The Oficina de Asilo y Refugio (OAR) processed 160,951 international-protection cases in 2025, a 67 % jump on the previous year and the largest volume since the office was created in 1992, the Interior Ministry announced on 16 January. Spain now ranks third in the EU for asylum decisions, behind Germany and France. (lamoncloa.gob.es)
Applications also remained high—144,396 new claims—driven overwhelmingly by Venezuelans, who lodged 85,413 petitions (59 % of the total). Mali was a distant second with 16,004. Refugee status was granted to 7,838 people (up 23 %), while a further 10,103 obtained subsidiary protection and 57,334—mostly Venezuelans—received humanitarian residence permits. The overall protection rate reached 46.8 %. (lamoncloa.gob.es)
Madrid accounted for 30 % of all filings, followed by Andalucía and Catalunya. Officials attribute the productivity boost to an aggressive hiring drive funded by the EU Recovery Facility and the rollout of an AI-driven triage tool that pre-sorts low-complexity cases. NGOs have applauded the faster processing times but warn that reception capacity is still stretched, particularly in Canary Islands transit centres.
![Spain’s Asylum Office breaks all-time record with 161,000 decisions in 2025]()
For travelers, expatriates and HR teams who need to secure standard Spanish visas or residence permits rather than international-protection status, VisaHQ can streamline the process with digital application tools, document checks and up-to-date consular guidance; more information is available at https://www.visahq.com/spain/.
Business-mobility impact: Asylum applicants are barred from standard work permits for their first six months in Spain, but once that period passes they can be employed. Companies facing acute labour shortages—especially in agriculture, logistics and hospitality—should monitor future reforms that might shorten this “waiting period”. The data also show Spain’s continued reliance on humanitarian visas to manage mixed migration flows, offering a legal alternative that reduces irregular entries.
Action points: global mobility teams moving staff from high-risk countries (e.g., Venezuela, Mali) should build extra time into background-check and visa processes; immigration authorities are reallocating staff to OAR, which could slow down other residence-permit departments in Q1 2026.
Applications also remained high—144,396 new claims—driven overwhelmingly by Venezuelans, who lodged 85,413 petitions (59 % of the total). Mali was a distant second with 16,004. Refugee status was granted to 7,838 people (up 23 %), while a further 10,103 obtained subsidiary protection and 57,334—mostly Venezuelans—received humanitarian residence permits. The overall protection rate reached 46.8 %. (lamoncloa.gob.es)
Madrid accounted for 30 % of all filings, followed by Andalucía and Catalunya. Officials attribute the productivity boost to an aggressive hiring drive funded by the EU Recovery Facility and the rollout of an AI-driven triage tool that pre-sorts low-complexity cases. NGOs have applauded the faster processing times but warn that reception capacity is still stretched, particularly in Canary Islands transit centres.
For travelers, expatriates and HR teams who need to secure standard Spanish visas or residence permits rather than international-protection status, VisaHQ can streamline the process with digital application tools, document checks and up-to-date consular guidance; more information is available at https://www.visahq.com/spain/.
Business-mobility impact: Asylum applicants are barred from standard work permits for their first six months in Spain, but once that period passes they can be employed. Companies facing acute labour shortages—especially in agriculture, logistics and hospitality—should monitor future reforms that might shorten this “waiting period”. The data also show Spain’s continued reliance on humanitarian visas to manage mixed migration flows, offering a legal alternative that reduces irregular entries.
Action points: global mobility teams moving staff from high-risk countries (e.g., Venezuela, Mali) should build extra time into background-check and visa processes; immigration authorities are reallocating staff to OAR, which could slow down other residence-permit departments in Q1 2026.
