Working in Europe with a Single Permit: a Golden Ticket or Pie in the Sky?

The single permit regime is hailed as a key feature of the European Union (EU) legal migration package as its main purpose is to expedite access to the EU labour market for third-country workers with the skills and professional experience to address labour market needs. Following the adoption of the recast Single Permit Directive in May 2024, this article uses empirical findings drawn from the lived experiences of single permit holders in Belgium, Czechia and Spain to evaluate whether the legislative reform goes far enough to improve the administrative and procedural deficiencies which have emerged since the inception of the single permit regime in 2011 and can exacerbate the risk of exploitation. Such an examination is particularly timely, as the new European rules give Member States the opportunity to re-design their national mechanisms with a view to frontloading procedural and administrative guarantees that are cognisant of the lived experiences of single permit holders and grounded in a rights-based approach.