Author
Both refugees and beneficiaries of subsidiary protection benefit from a residence permit of 5 years once they are granted status.[1] The responsible authority for issuing the residence permit is the Police of Aliens’ Law and Documentation.
There are no difficulties systematically encountered in the issuance and renewal of those residence permits in practice.
The issuance of residence permits for humanitarian reasons is foreseen under the Immigration Law. This residence permit has a one-year duration.
The law foresees also the possibility to request other kinds of residence and work permits under different conditions and requirements (see National protection statuses and return procedure).
Regarding the applicable status to resettled beneficiaries of international protection, an important decision was issued in December 2020. The High Court (Tribunal Supremo) established that refugees resettled in Spain must keep their status as refugees. It therefore reverts the decision adopted by the previous Tribunal, denying recognition of the refugee status to four Syrian refugees resettled to Spain in 2015, while granting them subsidiary protection.[2]
In 2023, a total of 12,721 residence permits were granted to beneficiaries of international protection.[3]
In September 2024, the organisation CEAR denounced the obstacles – in terms of the documentation required and long waiting times up to 1 year- that migrants and asylum seekers face in enrolling to the municipal register (padrón municipal) in Valencia and the negative consequences this has on their possibility to access basic rights (i.e. education, health, public housing, vocational trainings, etc.).[4] The Ombudsperson of the Autonomous Community of Valencia (Síndic des Greuges) opened an investigation on the issue.[5]
With the aim of denouncing the lack of access to basic rights (i.e. health, education, financial support like the unemployment subsidies, etc.) that migrants face for the impossibility to enrol in the municipality register, and to recall the public administration that the enrolment is a right, in October a coalition of sixteen groups of Madrid launched the campaign Invisibles, padrón por derecho.[6]
Regularisation of undocumented migrants
Following the COVID-19 outbreak, many NGOs called upon the Government to regularise all undocumented migrants in Spain, to guarantee their access to rights and services.[7]
A report published in March 2021 remarked that the regularisation of the 500,000 undocumented migrants living in Spain would positively affect public finances, and would increase incomes up to EUR 1,750 million per year.[8] Another report highlighted that the regularisation of 600,000 undocumented migrants fostered since 2004 by the Former Prime Minister José Luis Zapatero has produced annual incomes of around EUR 2,300 million for Social Security.[9]
Following different decisions of the Supreme Court, in June 2021 the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration adopted an instruction on the procedure for issuing of temporary residence permits for “labour roots” reasons (arraigo laboral).[10] The instruction is aimed at regularising migrants, and especially former asylum seekers whose application for international protection was rejected, who lived and worked in Spain for at least two years.[11]
With the aim of promoting a people’s legislative initiative to regularise 500,000 persons by collecting 500,000 signatures, a group of organisations (including a political party) joined to form the platform “ESencialES”.[12] On December 2022, the campaign reached 700,000 signatures, that were submitted to the Office for the Electoral Roll, in order to start the Parliamentary procedure. In May 2023 the Platform ESencialES presented the popular initiative to the Congress.[13] In December 2023, Caritas urged the Government to reactivate the process to regularise 500,000 migrants in an administrative irregular situation.[14] In March 2024, the Congress retook the discussion of the proposal, and voted in favour of it in April.[15]
According to the promoters of this law proposal, the regularisation of migrants could generate between €790 million and 950 million a year.[16] In addition, based on an estimation made by NGOs working with undocumented migrants, around 500,000 migrants live in an irregular situation in Spain.[17]
In November 2024, the Government adopted a new Regulation of the Immigration Law, officially aimed at improving the integration of migrants according to three main paths for regularisation: work, training and family ties.[18] The reform will enter into force after 6 months since its publication, and it aims at regularising 300,000 persons.[19] In addition, it simplifies the requirements for foreigners to obtain residence and work permits, and foresees the regularisation of asylum seekers whose application was rejected, by establishing that the period they have been in Spain as asylum applicants will not count for the issuing of the residence permit for ‘arraigo’, and that just the period after the denial of the asylum application will be taken into account.[20] While welcoming the new reform, different organisations (i.e. Accem, CEAR, APDHA, Caritas, the Spanish Bar Association, etc.) observed that the reform could have had more significant impact and there were several missed opportunities; for example, humanitarian visas allowing people in need of international protection to apply for asylum without entering irregularly in Spain could have been introduced, or the possibility for asylum seekers to regularise their situation while still waiting for the asylum decision could have been granted. In addition, despite the adoption of the new Regulation of the Immigration Law, CEAR called the Government to continue in the assessment and adoption of the legislative initiative on regularisation, for which a proposal is undergoing the parliamentary procedure.[21]
