Spain's 2026 extraordinary regularisation: requirements, fee and what to do after the closing

Royal Decree 316/2026 of 14 April amended the Immigration Regulation to open two new authorisations ¹:

• Extraordinary arraigo (twenty-first additional provision), for people who were in Spain before 1 January 2026.
• Arraigo for applicants for international protection (twentieth additional provision), for people who applied for asylum before 1 January 2026.

The decree was published in the BOE on 15 April 2026 ¹. Applications were received from 16 April to 30 June 2026 ²; in person, from 20 April ⁵. The Ministry of Inclusion confirms that new applications can no longer be submitted ⁴.

According to the Government's provisional figures of 2 July 2026, 1,174,978 applications arrived and 609,737 had already been processed. Of them, 79.6% were extraordinary arraigo and 20.4% were international protection ³. Colombia was the first nationality (25.9%), followed by Morocco (13.3%), Venezuela (11.8%), Peru (8.8%) and Honduras (4.9%) ³. In-person correction of applications ran until 30 September 2026 ³.

If you are in Spain without legal status and did not apply, this route no longer works for you. The arraigo authorisations of the regulation remain open, with other requirements.

Both routes share these requirements ¹:

• Be an adult and be in Spain when you apply, with no other stay or residence authorisation.
• Have no other authorisation procedure under way.
• Not hold temporary protection for displaced persons from Ukraine.
• Have stayed in Spain without interruption during the five months before the application, with any valid proof.
• Have no criminal record in Spain or in the countries where you lived during the five years before you arrived, and not be a threat to public order, security or public health ⁵.
• Not be within the period of a commitment not to return to Spain, if you signed one.
• Pay the fee.

Extraordinary arraigo also required at least one of these three grounds ^{1 2}:

Ground	What you had to show
Work	Having worked or intending to work as an employee or self-employed; contracts had to add up to more than 90 days in a year 5
Family	Living with minor children, children with a disability or parents or grandparents in the first degree of kinship
Vulnerability	A certificate from social services or from an organisation registered in the immigration collaborators' register

People who applied for international protection before 2026 did not need that second requirement ². If they are granted arraigo, they must withdraw their asylum application ¹.

People with a valid residence authorisation, or one being renewed, Ukrainians with temporary protection and stateless people were left out ².

The decree requires payment of the fee and refers its amount to Order PJC/617/2025 ¹. The Ministry's information sheet on extraordinary arraigo indicates form 790 code 052, heading 2.3.1, the one for arraigo authorisations ⁵, which costs €38.28 in that order ⁶. The fee falls due when the application is admitted for processing and is paid within the following ten working days; if you had no NIE, you did not have to pay it until it was requested with the admission notice ⁵. It is paid online or at partner banks ⁴.

The Government's note lists these documents ²:

• The official form EX-32 ⁵.
• A complete copy of your passport, registration certificate or travel document. The decree accepts a passport even if it has expired ¹.
• Proof that you were in Spain before 1 January 2026.
• Proof of continuous stay during the five months before the application.
• Criminal record certificates from Spain, from your home country and from each country where you lived during the five years before you arrived.

All documents had to be in your name and dated ². If the criminal record certificate from your country does not arrive within one month, the decree provides that the Administration requests it through diplomatic channels and suspends the deadline for up to three months ¹.

Provisional permission to work. With the notice that processing has started, you are provisionally authorised to live and work, as an employee or self-employed, in any sector and anywhere in Spain ¹. The notice states this expressly ¹. If your application is refused, you lose that authorisation automatically and, if you work as an employee, you must tell your employer ¹. If you already have an NIE and the admission notice never reached you, check infoext2 first: the admission may appear there even if you did not receive the letter. If it does not appear either, the Ministry says to report the problem at centrodeservicios.redsara.es with your file number ⁴.

Social Security number. If you did not have one, a Social Security number (NUSS) is assigned to you automatically when your application is admitted ^{4 2}.

Follow-up. Check the status of your file on the infoext2 portal of the Government Delegations. To submit documents or answer a request, use the MERCURIO platform, without an appointment, or an authorised post office ⁴. The Ministry asks you not to duplicate applications and warns that decisions do not follow a strict chronological order ⁴.

Deadline and silence. The Administration has three months from the day your application enters the register to decide and notify you. If they pass with no notification, the application is treated as refused by administrative silence ¹. That period can be suspended, for example while you are asked for documents ¹. If your case is in this situation, ask an immigration lawyer which appeal applies.

Notifications. They arrive at the address or channel you indicated. If you chose the electronic channel, check the single Authorised Electronic Address (DEHú) ⁴.

The authorisation lasts one year and lets you live and work, as an employee or self-employed, anywhere in Spain ¹. It gives you no right to live or work in other European Union countries ². Its effects count from the date you submitted the application ¹.

You have one month from the notification to apply for the Foreigner Identity Card (TIE) at the National Police ^{2 4}.

In the two months before it expires you must apply to change to another authorisation of the regulation, under article 191 ¹. If you cannot apply for that change, the decree allows the authorisation to be extended for one year if you are actively looking for work and registered with the public employment service, or if you provide a favourable integration effort report, which certifies, among other things, that you are learning the official languages ¹. In some cases there is a four-year extension without those requirements, when justified circumstances prevent you from getting a job ¹.

Minor children. Your minor children can apply in parallel for the regulation's residence authorisation for minors, with exemptions: for example, without the two years of prior stay or the means and housing requirements, although the minor must also prove five months in a row in Spain ¹. The minors' authorisations last five years, and the same easing applied to the children of people who already had residence if they applied by 30 June 2026 ⁵.

The window closed on 30 June 2026 and the Ministry does not accept new applications ⁴. The ordinary routes remain the arraigo authorisations of the Immigration Regulation: second chance, socio-labour, social, socio-training and family ⁷. All of them, except family arraigo, generally ask for two years of continuous stay in Spain ⁷. We explain them in the guide to the types of arraigo.

If you filed an ordinary arraigo application earlier, the Government said it continues its course with no additional steps ².

Before filing another application, check with an immigration lawyer whether it is better to wait for the decision, appeal or start with another route. Since 16 April 2026 the regulation prevents you from applying for an arraigo if you are already a party to another authorisation procedure ⁷.