Only hours after the government unveiled its large-scale migrant-regularisation plan, Spain’s largest civil-service union, CSIF, called for an emergency meeting with the Ministry of Territorial Policy to address what it calls an impending “administrative bottleneck”. In a statement released at midday on 4 February 2026, CSIF demanded a permanent head-count increase in Spain’s 52 Foreigners’ Offices (Oficinas de Extranjería) and the deployment of digital-workflow tools to cope with a surge of applications expected in the second quarter.
Union representatives note that the 2025 reform of the Immigration Regulation already added thousands of work-authorisation renewals to staff workloads. Temporary hires brought in last spring have since expired, leaving many offices operating at 75 % of recommended staffing levels. In Madrid, appointments for residence-card renewals are currently being scheduled six weeks out—well beyond the legal limit of 30 days.
![Civil-Service Union Warns of Extranjería Backlog Ahead of Mass Regularisation]()
CSIF warns that without a clear hiring plan the new regularisation window could lead to “collapse”, causing legitimate applicants to miss deadlines and undermining public confidence in the policy. The union also wants the Interior Ministry to commit police resources to fingerprinting centres so that residence-cards (TIEs) can be issued within the statutory 40-day period.
At moments like this, outsourcing the paperwork to specialists can save crucial time. VisaHQ, for instance, offers end-to-end support for visas and residence documents, from document pre-checks to securing appointment slots and tracking applications through a single online dashboard—services that help applicants and employers avoid exactly the delays now feared. Find out more at https://www.visahq.com/spain/
For HR teams the alert is a practical reminder: even though the legal framework is in place, operational delays could affect onboarding schedules, project start-dates and international business travel. Companies are advised to book cita-previa appointments as soon as portals open and to budget extra time for biometrics.
Union representatives note that the 2025 reform of the Immigration Regulation already added thousands of work-authorisation renewals to staff workloads. Temporary hires brought in last spring have since expired, leaving many offices operating at 75 % of recommended staffing levels. In Madrid, appointments for residence-card renewals are currently being scheduled six weeks out—well beyond the legal limit of 30 days.
CSIF warns that without a clear hiring plan the new regularisation window could lead to “collapse”, causing legitimate applicants to miss deadlines and undermining public confidence in the policy. The union also wants the Interior Ministry to commit police resources to fingerprinting centres so that residence-cards (TIEs) can be issued within the statutory 40-day period.
At moments like this, outsourcing the paperwork to specialists can save crucial time. VisaHQ, for instance, offers end-to-end support for visas and residence documents, from document pre-checks to securing appointment slots and tracking applications through a single online dashboard—services that help applicants and employers avoid exactly the delays now feared. Find out more at https://www.visahq.com/spain/
For HR teams the alert is a practical reminder: even though the legal framework is in place, operational delays could affect onboarding schedules, project start-dates and international business travel. Companies are advised to book cita-previa appointments as soon as portals open and to budget extra time for biometrics.