In January 2025, different NGOs challenged at the Supreme Court (Tribunal Supremo) the reform of the Regulation of Immigration Law, concretely the provisions establishing the incompatibility between the international protection procedure and the procedure for the residence permits on ‘arraigo’ basis. The Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration informed about the intention of meeting those NGOs which challenged the Regulation, with the aim of clarifying doubts and make possible corrections to the Regulation’s provisions, before its entering into force in May 2025.[22]
Whereas some EU countries were announcing measures to tighten their borders against migrants, already in October Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced measures to facilitate migrants’ settlement in Spain, underling the importance of migrants for the growing of Spanish economy.[23]
Following the flooding in Valencia at the end of October 2024 and the damages occurred, different stakeholders (i.e. migrant movement in Valencia, the trade union Comisiones Obreras) called on the Government to dispose an extraordinary regularisation of migrants in an irregular situation living in the area affected by the flooding.[24] In February 2025, the Government announced the regularisation of 25,000 migrants affected by the flooding.[25] In addition, the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration issued an internal note to clarify that it is not necessary for asylum applicants to withdraw from the asylum procedure before applying for the regularisation due to the flooding, as the procedure is to be considered an exceptional one, so the two procedures are not incompatible.[26]
In December, PICUM launched the campaign ‘Regularisation works, and it’s the right thing to do’, which includes also testimonies of undocumented migrants in Spain, underlining how the lives of undocumented people changed when they finally got a residence permit.[27]
[1] Article 34(3) Aliens Regulation.
[2] Tribunal Supremo, Decision nº 1773/2020, 17 December 2020, available at: https://bit.ly/3p4L7Mc; Poder Judicial, ‘El Tribunal Supremo fija que las personas acogidas en España a través de un programa de reasentamiento del Gobierno tienen la condición de refugiados’, 25 January 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/39hiWoW.
[3] Observatorio Permanente de la Inmigración, Ministerio de Inclusión, Seguridad Social y Migraciones, ‘Flujo de autorizaciones de residencia concedidas a personas extranjeras. Año 2023’, 2024, available here.
[4] Valencia Plaza, ‘CEAR denuncia los “obstáculos” para acceder al padrón municipal y la escasez de recursos para migrantes’, 17 September 2024, available here.
[5] Cadena Ser, ‘El CEAR denuncia retrasos de hasta un año para empadronar en València a personas vulnerables’, 17 September 2024, available here.
[6] Público, ‘Pedir cita médica, cobrar una ayuda o ir al colegio: el padrón, una zancadilla para las personas migrantes en España’, 25 October 2024, available here.
[7] Europapress, ‘CEAR reclama al Gobierno que regularice “con carácter urgente” a las personas migrantes’, 2 April 2020, available at: https://bit.ly/3cjXiCr.
[8] Jesús Fernández-Huertas Moraga (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid), Inmigración y políticas migratorias en España, published by FEDEA (Fundación de Estudios de Economía Aplicada), March 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3kfibky.
[9] La Vanguardia, ‘La regularización de inmigrantes aportó 2.300 millones al Estado’, 15 March 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3D6USBY.
[10] Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, ‘Instrucción SEM 1/2021 sobre el procedimiento relativo a las autorizaciones de residencia temporal por razones de arraigo laboral’, June 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/34J7ZNt.
[11] Público, ‘Varias sentencias del Supremo facilitarán la regularización por arraigo laboral de miles de personas migrantes’, 9 June 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3CKiH2L.
[12] ESencialES, ‘¡500.000 firmas EsencialES para la Regularización Extraordinaria de 500.000 personas EsencialES en España!’, available at: https://bit.ly/3JprwSF.
[13] El Diario, ‘El movimiento por una regularización extraordinaria de migrantes presenta su propuesta de ley tras lograr llegar al Congreso’, 10 May 2023, available at: https://tinyurl.com/y2ry6rh3; El Diario, ‘La ILP por la Regularización avanza dentro de un Parlamento agitado por el año electoral’, 8 May 2023, available at: https://tinyurl.com/ey2tkspv.
