Spain's 2026 extraordinary regularisation (arraigo extraordinario): window closed and what happens now

Updated on 27 September 2026. The deadline for applying for this authorisation ended on 30 June 2026 and has not been extended. We have revised the article against the final text published in the BOE (Spain's Official State Gazette), which corrects several points in the January announcement, and added what matters now: pending applications, the residence card, refusals and what to do when the first year ends.

The so-called 'one-off' residence authorisation for exceptional circumstances is the route of Spain's 2026 extraordinary regularisation. Its official name is 'autorización de residencia temporal por circunstancias excepcionales por razón de arraigo extraordinario' (temporary residence authorisation for exceptional circumstances on grounds of extraordinary roots) and it is governed by the twenty-first additional provision (DA 21.ª) of the Reglamento de Extranjería (Immigration Regulations, Royal Decree 1155/2024). It was introduced by Royal Decree 316/2026 of 14 April, in force since 16 April 2026, under article 31.3 of Organic Law 4/2000 (the Immigration Act). The same reform created a parallel route (DA 20.ª) for people who had applied for international protection before 1 January 2026; here we focus on arraigo extraordinario.

We published the first version of this article in February, when only the Government's announcement existed, and the text finally approved changed some important details. With the window now closed, it serves mainly as a guide for people who applied and as a reference for those who did not manage to.

Every case is different. If your file has any complication (a criminal or police record, an expulsion order, a request for documents you do not understand), it is worth reviewing it calmly before taking any step.

Position at 27 September 2026

• New applications are no longer possible. The window ran from 16 April to 30 June 2026 (DA 21.ª, paragraph 6). No extension has been published in the BOE and the official portal of the Ministerio de Inclusión (Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration) treats the process as closed.
• Volume. According to the Government's update of 2 July 2026, 1,174,978 applications were filed (79.6% under arraigo extraordinario), 202,424 of them in the Community of Madrid.
• Requests for further documents. If you have been asked for documents, provide them within the deadline stated in the request (15 days at most); otherwise your application is treated as withdrawn and the file is closed. The preferred channel is the Mercurio online platform. In-person delivery at designated Correos (post office) branches was extended until 30 September 2026; after that date, follow the instructions in your own request.
• Decisions. They are being notified gradually, through the channel you chose (by post or through the Dirección Electrónica Habilitada Única, DEHú, the Government's electronic notification inbox).
• Legal challenges to the Royal Decree. The Valencian regional government, the Autonomous Community of Aragon and other appellants have challenged it before the Tribunal Supremo (Supreme Court), which has refused to suspend it as an interim measure, as reported by the Consejo General del Poder Judicial (General Council of the Judiciary) on 8 July 2026. The ruling on the merits is pending and, in the meantime, the rules apply as normal.

Nobody can process an application for you outside the deadline. If someone asks you for money to 'get into' the regularisation now, be wary: the Ministry itself warns about these scams.

What the rules required

Common requirements (all had to be met)

• Having been in Spain before 1 January 2026.
• Being an adult, being in Spain when applying and not holding a stay or residence authorisation, nor being a party to another procedure to obtain, extend, renew or change one.
• Not holding, and never having held, temporary protection (the status granted to people displaced from Ukraine).
• Providing a passport, cédula de inscripción (registration document) or travel document, valid or expired.
• Having stayed in Spain uninterruptedly for the five months before applying, shown by any evidence bearing your details and a date (the municipal register or padrón, medical reports, tenancy agreements, tickets in your name, etc.).
• Having no criminal record in Spain or in the countries where you lived during the five years before entering Spain, for offences that are also crimes under Spanish law (art. 126.d of the Regulations). You had to provide a criminal record certificate from your country of origin and from those countries of residence (DA 21.ª, paragraph 9). Records in Spain that can be expunged are disregarded, but you must apply to have them expunged before the decision is notified to you.
• Not posing a threat to public order, public security or public health. Having entries in the police report does not in itself lead to refusal: the authorities must assess each case.
• Not being listed as a person to be refused entry in countries with which Spain has an agreement to that effect, and not being within the period of a commitment not to return.
• Paying the €38.28 fee (form 790, code 052), once a NIE (foreigner identity number) has been assigned following admission of the application.

