What changed in 2025
Royal Decree 1155/2024 approved a new Immigration Regulation that came into force on 20 May 2025 and rewrote arraigo from scratch. Three changes matter to almost everyone:
- Prior residence dropped from three years to two. That single change brings legal status forward by a full year.
- The old «arraigo laboral» is gone. Its ground is now covered by two separate routes: arraigo sociolaboral, built on an employment contract, and arraigo de segunda oportunidad, for people who held a permit and lost it.
- Every arraigo permit allows work, employed or self-employed, anywhere in Spain and in any occupation. The only exception is the training route, capped at thirty hours a week as an employee.
In April 2026 a second amendment, Royal Decree 316/2026, added a general requirement: you cannot hold another residence or stay permit, and you cannot be a party to another pending procedure about one.
The five routes
Arraigo social
Two years in Spain plus family ties with legal residents (spouse, registered partner or first-degree relative) and means of at least 100 % of the IPREM. Without those ties, an official integration report from the region replaces them.
Arraigo sociolaboral
One or more employment contracts adding up to at least twenty hours a week, paying the statutory minimum wage or the collective agreement rate. Once the application is admitted, you are provisionally allowed to work while it is decided.
Arraigo familiar
Parent or guardian of a minor who is a national of another EU, EEA or Swiss state, or carer of a relative with a disability of that nationality. No minimum prior residence and the permit lasts five years, not one.
Arraigo socioformativo
Enrolment in regulated training or in training promoted by the public employment services. Allows employed work up to thirty hours a week while you study.
Segunda oportunidad
For those who held a residence permit in the two years before applying and could not renew it for reasons other than public order, security or health.
Extraordinary arraigo
The one-off regularisation of transitional provision 21 closed on 30 June 2026 and was not extended. Files submitted in time are still being decided.
Full detail on each route, article by article, is on the Spanish pages: comparison of the five types.
General requirements, applying to every route
Article 126 of the Regulation lists them and they are cumulative, meaning all of them at once:
- Be in Spain when you apply, and not have a pending international protection claim.
- Two years of continuous residence in Spain immediately before applying. Family arraigo is the only exception, with no minimum.
- No threat to public order, security or public health.
- No criminal record in Spain or in the countries you lived in during the five years before entering Spain, for offences that exist under Spanish law.
- Not be listed as inadmissible in countries with which Spain has an agreement to that effect.
- Not be within a commitment period not to return to Spain.
- The processing fee paid.
- No other stay or residence permit, and no other pending procedure about one. This last one was added in April 2026.
How the procedure runs
No visa is required. The application is filed in person at the immigration office, or electronically, with a full copy of your passport, the employment contract where one is required, and the evidence of the specific situation you are relying on. You also need a criminal record certificate from the countries where you lived during the five years before entering Spain, legalised and translated.
The immigration office requests the Spanish criminal record report and the police report on its own initiative. If your file is incomplete, you get a request to remedy it with a deadline that cannot exceed fifteen days; missing that deadline means the file is closed as withdrawn, and it is the most common way good cases die.
Once granted, you have one month to apply in person for the TIE, the foreigner identity card. You can follow the file online without calling anyone.
Where people get it wrong
Filing before the two years are properly documented. Continuity is proved with the historical padrón certificate, medical records, school enrolment, bank transfers and tenancy agreements. A recent padrón certificate with nothing behind it does not prove two years of actual residence.
Requesting the integration report too late. In the Valencian Community it is issued through the town hall where you are registered, and the authority has one month from the request. If it does not arrive on time and you can prove that, the requirement can be met by any other valid evidence.
Leaving another file open. Since April 2026 that breaches a general requirement. Before applying, check that no earlier application is still technically alive, including ones you had forgotten about.
Want us to check your case first?
Registered gestora, ICGA Valencia. We review the requirements and the paperwork before anything is filed. First consultation is free.
Frequently asked questions
How long must I have lived in Spain to apply for arraigo?
Two years of continuous residence immediately before the application, under article 126 of the Regulation. Before 20 May 2025 it was three. Family arraigo requires no minimum period at all.
Can I work with an arraigo permit?
Yes. Every arraigo permit allows employed and self-employed work anywhere in Spain and in any occupation. The training route is the only one capped, at thirty hours a week as an employee.
Does «arraigo laboral» still exist?
Not under that name. The current Regulation replaced it with arraigo sociolaboral, based on employment contracts, and arraigo de segunda oportunidad, for people who previously held a permit.
Can I apply if I have an asylum claim pending?
No, not while the international protection file is unresolved. Time spent while the asylum claim is being processed also does not count towards the two years.
Is the extraordinary regularisation still open?
No. It closed on 30 June 2026 and was not extended. The ordinary arraigo routes remain open and now require only two years of residence.
Legal basis
- Organic Law 4/2000 on the rights and freedoms of foreign nationals in Spain
- Royal Decree 1155/2024, Regulation implementing Organic Law 4/2000 (consolidated text)
- Royal Decree 316/2026 amending the immigration Regulation
- Order PJC/617/2025 setting immigration and foreigners' fees
- Law 39/2015 on Common Administrative Procedure, art. 14 on electronic dealings with the administration
Official sources
- Ministerio de Inclusión: hoja 28, arraigo social
- Ministerio de Inclusión: hoja 29, arraigo sociolaboral
- Ministerio de Inclusión: hoja 31, arraigo familiar
- Catálogo de procedimientos de Extranjería
- Consulta del estado de tramitación de expedientes
Written by Irina Klein. Reviewed by Elena Alonso Volostnova, registered gestora administrativa (ICGA Valencia). Updated on 19 August 2026. This page is general information and does not replace personalised advice on your case.