27/01/2026

Migrations

The Government raises the text of the extraordinary regularization to a public audience to integrate foreign people who are already in Spain

Topics:

  • Migraciones
  • The objective is to provide an immediate and guaranteed response to the situation of hundreds of thousands of foreign people who are already in our country.
  • The authorization granted will be of residence with authorization to work throughout the national territory and in any sector
  • Interested persons must prove a continuous stay of at least five months at the time of application and must have resided in our country before December 31, 2025.
  • It is expected that the applications will begin to be submitted at the beginning of April, once the necessary procedures for the processing of the Royal Decree have been completed, and the process will be open until June 30, 2026.
  • Elma Saiz: “We return to the path marked by the citizens’ initiative supported by more than 700,000 signatures and by a very large majority of Congress. At this point, the regulatory path is the fastest, most effective and most guaranteed to provide a response in accordance with the Spanish and European legal framework”

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The text of the extraordinary regularization of migrants in Spain is already uploaded to a public audience. The initiative, promoted by the Government, opens a period of citizen participation to obtain contributions before its implementation. The Council of Ministers approved on Tuesday the start of the processing of an extraordinary regularization aimed at foreign people who are already in Spain, with the aim of guaranteeing rights and providing legal security to the system.

This is the first milestone in the Plan of Integration and Intercultural Coexistence, with which Spain reinforces its model of migration policy based on human rights, integration and coexistence, compatible with economic growth and social cohesion.

The Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, stressed at a press conference that this is “a long-worked, negotiated and necessary measure to respond to a reality that already exists in our streets, in our companies and in our society.”

The process will be aimed at all foreign persons who were in Spain before December 31, 2025 and who prove that they have stayed at least five months continuously in our country at the time of submitting the application. These circumstances may be credited with any public, private document or a combination of both. In the case of applicants for international protection, it is sufficient that such an application has been filed before 31 December 2025 and can be accredited.

Another requirement will be not to have a criminal record or to pose a threat to public order.

People who participate in this process and demonstrate compliance with the requirements will be able to access a residence permit in Spain with an initial validity of one year. After this period, they must be incorporated into the ordinary figures provided for in the Regulation on Foreigners, which allows for full and progressive integration into the system. “The residence permit itself will allow you to work, from day one, in any sector and anywhere in Spain,” he added.

According to Elma Saiz, “the mechanism we have designed is simple and seeks to break with the bureaucratic barriers of the past.” In this sense, the processing time will be a maximum of 3 months, but with the mere admission to processing of applications - which will be resolved in a maximum of 15 days - people will be able to start working.

Scope of the measure

The scope of the project is mainly aimed at people who have been in Spain for a long time and who have been left out of the ordinary channels of regularization, including those with pending or denied applications for international protection that have not been able to benefit from the different forms of rooting. The measure will be applied generally, without distinction of nationality, provided that the established requirements are met, responding to an administrative and social reality existing in our country.

This normative development benefits both working people and companies. “The worker gains rights and the entrepreneur gains legal certainty. With this measure I am convinced that we will reduce the underground economy and help break the cycle of labor exploitation,” said the minister.

The family as the axis of integration

Another of the pillars of the normative project is the protection of family unity. The process will allow the simultaneous regularization of the minor sons and daughters of the applicants who are in Spain, whose permission will be 5 years.

“We know that integration is not individual, it is family,” said Elma Saiz, stressing the importance of offering stability and rights to minors and to the life projects that are already being developed in our country.

Historical continuity

The minister has framed this measure in a long historical trajectory of Spain addressing regularization processes when the social reality has demanded it. “From 1986 to 2005, governments of different political colors have resorted to regularization processes. When social reality is ahead of bureaucracy, the responsible state is the one that acts to order it, not the one that looks the other way,” he said.

He also recalled that this initiative “takes the path marked by a citizens’ initiative backed by more than 700,000 signatures and by a very large majority of Congress”, which has remained blocked for months.

“At this point, the regulatory path is the quickest, most effective and most guaranteed way to provide an immediate, orderly and fully compliant response to the legal framework,” he concluded.

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