Spain issues over 800,000 provisional work-and-residence permits under the extraordinary regularisation drive

Spain’s Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration confirmed on 24 July that 822,000 migrants have already received provisional authorisation to live and work in the country under the extraordinary regularisation programme that closed to new applications on 30 June. According to Minister Elma Saiz, the government has now admitted 70 % of the 1.17 million files submitted, giving their holders immediate labour-market access while final checks continue. The scale of the regularisation has exceeded initial forecasts—Madrid had expected around half a million applications—and is already visible in labour-market data: foreign workers accounted for almost half of all new Social-Security registrations in May and a third in June, pushing total contributors to an all-time high of 24.4 million. Officials say the measure is easing recruitment bottlenecks in agriculture, hospitality and elder-care, sectors that have struggled to fill vacancies despite record domestic employment. For employers, the new permits remove a major compliance headache. Migrant staff who were previously irregular can now be hired on regular contracts, enrolled in Social Security and moved onto standard payroll platforms. Multinationals operating shared-service centres in Spain report an immediate drop in “shadow” contractors and a faster onboarding process for talent recruited through community groups and NGOs. The Ministry insists that the permits are provisional and will be revoked if final background checks uncover disqualifying criminal records or fraudulent documents. Nevertheless, immigration lawyers say the risk of later cancellation is low provided applicants supplied authentic police clearances and proof of residence. They advise companies to treat the provisional cards as equivalent to full work authorisations for right-to-work checks but to diarise the expiry date so renewals can be chased once definitive approvals are issued. With more than 350,000 new foreign contributors in a year, Spain now relies on migrant labour for 15.3 % of its workforce. The business community is therefore urging the government to institutionalise periodic regularisation schemes so that economic migrants who integrate informally do not remain in the underground economy for years.