[14] Europa Press, ‘Cáritas urge a reactivar la propuesta de regularización extraordinaria de 500.000 migrantes en situación irregular’, 14 December 2023, available at: https://tinyurl.com/47ts32dc.
[15] El País, ‘Regularizar para transformar un modelo migratorio roto en España’, 12 March 2024, available at: https://tinyurl.com/mw7tmm3w; Congreso de los Diputados, ‘El Congreso inicia la tramitación de la Proposición de Ley de iniciativa popular para una regularización extraordinaria para personas extranjeras en España’, 9 April 2024, available here; Euractiv, ‘Spain takes first step to regularise half a million migrants’, 10 April 2024, available here; El Diario, ‘Una regularización extraordinaria de migrantes aumentaría la recaudación fiscal y daría oxígeno a las pensiones’, 16 September 2024, available here; Qué, ‘Lograr la regularización de migrantes, una cuestión de voluntad política según en Comú’, 30 August 2024, available here.
[16] Euractiv, ‘Spain considers regularising hundreds of thousands of migrants’, 22 october 2024, available here.
[17] The Objective, ‘El Gobierno quiere regularizar a los inmigrantes irregulares que se formen en sectores en los que no hay trabajadores’, 3 June 2022, available at: https://bit.ly/3nXnnyQ.
[18] Ministerio de Inclusión, Seguridad Social y Migraciones, ‘El Gobierno aprueba un nuevo Reglamento de Extranjería para mejorar la integración de las personas migrantes a través de tres palancas: trabajo, formación y familia’, 19 November 2024, available here.
[19] El Diario, ‘El Gobierno aprueba un nuevo reglamento de la Ley de Extranjería que prevé regularizar a unos 300.000 migrantes al año’, 19 November 2024, available here; El Diario, ‘Qué incluye el nuevo reglamento de la Ley de Extranjería y cómo facilitará la regularización de miles de migrantes’, 19 November 2024, available here.
[20] 20 minutos, ‘Nuevo reglamento de extranjería: los plazos para solicitar la nacionalidad española, el permiso de trabajo y la residencia’, 20 November 2024, available here.
[21] Europa Press, ‘Accem y CEAR aplauden el nuevo Reglamento de la Ley de Extranjería pero lamentan que no introduzca visados humanitarios’, 19 November 2024, available here; Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos Andalucía, ‘APDHA lamenta que la reforma del Reglamento de Extranjería se realice en base a criterios utilitaristas y mercantilistas’, 21 November 2024, available here; Cáritas, ‘Las entidades sociales ven luces y sombras en la reforma del Reglamento de Extranjería’, 25 November 2024, available here; Consejo General de la Abogacía Española, ‘Nuevo reglamento de extranjería: ¿Una oportunidad perdida?’, 20 November 2024, available here; El Salto Diario, ‘Personas solicitantes de asilo, las grandes olvidadas en la reforma del Reglamento de Extranjería’, 28 November 2024, available here.
[22] El País, ‘ONG que trabajan con migrantes recurren al Supremo el nuevo reglamento de Extranjería’, 20 January 2025, available here; Cáritas, ‘Cinco entidades, entre ellas Cáritas, recurrirán ante el Tribunal Supremo la regulación del asilo en el nuevo Reglamento de Extranjería’, 21 January 2025, available here; Europa Press, ‘Migraciones se reunirá “próximamente” con las ONG que han recurrido el nuevo Reglamento de Extranjería’, 30 January 2025, available here.
[23] Reuters, ‘Spain’s Sanchez touts benefits of migration as European neighbours tighten borders’, 9 October 2024, available here.
[24] El Salto Diario, ‘El movimiento migrante valenciano exige otra regularización extraordinaria tras la DANA’, 18 December 2024, available here; Noticias Obreras, ‘CCOO pide al Gobierno una regularización temporal para las personas trabajadoras migrantes afectadas por la DANA’, 13 November 2024, available here.
[25] El País, ‘El Gobierno regularizará a 25.000 inmigrantes afectados por la dana’, 10 February 2025, available here.
[26] El Diario, ‘Los solicitantes de asilo afectados por la DANA podrán pedir la regularización sin desistir antes de su petición de protección’, 21 February 2025, available here.
[27] PICUM, ‘Regularisation works, and it’s the right thing to do’, December 2024, available here.