The end of the activity is recorded as a baja.

Spanish Social Security uses three related steps. Afiliación happens once in a lifetime and gives you your Social Security number (NUSS), which becomes your affiliation number when you start your first paid activity. Alta is filed every time a job or self-employed activity begins, and it places you in the right scheme: the Régimen General for most employees, or the Régimen Especial de Trabajadores Autónomos (RETA) for the self-employed. Baja records the end of that job or activity.

For employees, the employer must file the alta before the employment begins, and it can do so up to 60 calendar days in advance. Self-employed people are themselves responsible for their alta in RETA, which can also be filed up to 60 days before the activity starts and no later than its start, online through the Social Security electronic office or through an authorised representative. Since 1 August 2026, a baja or a change of data must be reported within six calendar days.

Internships (prácticas formativas) are included: since 1 January 2024, trainees in both paid and unpaid internships are covered in the General Scheme. Normally the host organisation files the alta, unless the cooperation agreement assigns it to the school or university.

You can check every alta and baja in your Informe de vida laboral (employment history report), which you can download from the Importass portal using Cl@ve, a digital certificate, your DNIe or an SMS code, or have posted to your registered address. Working without alta is a serious offence for the employer and can leave gaps in your contributions, healthcare and benefits.

Key takeaways

Afiliación happens once; alta and baja happen for every job or activity.
Employers must file an employee's alta before work starts, up to 60 days in advance.
Self-employed workers file their own alta in RETA.
Paid and unpaid internships have required Social Security registration since 1 January 2024.
Check each alta and baja in your vida laboral report on Importass.

Before a first day of work, a placement or freelancing

When to check your Social Security alta

Check your alta before the first day of any job, internship or self-employed activity, and again whenever you claim healthcare, sick pay, unemployment benefit or a pension. The examples show how students, freelancers and trainees confirm it and where it appears afterwards.

You need to check your alta before the first day of any job, internship or self-employed activity, and afterwards whenever you claim healthcare, sick pay, unemployment benefit or a pension. It also appears in questions about student work, where a missing alta can mean you are working illegally.

Example situations

A student starting a part-time job asks for proof that the employer's alta is effective and checks it the next day in the vida laboral report.
A new freelancer files their own alta in RETA a week before invoicing the first client.
A trainee on an unpaid university placement confirms with the host company that it has filed the alta for the internship.

A number for life versus registration per job

Alta, afiliación or another alta?

How alta differs from your lifelong Social Security number, from the medical alta that ends sick leave and from padrón registration.

Having a Social Security number is not the same as being in alta: the number stays with you for life, while alta exists only while a job or activity lasts. Alta en la Seguridad Social is also different from the medical alta that ends sick leave (alta médica) and from registering in the municipal register (alta en el padrón).

Employment vocabulary to browse after the alta

More Spanish work and Social Security terms

After Alta en la Seguridad Social, these cards explain other Spanish terms from working life, including numbers, reports, contracts, payments and institutions you may meet at work. They share this broad area of life; each card explains its own term rather than a further step in registering.

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