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Pathway

Spain Residence for People Already in Spain

Spain Residency
Pathway overview

At a glance

If you are already in Spain and are not an EU, EEA, or Swiss citizen, an arraigo route may help you qualify for residence in specific circumstances. These are not entry visas. Since May 20, 2025, the main categories are second-chance, sociolaboral, social, socioformative, and family arraigo.

Special fit
People already in Spain who fit one of the five current arraigo categories
Documents
Presence history plus the exact category's family, work, training, integration, or prior-permit records
Important limit
Most categories require 2 years' presence; family arraigo uses a narrow EU-family care basis

Summary

Spain's arraigo provisions let people already living in the country seek residence based on specified ties or circumstances; they are not entry visas for a future move. Since May 20, 2025, the ordinary categories cover second-chance residence, employment, social integration, training and a narrow family-care basis. Each requires its own history and supporting records.

Most categories require two years of qualifying presence, but that total alone is insufficient and some periods do not count. Current immigration status, pending applications and international-protection history can also affect access. Identify the exact category before collecting work, family, training or integration evidence.

Choose the ordinary arraigo category before calculating presence
  1. Identify the exact category Distinguish second-chance, sociolaboral, social, socioformative and family arraigo.
  2. Audit presence and application history Check the category’s presence rule, absences, protection proceedings, prior permits and pending applications.
  3. Meet the category-specific evidence and activation rules Use the required employment, integration, training, family or former-residence evidence and any post-approval step.

These are in-Spain categories, not entry visas. Do not combine their requirements or treat a closed extraordinary-regularization deadline as an open ordinary route.

Could this pathway work for you?

Eligibility

EEA means the EU countries plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway.

Requirements shared by the ordinary categories

An applicant generally must:

For the four categories with a two-year presence rule, time while an international-protection application was pending does not count until the rejection is final administratively and, where applicable, judicially.

The five ordinary categories

Useful presence evidence includes empadronamiento, public-health, school, municipal, court, and other dated Spanish records identifying the applicant. Each subroute needs additional evidence such as contracts, family birth, marriage, and other family records, an integration report, training enrollment, or the former permit and renewal decision.

More about this route

Most categories require at least two years of continuous presence in Spain, with absences of no more than 90 days during that period. Family arraigo has no minimum-presence period, but now covers only two narrow situations involving an EU/EEA/Swiss minor or an EU/EEA/Swiss person with a disability. Family members of Spanish citizens generally use Spain's separate family-of-a-Spanish-citizen authorization instead.

Spain also accepted extraordinary regularization applications under Royal Decree 316/2026 until 30 June 2026. That filing window is closed. A person who filed on time should follow the pending application; the temporary program is not open to a new applicant.

What This Route Allows

Second-chance, social, and sociolaboral arraigo are generally granted for one year and allow both employment and self-employment throughout Spain. Sociolaboral approval becomes effective when the worker is registered with Social Security within the required one-month period.

Socioformative arraigo is granted for one year and permits employment for up to 30 hours per week, paid at least the applicable wage in proportion to hours. Family arraigo is granted for five years. A successful applicant must normally request a TIE within one month.

Before a one-year authorization expires, the holder may need to modify into an ordinary residence-and-work authorization or meet the rules for an arraigo extension. Active job-search registration or continued training can be important, depending on the category. Lawful residence on arraigo can contribute to a later five-year long-term-residence period.

What This Route Is Not

This is not a route for applying from abroad, and two years in Spain does not by itself create eligibility. It is not accurate to use the former labels “work roots” or “training roots” without checking the post-May-2025 category rules.

It is also not a currently open extraordinary-regularization program. The 2026 special filing deadline was 30 June 2026. A pending timely application and a new ordinary arraigo application are different cases.

Next Steps

  1. Confirm whether EU free-movement rules or the separate family-of-a-Spanish-citizen authorization applies instead.
  2. Identify the exact arraigo category before collecting documents.
  3. Build a dated timeline of Spanish presence, immigration applications, protection proceedings, absences, and prior permits.
  4. Obtain the category-specific evidence: contracts and employer records, family and financial records, a social-integration report, qualifying training evidence, or the former residence and non-renewal record.
  5. Obtain required criminal-record certificates and arrange sworn translations and legalization (official checks confirming a document's origin for use abroad) or apostilles where required.
  6. File the current EX-10 process with the responsible Immigration Office or through Mercurio, and track any Social Security, enrollment, TIE, and expiry deadlines after filing.

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