Contributed by: Andrés de Ceballos Cabrillo & Cristina García Escudero
June 2022 to April 2023
1. Legislative Changes
The main reform of the Spanish legislation on migration, and probably the more important in the last ten years, has been the Reform of Royal Decree 557/2011 operated by R.D. 629/2022.
The reform covers the following topics:
- Students:
No need for working authorization for university students or similar.
Working hours cannot be more than 30 hours per week.
The income from work will be considered for the residency.
- Family reunion
Economic requirements will not be absolute and other means and situation can be considered.
The family reunion permit will permit allow work from the first entry.
- National Employment Situation
There have been some suggestions to make the list of shortage occupations more agile and effective.
- Renewal of temporary residency and work for a third party
The required working months necessary for residence renewal has been reduced from six to three.
Possibility of renewal for an indefinite period for workers who are the victim of gender-based violence.
Renewal system change from 1+2+2 years to 1+4 years. Possibility of working as self-employed after renewal.
- Self-employment
Economic requirements have been lowered.
Renewal system change from 1+2+2 years to 1+4 years. Possibility of working for a third party after renewal.
- Routes
Work routes (2 years legal/illegal residency plus one year working)
The contract could be 30 hours p.w. or 20 hours p.w. (workers with minors)
The foreigner should be illegally in Spain (Situation of the asylum seekers- challenge in the Supreme Court)
Social route (three years illegal residency)
No major changes.
Family route
Inclusion of ascendants, descendants, and other figures (tutors, kafala, …)
Problem of compatibility with the family of EU citizens for Spanish nationals who have not exercised their EU free movement rights .
Formation route (New concept)
Two years of previous legal or illegal residency.
Allows a 12 month permit to follow official studies.
Possibility of one renewal for a year.
After the year the applicant can present a contract to obtain a residency.
Not a lot of success for the moment, just one permit given.
Collaboration with working authorities
The permit will be given by the central administration and by the Delegations or sub delegations of the Government.
- Withdrawal of Long-term residency.
Possibility of withdrawal of LTR when a foreigner is condemned of crimes of human trafficking and against the rights of foreign citizens.
Withdrawal should be made according to the specific circumstances, following the case law of the CJEU.
Finally, the regulation creates the UTEX office (Unidad de Tramitación de Expedientes de Extranjeria), The idea of this office is to help Immigration Offices all around Spain which are overloaded the work. It will be in Vigo (Galicia)
Another legal change in relation with migration has been the sports law: illegal minors are no longer allowed to play in competitions
2. Business Immigration
The law 11/2023 is an omnibus law which make transposition of some directives in various areas including highly skilled immigration.
The change is the creation of a new category Professionals with EU-Blue card, which was not included in the Spanish system until now. All these administrative proceedings will be carried out by the “Unidad de Grandes Empresas”.
The follows the theme of new tendency to centralize all the migration proceedings and decrease the functions of the peripherical administrations.
3. Family based immigration.
No major changes in this area.
4. Asylum
No major changes in this area. Extensive delays for decisions continues. The most important change is that after a suggestion of the Spanish Ombudsman, the government has accepts the possibility of working for asylum seeker who have been refused refugee status if they have presented an administrative or judicial appeal.
5. Deportation
The controversy surrounding ECJ case-law legislation in the matter of deportations continues. The Supreme Court has said the only the MO (C-568/19) case law should be applicable by Spanish courts and that UN (C-409/20) is not valid because the preliminary ruling was not properly requested.
The Constitutional court decided in June 2023 that the previous automatic deportation was unconstitutional.
In any case, the practice of the Police offices is not to deport anybody unless there a major cause, and will give just an expulsion order instead.
6. Citizenship
Law 20/20232 on Democratic memory approves some cases of options of obtaining the Spanish nationality. These are:
Persons born outside Spain to a Spanish-born father, mother, grandfather, or grandmother who had been forced to leave Spain because political, ideological, beliefs or sexual oriented reason.
Children of Spanish women who lost Spanish nationality because of marriage before the December 29th,1978.
Children of Spanish citizens whose nationality whose recognized by the Historical memory law of 2007.
In practice an Instruction of October 25th, 2022, has created a fourth category, persons born outside Spain to a Spanish-born father, mother, grandfather or grandmother.
This last category is considered illegal, but nobody has challenged it. It makes the possibility of grandchildren acquiring Spanish Citizenship a reality.
The possibility to apply under the above options will last two years, but the government has a right to extend it.
Finally, there are some scandals with nationality given to sportsmen, like basketball players who have no connection with Spain or are not able to speak any Spanish.
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