This week, migrants in Spain began applying in person to regularize their status after the government launched an amnesty measure that could affect hundreds of thousands of undocumented people living and working in the country.

The program was announced in January and finalized this month. It offers immigrants without legal status a one-year, renewable residence permit if they have spent five months living in the country and have a clean criminal record. They have until the end of June to apply.

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Who can apply and how?

The measure is aimed at people who applied for international protection before January 1, 2026 and foreign nationals in an irregular situation who arrived in Spain before that date.

Not everyone can apply. The scheme excludes people who already hold, or are already applying for, a residence or stay authorization, as well as current or former beneficiaries of temporary protection.

To qualify, applicants must show they have lived continuously in Spain for five months, have no relevant criminal record, and pay the 38.28-euro fee. They also must not be subject to a non-return commitment or be considered a threat to public order, national security or public health.

Applicants must provide an identity document, a criminal record certificate, proof of five months’ residence in Spain and proof of payment of the fee. Depending on their situation, they must also file either Form EX31 or Form EX32 and submit additional supporting documents.

Applications can be filed online or in person by appointment at immigration offices, Social Security offices and Correos branches (post offices). Once processing begins, the applicant is provisionally authorized to reside and work in Spain while the case is under review.

If the application is approved, the person receives a one-year residence and work authorization, followed by issuance of the foreigner's identity document TIE (Tarjeta de Identidad de Extranjero) one month later, although some applicants must first withdraw an international protection claim.

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Overstretched services

There have been questions about the short window to process what Spain's government has said could include 500,000 migrants, and which Spanish think tank Funcas estimates is around 840,000 people. Over 370 post offices opened their doors to applicants and the government has said they can also apply at 60 social security offices and a handful of migration offices. Online applications started last Thursday, April 16.

The scale of the program is expected to put heavy pressure on public services as hundreds of thousands of people try to apply before the deadline. Nonprofits and collaborating organizations assisting migrants with paperwork and online filing have also warned that they are struggling to keep up with demand.

However, applicants at post offices in the capital, Madrid, and Barcelona described a process without incident, though some criticized long wait times even with appointments. "It's pretty simple since I made an appointment online and I was given one for this morning," Nubia Rivas, a 47-year-old Venezuelan migrant who filed her application at a post office in downtown Madrid, told the AP news agency. "The process here is a little slow, but it's fluid."

Venezuelan migrant Johana Moreno showed up to a post office in central Madrid with her husband. She said she was an archivist in Venezuela, but now works cleaning homes. "It's what we want," Moreno said about legalizing her status. "To be well, to work, to contribute, all those things. To pay our taxes. We know that we’ll have rights, but also we’ll have obligations."

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who leads the center-left Spanish Socialist Workers Party, has called the measure "an act of justice and a necessity," arguing that those already living and working in Spain should "do so under equal conditions" and pay taxes.

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Economic arguments for migration

With an aging population, the government says Spain needs more workers to maintain its growing economy and contribute to social security. Spain’s position sharply differs from prevailing attitudes on migration in Europe, where many governments have been trying to curb arrivals and step up deportations -- despite facing significant labor shortages. The Spanish government has defended the legalization measure as an economic one that has the support of business owners and unions.

In recent years, Spain’s foreign-born population has grown considerably to nearly 10 million people -- roughly one in five residents was born outside the country. Many are from Colombia, Venezuela and Morocco, having fled poverty, violence or political instability. Key sectors of the Spanish economy, including agriculture, tourism and the service sector, depend on immigrants from Latin America and Africa.

This is not the first time Spain has used large-scale regularization to bring undocumented migrants into the legal system. The country carried out six such programs between 1986 and 2005, granting legal status at different moments under both Socialist and conservative governments, often in response to labor demand, a growing informal economy and the difficulty of managing a large population already living and working in Spain without papers.

On Thursday, 25-year-old Moroccan migrant Mourad El-Shaky described waiting in line outside Barcelona's City Hall for four hours to obtain the paperwork needed to apply. El-Shaky told the AP news agency that he came to Spain via Turkey, having journeyed all the way west by foot despite the short distance between Spain and Morocco. The legalization measure, he said, would "solve many things." "Without papers...your hands are tied," El-Shaky said. "You’re like a bird that can’t fly, with broken wings."

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With AP

Note: A correction was made to this article on May 11 to clarify that Spain's foreign-born population has now risen to nearly 10 million.