Plus at least one of these three circumstances

1. Work. Having worked in Spain, as an employee or self-employed, or showing an intention to work through a job offer or, if self-employed, a signed declaration. Any type of contract counts if the contract, or the contracts together, exceed 90 days in a year.
2. Family unit. Living in Spain with minor children, adult children with a disability requiring support or who cannot look after themselves because of their health, or first-degree ascendants (parents).
3. Vulnerability, proven by a certificate on the official form from social services or from third-sector organisations listed in the Registro Electrónico de Colaboradores de Extranjería (Electronic Register of Immigration Collaborators, Order ISM/164/2026). According to the guidance of the Dirección General de Gestión Migratoria (Directorate-General for Migration Management), trade unions listed in that register could also issue it. The rules define vulnerability by how an irregular status affects your living conditions or access to rights, but do not presume it: without a certificate it was not enough.

What we have corrected from the February version

If you applied: what happens now

You can work while you wait

From the notice that processing has started (admission of the application) you are provisionally authorised to live and work, as an employee or self-employed, anywhere in Spain and in any sector. Filing the application was not enough: the authorisation starts with that notice, which assigns you a NIE and, if you did not have one, a Social Security number. If the authorisation is granted, its effects are backdated to the application date.

If you have not yet received that notice, when it arrives you will have ten working days to pay the €38.28 fee and submit the receipt (preferably through Mercurio). According to the Ministry, if you do not do so in time, your application will be treated as withdrawn and the file closed.

Three months to decide, and what happens if there is no answer

The authorities have three months to decide and notify from the date the application entered the register of the competent body. The period is suspended in the cases set out in article 22 of Law 39/2015 of 1 October on the Common Administrative Procedure of Public Administrations, for example while your criminal record from your country of origin is requested through diplomatic channels. If the period passes without an answer, the application is deemed refused by administrative silence.

Many applications filed in June have already passed that point or soon will. The Dirección General de Gestión Migratoria clarified in a guidance note of 22 July 2026 that silence does not cancel your provisional authorisation: you can keep living and working until an express decision is notified to you. Silence only allows you to appeal, and the authorities remain obliged to decide. According to that guidance note, the remedy against silence is a recurso de alzada (appeal to a higher administrative authority), which can be lodged at any time until an express decision arrives (art. 122.1 of Law 39/2015). Appealing against silence is an option, not an obligation; it is best assessed case by case.

If it is granted

• You must apply for your Tarjeta de Identidad de Extranjero (TIE) (foreigner identity card) in person, by appointment at a police station, within one month of notification. According to the Ministry's technical guide, the TIE is not conditional on being registered with Social Security, even if you qualified through a job offer.
• The authorisation lasts one year, lets you live and work as an employee or self-employed anywhere in Spain, and you can change employer. It is valid only in Spain: it does not allow you to live or work in other EU countries.
• If you had open expulsion or return proceedings for irregular stay or working without authorisation, approval means they are closed and, where applicable, the order is revoked.

If it is refused

• You automatically lose the provisional authorisation to work. If you are employed, you must tell your employer about the decision immediately.
• Watch the deadline to leave. The decision includes a warning that you must leave Spain within the period it sets, at most 15 days from notification (extendable to 90 days only in exceptional circumstances), unless you hold another authorisation that allows you to stay (art. 24 of the Regulations). If you do not leave, the rules on irregular stay apply and expulsion proceedings may be opened (arts. 53.1.a and 57.1 of the Immigration Act).
• You can appeal, but the deadline is short. The decision must state which appeal is available, before which body and within what period (art. 88.3 of Law 39/2015). The refusals made public so far state that they do not end the administrative route and that a recurso de alzada before the Secretaría de Estado de Migraciones (State Secretariat for Migration) can be lodged within one month from the day after notification (arts. 121 and 122 of Law 39/2015), in line with the guidance note of 22 July 2026. Follow the section of your decision on available appeals and lodge the appeal within that month: if you let it pass, the refusal becomes final. If the alzada is dismissed, you can go to the contentious-administrative courts (Law 29/1998 of 13 July on the Contentious-Administrative Jurisdiction). The ninth additional provision of the Regulations states, as a general rule, that decisions on residence authorisations end the administrative route; a lawyer can assess that point in your case, but it is no reason to let the month pass.
• Appealing does not in itself suspend the decision or the deadline to leave (art. 117 of Law 39/2015). You can ask for suspension in the appeal itself; if there is no answer within one month of your request, it is deemed granted.
• Read the grounds carefully. If it is refused because you did not meet a requirement, you can challenge that with arguments and evidence, although in an administrative appeal documents you could have provided during the procedure but did not may be disregarded (art. 118.1 of Law 39/2015).
• A closure of the file for withdrawal (archivo por desistimiento, for example because you did not answer a request for documents) is not a refusal: it can only be challenged by appealing against that decision, and it is worth having it reviewed straight away, because the application window will not reopen.
• Also consider whether you fit another route, such as ordinary arraigo once you meet its residence period.

