Las solicitudes para residir y trabajar en España crecen cerca del 50% desde la entrada en vigor del nuevo Reglamento de la Ley de Extranjería

The new Regulation on Foreigners (Reloex) is one year since its publication in the Official State Gazette on November 20, 2024, just one day after its approval by the Council of Ministers.

Despite the fact that its entry into force took place six months later, on May 20, 2025, it is already possible to carry out some analysis and draw conclusions about the impact that its main measures are having on the Spanish migratory reality.

One of the most important is the increase in applications for residence permits, both initial and renewal or long-term. Thus, it has gone from 495,000 in the period between January 1 and May 20, the date of entry into force of Reloex, to 724,000, from then until October 31. This represents an increase of almost 50%.

The new Regulation of the Law on Foreigners took into account the demands of our labor market, the needs of migrants and the demographic challenges of our country; for which it has reduced deadlines and procedures, eliminated duplication and strengthened the rights of workers, as well as providing various guarantees to contracting companies.

New figures of rooting and homogenization of deadlines

The new Regulation on Foreigners establishes five deep-rooted figures, defining and creating new categories: second chance, socio-labour, social, socio-training and family. In addition to this configuration, it reduces and homogenizes the continuous residence time in Spain required for all types of rooting, going from three years to two, except for family rooting that does not present this requirement.

It also applies much more flexible renewal requirements to those of the initial authorisation and those given up to now. Thus, the renovation allows applicants to reside and work for four more years.

Six months after the entry into force of the new Reloex, the data support the consolidation of a standard that aims to improve the integration of people and insertion into our labor market.

Thus, during the period from 20 May to 31 October, 95,000 people have been regularized by some of these means of settlement.

The new residence authorization for relatives of people with Spanish nationality

The approval of the new Reloex has also brought significant changes in the regulation of the specific regime for the relatives of people with Spanish nationality. A new residence permit is created for family members of people with Spanish nationality, which replaces the one related to family roots that was included in the previous regulation.

Among others, it extended family ties that allow access to this authorization to include sons and daughters until the age of 26, while the previous regulations only allowed until the age of 21. It also included the stable couple with whom a conjugal relationship is maintained at the level of the spouse or domestic partner, and other dependants in the country of origin as sister cousins, for example.

The regulation also eliminated the requirement to prove financial means (except in dependants) or health care insurance as required by Royal Decree 240/2007, of February 16, applied until then.

From the beginning of 2025, until the entry into force of the new regulation, 58,000 applications for family roots were submitted. Subsequently, between May and October 2025, once the new Reloex is in force, the number of applications for the new residence authorization for relatives of people of Spanish nationality has reached the figure of 102,000 (+74.5%).

Flexibilization in the authorization for studies

Changes in the regulations have also improved many of the aspects related to study authorization. One of the most relevant is that for higher studies the norm grants an authorization that remains in force for the same duration of the studies, which means that if, for example, the student is going to take undergraduate studies, his authorization will remain in force for four years.

On the other hand, it introduces the possibility of that authorization starting one month before the start of classes and extending fifteen days after its completion, allowing students to have some margin to organize their life in Spain and enough time to be able to return comfortably to their country.

In the same line of flexibility, the visa for students has become valid as its authorization (with a maximum of one year by community regulations). Until the approval of the new regulation, the validity was for three months. This improvement introduced by Reloex allows students who do not yet have a Foreign Identity Card (TIE) to travel to their country for holiday periods without requesting a return authorization, since the visa remains in force.

In the year 2025, until May 20, more than 32,000 applications for authorization to stay for studies were submitted, while from that date until October 31, 93,000 have been submitted. In this case, the comparison responds mainly to the fact that the registrations are carried out, mostly, between the months of June and September.

Compatibility of working as an employed and self-employed person

The new regulation allows people to work as a main activity and combine it with self-employment to make the exercise of the work activity more flexible. The regulation also clearly regulates the reasons for the change of employer and provides that it may be possible to change employers from three months onwards voluntarily.

The new Aliens Regulation has also incorporated positive changes for the authorization of residence and work in seasonal activities that now offers four years of validity, allowing a maximum period of nine months per year to work, thus aligning itself with the Seasonal Directive. The rule also introduces greater guarantees in the rights of these workers.

Improvements in circular migration

The new Regulation on Foreigners has also improved the planning and management of collective circular migration of contracts of origin, simplifying procedures and strengthening the rights and guarantees of working people.

The new regulation of collective management includes in the regulation aspects of the procedure that were previously in the annual order, in order to improve the guarantees and rights throughout this process to ensure that the contracts in origin are produced following the criteria of fair contracting.

Greater guarantees for minors residing in Spain

Also in the section that affects minors, the new Regulation on Foreigners has meant some relevant changes. Thus, currently, the authorization of temporary residence of the accompanied foreign minor born in Spain is valid for five years from the date of resolution, after which it will be possible to apply for long-term residence.

On the other hand, the authorization of minors would not be linked to the type of authorization held by their parents, preventing them from being in an irregular situation as a result of their parents having fallen into such a situation.

Exceptional circumstances for victims of gender and sexual violence

The new Regulation on Foreigners, in force since 20 May 2025, extended the guarantees in exceptional circumstances. In this framework, it expanded the way in which the victim of gender violence was accredited, created the authorization for exceptional circumstances for victims of sexual violence and included the issuance of a temporary residence authorization for exceptional circumstances (for humanitarian reasons) to the ascendants of women victims of gender violence and sexual violence.