Legal

The Spanish government has managed a relatively flexible and generous migrant-worker program for over a decade.

How does this immigrant-worker program work?

1. Puentes’ office in Spain places a request for the required Associates to the Spanish Ministry of Employment and Immigration (MEI).

2. If the job roles of these Associates are part of the “Difficult-to-Place Occupations Catalog” (jobs that Spanish citizens are not willing or able to perform), then the MEI issues approval documents to Puentes under a “fast-track” process in approximately three weeks.

3. Puentes forwards theses documents to its Associates in Mexico, who in turn file for work visas at the Spanish Embassy in Mexico City. This visa allows the Associates full access to Spanish public entitlements, and protection under the same national labor laws that Spanish citizens enjoy. As importantly, our Associates are guaranteed to never earn less than the minimum wage—as stipulated by the Spanish labor unions for each specific industry. The visa issuance lead time is approximately three weeks.

4. After the first year of work in Spain, the Partner Firm that agreed to hire our Associate can decide to renew the Associate’s contract, which extends the Associate’s work visa for another two years. If this new contract is not issued, either by the Partner Firm or the Associate’s choice, the Associate must return to Mexico.

5. Running concurrently with this first-year renewal process, the Associate’s spouse and any children under the age of 18 can now file for family reunification, which grants them residency permits and full access to Spain’s national health, education, and welfare system.

Financial

Our non-dividend, social enterprise business model will be self-sustaining in the short- to medium-term due to the service fee we charge our Partner Firms.

Where does this service fee come from?

The monthly service fee is calculated as a set percentage over the Associate’s salary:

• A Partner Firm agrees to hire an Associate for a monthly take-home salary of €1,500 and pay Puentes a service fee of 15%.

• At the end of each month the Partner Firm would pay the Associate her full salary of €1,500 and then Puentes’ service fee of €225.

What is the fee used for?

Puentes uses the revenue generated by the service-fee to sustain its everyday business operations.

What is a non-dividend business model?

The differentiating factor between a for-profit company and Puentes Global is that we channel our profits back into the organization—and consequently do not pay any dividends. This will help us to grow and to offer more extensive services to an increasing number of Associates and Partner Firms as we go forward.