Arraigo Social in Spain: The Five Types and Who Qualifies

Arraigo is how somebody already living in Spain without papers can obtain temporary residence, based on the ties they have built here. It is not a visa you apply for from abroad. You apply from inside Spain, at the immigration office of the province where you live.

Two things have changed recently and most guides you will find are still describing the old rules. The Immigration Regulation approved by Royal Decree 1155/2024 came into force in May 2025 and rebuilt this whole area, and the rules were amended again by Royal Decree 316/2026, published on 15 April 2026 and in force the following day.

The five types of arraigo

There are five, not four. Many guides list four because they were written before the reform. Article 125 of the regulation lists all five.

How long each one lasts

Four of the five are granted for one year. Family arraigo is different: it is granted for five years.

Whichever route you come through, the clock starts the day you are notified. Article 130 gives you one month to apply in person for your TIE card, and in most provinces the hard part is not the paperwork but getting an appointment. The years you then spend as a legal resident are what count later towards permanent residence and Spanish nationality, so it is worth getting the first card right.

The one-off route that has already closed

Royal Decree 316/2026 also created a separate one-off route, arraigo extraordinario, added to the regulation as the twenty-first additional provision. It was open to adults who had been in Spain since before 1 January 2026, had no permit and no other application pending, and could show five continuous months in the country. The deadline to apply was 30 June 2026. That deadline has passed and the route is closed.

If you filed before the deadline, the file is still worth watching. The application came with provisional permission to live and work anywhere in Spain, and that permission holds until the decision arrives. The administration has three months to answer, and if it does not, the law treats the application as refused, which opens an appeal rather than ending the matter. A grant lasts one year, and the change to an ordinary permit has to be requested in the two months before it expires. File late, within three months of the expiry date, and the permit is still extended until the decision, although a fine can follow. After that, it lapses.

If you did not file, the five ordinary routes are what is left, and they are permanent.

The requirements everybody has to meet

Article 126 sets these out. Whatever route you use, all of these apply together.

• You must be in Spain, and not have a pending international protection application when you apply or while it is being processed.
• You must have been in Spain continuously for at least the two years before you apply. This was three years under the old rules. Family arraigo is the exception and requires no minimum stay at all.
• You must not represent a threat to public order, security or public health.
• You must have no criminal record in Spain, and none in the countries where you have lived during the five years before entering Spain, for offences recognised under Spanish law.
• You must not be listed as refused entry.
• You must not already hold a stay or residence permit, or have another application for one pending, a condition added by Royal Decree 316/2026.
• You must not be within a no-return commitment period, and you must pay the application fee.

Where people get it wrong

The two years are the part that catches most people. Continuous presence has to be proven, and the padron is the usual evidence, but a padron registration that starts late does not retroactively prove the earlier time. Medical records, school enrolment and any dealings with the administration all help, and they are worth gathering long before you need them.

The second trap is applying under the wrong route. Somebody with a job offer and a training place may qualify under two, and the requirements, the timing and the documents are not the same. Choosing badly costs months.

The third is the criminal record certificate. It has to cover the right countries and the right period, and it expires. Files are refused over a certificate that was valid when it was requested and stale by the time it was examined.

Can you do this without a lawyer?

You can. The application is made at the immigration office and there is no legal requirement to be represented.

Where a lawyer earns their fee is in the choice of route and the evidence. If you have been here for years but your paperwork does not prove it, that is the problem to solve before anything else, and it is solvable more often than people think.

Tell us how long you have been in Spain, what you can document, and whether you have work, study or family here. We will tell you which route fits, or that none of them do yet and what would change that.

Arraigo in Spain: FAQs 2026

The law itself

Everything above comes from the law, in Spanish, on the official state gazette. These are the consolidated versions, which show the current wording rather than the text as it was first published.

• Article 125, the five types of arraigo
• Article 126, the requirements everybody has to meet
• Twenty-first additional provision, arraigo extraordinario
• Royal Decree 316/2026, the amending decree

Anything you read about arraigo that does not match those articles was written before May 2025.