Labor Update: Work permit quota expanded for the 2026 summer season

The Government has approved a highly anticipated measure for the country’s business sector, especially for those businesses linked to the hotel and catering industry. Faced with the urgent need for staff to tackle the busiest months, the green light has been given to an expansion of the special quota for summer residence and work permits.

This measure has been materialized through Decree 274/2026, of July 15, 2026. The official text was published in the Official Bulletin of the Principality of Andorra (BOPA) on July 17, 2026.

Why was this expansion approved?

On June 10, 2026, an initial quota of 500 permits (450 for temporary immigration and 50 for border workers) was approved. However, the Immigration Service received a very high volume of applications from the first day, which caused the quota to be exhausted before the end of the legally established presentation period.

Furthermore, the current data from the Employment Service reflects that the number of people seeking employment or aiming to improve their current job situation does not allow for satisfying all the current needs of the hotel sector. For this reason, and to avoid compromising the proper functioning of businesses in the sector, the Government considers it necessary to approve this expansion.

Key details of the new quota

Below, we summarize the most important points of this new regulation so that you can plan your company’s hiring:

• Total number of new permits: This involves a global number of 250 additional authorizations.
• Distribution of the permits: These 250 places are divided into 215 temporary immigration authorizations and 35 temporary border work authorizations.
• Limit per company: To ensure equitable distribution, the maximum number of temporary authorizations that can be issued to each company is 10.