also called work authorization · employment permit
Government permission allowing a foreigner to take paid local employment.
A work permit is the government's yes to you actually holding a paid job with a local employer. People mix it up with a work visa: the visa is the stamp that lets you enter and stay for work, while the permit is the underlying right to be on someone's payroll. In many countries they come together, but a visa that lets you live somewhere does not automatically let you take local wages.
You are in Spain on a digital nomad visa working for clients back home, and a local company offers you a part-time role in their office. That job needs its own permission you do not have, and taking it without one puts both you and the employer on the wrong side of the rules.
Most tourist and nomad visas don't include it, so taking a local job usually needs a separate permit.
The difference is the whole point, so here is each one in a line.
These are the visas and papers for taking a job with a local company, as opposed to earning from abroad.
A work visa gets you in to work, a work permit is the permission to take paid local employment, and a talent visa or startup visa are routes for in-demand skills or founding a business.
In the Philippines the AEP is the labour department's work permit, the ACR I-Card is the biometric foreigner ID that goes with it, and the annual report is the yearly in-person check-in that ID carries.
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