Your family

Your spouse, registered partner and first-degree ascendants (parents) who were part of your household could apply at the same time as you, and the applications are decided together; but each of them had to meet the requirements, including the cut-off date and the five months. Minor children, or adult children with a disability, applied under articles 159 or 160 of the Regulations with more flexible requirements (first transitional provision of Royal Decree 316/2026): under article 160, without the two years' residence or the financial means and housing, but with five months of uninterrupted stay.

After the first year: modification or extension

This is the step most worth preparing for. Under paragraph 10 of DA 21.ª, you have three options:

1. Modification, the normal route. In the two months before expiry you must apply to change your authorisation under article 191 of the Regulations; if you apply in time, the authorisation remains valid until a decision is made. Applications are also accepted in the three months after expiry, although you risk a penalty (art. 52.b of the Immigration Act). After one year of residence, article 191.3 requires the renewal requirements for employment (art. 80) or self-employment (art. 86): for example, continuing in the same job, or having worked at least three months per year and having a new contract, among other cases. The new authorisation lasts four years.
2. Exceptional one-year extension, if you cannot apply for modification. You must show active job seeking and registration with the public employment service, or provide an integration effort report from your regional government (in Madrid, the Community of Madrid) recommending the extension and certifying, among other things, that you are learning the official languages.
3. Four-year extension without those requirements, where justified reasons prevent you from working: serious illness or disability affecting you, your spouse, a minor child or an adult child who cannot look after themselves because of their health, or having reached the legal retirement age.

Authorisations granted in 2026 will expire during 2027. What you do this year counts: working and paying Social Security contributions, registering as a job seeker if you are out of work, training and learning the language.

If you did not apply

• The window will not reopen unless new rules are approved, and none exist at this date.
• The ordinary arraigo routes remain open (second chance, social-employment, social, social-training and family). They generally require two years of continuous residence, except family arraigo, which has no minimum period, plus the other requirements of articles 126 and 127 of the Regulations. We explain them in our article on the new 2026 immigration rules.
• If you had a pending arraigo or other exceptional-circumstances application (except the humanitarian ones under article 128.1) filed between 20 May 2025 and 15 April 2026, the second transitional provision of Royal Decree 316/2026 allows it to be decided with only the common requirements of DA 21.ª (including the cut-off date). According to the Ministry, this also applies to pending appeals against a refusal.

If you have an application in progress, have received a refusal or want to start preparing the 2027 modification now, you can book an immigration consultation and we will review your file with you.

Legislation and sources

• Royal Decree 316/2026 of 14 April (BOE)
• Immigration Regulations, approved by Royal Decree 1155/2024 (consolidated text, BOE)
• Organic Law 4/2000, Immigration Act (consolidated text, BOE)
• Law 39/2015 of 1 October on the Common Administrative Procedure of Public Administrations (consolidated text, BOE)
• Law 29/1998 of 13 July on the Contentious-Administrative Jurisdiction (consolidated text, BOE)
• Order PJC/617/2025 on immigration fees (consolidated text, BOE)
• Official extraordinary regularisation portal (Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration)
• Guidance note of the Directorate-General for Migration Management on the validity of the provisional authorisation (22 July 2026)
• Update on the extraordinary regularisation (La Moncloa, 2 July 2026)
• CGPJ note on the Supreme Court challenges to the regularisation Royal Decree (8 July 2026)