Spain grants temporary work permits to over 70% of migrant regularisation applicants

More than 70% of the nearly 1.2 million immigrants who applied for Spain’s extraordinary regularisation programme have been admitted to the procedure, giving them a temporary permission to live and work while their cases are decided. The Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration said 608,000 applications have been admitted and at least 12,000 have already been approved. The programme attracted 1,174,978 requests, with 67% of applicants from Central and South America. Colombia accounts for 26% of the applications, followed by Morocco (13.4%), Venezuela (11.7%) and Peru (8.8%). Eighty‑one percent of the applicants are under 45 years old and 43% are women.

The government’s planned immigration conference was cancelled after the opposition‑led regional governments boycotted it, leaving the meeting without a quorum. To cope with the backlog, the Ministry has asked immigration offices to process dossiers voluntarily, offering €10 per file and budgeting about €2.6 million for roughly 250,000 cases.

Police estimates suggest around 400,000 applicants may not have met the five‑month residency requirement, indicating a “call effect”. A July poll found 63.9% of Spaniards believe the regularisation will encourage more arrivals, with opinions split along party lines.