Companies and self-employed workers are preparing for a new change in invoicing. Starting next year, the invoicing systems they use must comply with new standards to facilitate the Tax Agency's oversight and combat tax fraud. The new regulation aims to make it easier to prove that an invoice has been verified by the agency, hence its name: Verifactu.

Over the past year, Daria and Patricia have gone the other way. The former—a surgeon who arrived from Ukraine three years ago due to the Russian invasion—became self-employed so she could exchange her student visa for a temporary residency and now works as an emergency room doctor for private clinics: "I worked on a 20-hour contract for a family when they recognized my qualifications, which allowed me to balance my work and have total freedom." She is happy with this option and, for the moment, has no plans to return to working for someone else, although at some point she plans to take the MIR exams to open the door to public healthcare.