SPAIN’s plan to grant legal status to around half a million migrants has attracted a record-breaking 900,000 applications in just two months – nearly double the government’s estimate.
Around 360,000 applications are currently being processed, authorities told El Pais, as migrants race to apply before the scheme closes on June 30.
Government sources said each application takes around three months to process and that several permits have already been approved across the country.
The regularisation scheme, which launched in mid-April, gives eligible undocumented migrants a one-year permit allowing them to live and work legally in Spain.
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The unprecedented demand means the programme is on track to eclipse Spain’s last major regularisation in 2005, when nearly 700,000 people applied and more than 570,000 obtained legal status.
Prime minister Pedro Sanchez, of left-wing PSOE, has defended the initiative as an economic necessity, arguing that hundreds of thousands of migrants are already living and working in Spain, often in informal jobs with few legal protections.
Discussing the scheme in February, one month after its official approval by parliament, Sanchez said: “Some say we’ve gone too far, that we’re going against the current.
“But I would like to ask you, when did recognising rights become something radical? When did empathy become something exceptional?”
He has since added that bringing more workers into the formal economy is expected to increase tax revenues, with studies estimating that each regularised migrant could generate a net fiscal benefit of around €4,000 through taxes and social security contributions.
The measure has received broad backing from trade unions, migrant organisations and the Catholic Church, all of whom have long argued that people already integrated into Spanish society should not remain trapped in legal limbo.
During his tour of Spain last week, Pope Leo XIV repeatedly called on Europe to show greater solidarity towards those seeking a new life on the continent.
However, the initiative has faced fierce criticism from the far-right Vox party, which claims it will encourage irregular migration.
Some members of the conservative opposition, including the Partido Popular (PP), have also voiced concerns.
Officials have nevertheless insisted that every application submitted before June 30 will be reviewed, even if processing extends well beyond the summer.
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