Spain has taken the most ambitious step on immigration reform seen in Europe for years. On 2 February 2026, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez released a video message defending a royal-decree that will allow an estimated half-million undocumented migrants and asylum-seekers to obtain residence and work authorisation from April. The measure emerged from a Popular Legislative Initiative backed by more than 700,000 signatures, the Catholic Church and 900 civil-society organisations, and was unblocked after negotiations between Podemos and the governing Socialist Party.
Under the decree, applicants must prove they were already living in Spain—or had lodged an asylum claim—before 31 December 2025 and show a clean criminal record. Successful applicants receive a one-year residence permit that can be converted into standard immigration categories, giving them access to the formal labour market, health care and social security. Family unity is prioritised: minor children will be regularised simultaneously and issued five-year permits.
Sánchez framed the policy as a choice for “dignity, community and justice”, contrasting it with the hard-line stance of many EU partners and the United States. Advocates say regularisation will boost tax revenues, reduce labour exploitation and help fill Spain’s chronic skills gaps in agriculture, hospitality, elder-care and construction. Business groups have largely welcomed the move, noting that Spain’s working-age population is projected to contract by 800,000 over the next decade.
![Spain to grant legal status to 500,000 undocumented migrants in historic regularisation drive]()
Whether you’re an HR professional exploring newly available talent or an individual preparing to regularise your own status, VisaHQ can walk you through each administrative step. Their Spain portal (https://www.visahq.com/spain/) bundles up-to-date checklists, online application tools and multilingual support, helping users avoid common clerical mistakes and fast-track onward permits or Schengen visas once residency is secured.
Critics on the right—led by the conservative Partido Popular and the far-right Vox—accuse the government of encouraging irregular migration and engaging in “electoral engineering”. Tech billionaire Elon Musk labelled the plan “a cynical power-grab”, prompting Sánchez to retort on X: “Mars can wait—humanity can’t.” Opposition parties have threatened a constitutional challenge but legal scholars point out that successive Spanish governments, both conservative and socialist, have carried out extraordinary regularisations since 1986.
For global-mobility managers, the decree offers an unexpected talent pool inside Spain’s borders. Companies will be able to hire newly regularised workers without the red tape of work-permit sponsorship, provided they pay local wages and social-security contributions. HR teams should prepare onboarding protocols in April and May, when the first permits are issued, and monitor regional immigration offices for processing backlogs. Foreign subsidiaries operating in Spain may also need to update diversity and compliance policies to reflect the influx of new legal residents.
Under the decree, applicants must prove they were already living in Spain—or had lodged an asylum claim—before 31 December 2025 and show a clean criminal record. Successful applicants receive a one-year residence permit that can be converted into standard immigration categories, giving them access to the formal labour market, health care and social security. Family unity is prioritised: minor children will be regularised simultaneously and issued five-year permits.
Sánchez framed the policy as a choice for “dignity, community and justice”, contrasting it with the hard-line stance of many EU partners and the United States. Advocates say regularisation will boost tax revenues, reduce labour exploitation and help fill Spain’s chronic skills gaps in agriculture, hospitality, elder-care and construction. Business groups have largely welcomed the move, noting that Spain’s working-age population is projected to contract by 800,000 over the next decade.
Whether you’re an HR professional exploring newly available talent or an individual preparing to regularise your own status, VisaHQ can walk you through each administrative step. Their Spain portal (https://www.visahq.com/spain/) bundles up-to-date checklists, online application tools and multilingual support, helping users avoid common clerical mistakes and fast-track onward permits or Schengen visas once residency is secured.
Critics on the right—led by the conservative Partido Popular and the far-right Vox—accuse the government of encouraging irregular migration and engaging in “electoral engineering”. Tech billionaire Elon Musk labelled the plan “a cynical power-grab”, prompting Sánchez to retort on X: “Mars can wait—humanity can’t.” Opposition parties have threatened a constitutional challenge but legal scholars point out that successive Spanish governments, both conservative and socialist, have carried out extraordinary regularisations since 1986.
For global-mobility managers, the decree offers an unexpected talent pool inside Spain’s borders. Companies will be able to hire newly regularised workers without the red tape of work-permit sponsorship, provided they pay local wages and social-security contributions. HR teams should prepare onboarding protocols in April and May, when the first permits are issued, and monitor regional immigration offices for processing backlogs. Foreign subsidiaries operating in Spain may also need to update diversity and compliance policies to reflect the influx of new legal residents.
