The midnight deadline of 30 September brought Spain’s largest ever mass-regularisation programme to a close, with 1,174,978 applications logged, according to preliminary figures released on 1 October. The scheme, created by the April overhaul of the Immigration Regulation, allowed most undocumented migrants who could prove residence before 1 January 2026 to request work and residence permits online. While NGOs welcomed the scale of participation, opposition parties criticised the government for refusing to disclose how many cases have already been rejected or declared inadmissible. Pressed at a morning briefing, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said publication of detailed statistics “could prejudice individual privacy and ongoing adjudications,” adding that final approval rates would be released “once the initial screening phase concludes in December.” For HR departments this opacity complicates workforce-planning. Many employers—particularly in hospitality, agriculture and elder care—conditioned job offers on the expectation that applicants would receive permits within 90 days. Lawyers now warn that background-check bottlenecks in police databases could push adjudication into early 2027, creating a grey zone where applicants can legally remain in Spain but cannot yet work. The Interior Ministry has authorised regional offices to issue six-month provisional work authorisations once biometric appointments are completed, but practitioners report uneven implementation. Companies are advised to track individual file numbers through the MERCURIO portal and to budget for legal follow-up if cases stagnate beyond statutory deadlines. Politically, the secrecy over rejection rates risks fuelling the parliamentary debate ahead of the Senate vote on a parallel bill that would tighten border-expulsion powers. Transparency advocates are calling for monthly dashboards to reassure the public that the process is rigorous and to give businesses reliable timelines.
Source: La Razón
