How to renew the Spanish job seeker card online
In Spain, people who cannot or do not want to go to the employment offices and queue for hours to stamp the employment card ('tarjeta del paro', as it is known in Spain), have the option of doing so online.
The digital process may vary slightly depending on the autonomous community in which you live, but in general it is very similar.
To use this service, you must request it when registering or you can also do it one of the times you visit an office to stamp the card in person.
It is important to remember that, unlike renewal, in Spain the first registration with the public employment services must be done in person at the public employment offices.
According to the website of the State Public Employment Service (SEPE), the renewal of the job demand depends on the autonomous communities, except in the case of the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, which depend on the State Public Employment Service (SEPE, in its Spanish acronym).
Once registered with the public employment services as a job seeker, you will receive a card which specifies the dates of the renewals.
Required to receive benefits
During registration, in addition, they will give us the necessary instructions and credentials to access the renewal online depending on the employment services of the autonomous community, where we will be provided with a username and password to access.
Formerly, it was necessary to go to the office on the date indicated for the renewal, where the card was physically sealed. Today, practically all the autonomous communities allow this procedure to be carried out on the Internet, in a secure way, during the 24 hours of the renewal day, even on holidays.
Experts recommend doing it in the early morning of the day it is due to renew, because in case of a technical problem you can still go to an office and carry out the process in person.
The credentials must be entered through a computer or the SEPE mobile application. To do this, we must click on the option 'Renewal of the (work) demand'.
Then, it is important to follow the instructions and check that the SEPE website confirms that the renewal has been successfully carried out. After doing so, the system should indicate the date of the next renewal.
There are some autonomous communities that do not provide usernames and passwords. In those cases, it is necessary to have a digital certificate, or an electronic identity document (DNI electrónico) or the system will ask you to enter some personal data in order to verify your identity.
Be careful if you travel abroad!
The SEPE emphasizes in its website that it is mandatory to renew the job demand to receive the services associated with it or to receive unemployment benefit, if you are entitled to it.
The renewal of the unemployment card can be sealed online from anywhere in Spain. But you have to be very careful if you go abroad, because if the system recognizes that the connection is being made from outside the Spanish territory, it usually causes problems for the user.
The reason is that job seekers who travel abroad while collecting unemployment benefit are obliged to report it to the employment service.