Spain has closed the year by publishing the 2026 Order on Collective Hiring at Source (Orden GECCO), the legal instrument that allows companies to recruit large groups of non-EU nationals for seasonal work before they arrive in the country. The text, released on 30 December after the last Council of Ministers meeting of 2025, transposes May’s new Foreigners’ Regulation (RELOEX) and, for the first time, writes explicit social-welfare guarantees for participating workers into primary legislation. Employers must now prove they will house seasonal staff for the entire assignment and report any change of accommodation to immigration authorities.
The government highlighted record demand for the scheme: 25,767 foreign workers—up 25 % on 2024—entered Spain under GECCO in 2025, mostly for agricultural harvesting in 21 provinces. Seventeen origin countries took part, with Morocco accounting for 81 % of contracts and women making up 92 % of participants. The new order keeps the four-year, multi-entry authorisation that lets staff work up to nine months a year, provided they return home after each season.
Human-resources managers welcome the order’s shift towards “nominative” recruitment, which lets companies pre-select named workers instead of relying solely on pooled labour lists. This flexibility is expected to shorten processing times and reduce last-minute no-shows—an issue that drove up overtime costs for agribusinesses during the 2023–24 crop years. At the same time, the 2026 order preserves the collective (generic) pathway for large growers who need several hundred pickers at once.
![Spain issues 2026 GECCO Order, expanding circular-migration hiring]()
For businesses that need hands-on assistance navigating Spain’s updated immigration landscape, VisaHQ offers end-to-end support—from document preparation to real-time status tracking—through its dedicated Spain portal (https://www.visahq.com/spain/). The platform’s corporate specialists can coordinate GECCO filings, secure seasonal work visas and advise on compliance steps such as accommodation declarations, allowing HR teams to focus on staffing rather than paperwork.
The text also references WAFIRA II, a new EU-backed pilot that will move 3,000 Moroccan seasonal workers between Spain and France from 2026-28. Officials say the programme could become a template for regional “talent circulation” initiatives in construction, tourism and logistics—sectors facing acute labour shortages as Spain’s working-age population shrinks.
For global-mobility and assignment teams, the immediate takeaway is operational: 2026 recruitment windows will open earlier, and electronic filings via the Mercurio portal will require additional fields on accommodation and return-ticket guarantees. Companies should budget for slightly higher compliance costs but can expect fewer ad-hoc audits once the new safeguards are in place.
The government highlighted record demand for the scheme: 25,767 foreign workers—up 25 % on 2024—entered Spain under GECCO in 2025, mostly for agricultural harvesting in 21 provinces. Seventeen origin countries took part, with Morocco accounting for 81 % of contracts and women making up 92 % of participants. The new order keeps the four-year, multi-entry authorisation that lets staff work up to nine months a year, provided they return home after each season.
Human-resources managers welcome the order’s shift towards “nominative” recruitment, which lets companies pre-select named workers instead of relying solely on pooled labour lists. This flexibility is expected to shorten processing times and reduce last-minute no-shows—an issue that drove up overtime costs for agribusinesses during the 2023–24 crop years. At the same time, the 2026 order preserves the collective (generic) pathway for large growers who need several hundred pickers at once.
For businesses that need hands-on assistance navigating Spain’s updated immigration landscape, VisaHQ offers end-to-end support—from document preparation to real-time status tracking—through its dedicated Spain portal (https://www.visahq.com/spain/). The platform’s corporate specialists can coordinate GECCO filings, secure seasonal work visas and advise on compliance steps such as accommodation declarations, allowing HR teams to focus on staffing rather than paperwork.
The text also references WAFIRA II, a new EU-backed pilot that will move 3,000 Moroccan seasonal workers between Spain and France from 2026-28. Officials say the programme could become a template for regional “talent circulation” initiatives in construction, tourism and logistics—sectors facing acute labour shortages as Spain’s working-age population shrinks.
For global-mobility and assignment teams, the immediate takeaway is operational: 2026 recruitment windows will open earlier, and electronic filings via the Mercurio portal will require additional fields on accommodation and return-ticket guarantees. Companies should budget for slightly higher compliance costs but can expect fewer ad-hoc audits once the new safeguards are in place.
