On Tuesday, May 19, the Directorate General of Migration and Refuge of the Generalitat de Catalunya and the Soliguia team organized an online seminar on the process of extraordinary regularization of people in the State. Aimed at professionals, the session detailed how the procedure works, with the aim of supporting collaborating entities. First, Sara Galera from the iSocial Foundation briefly presented the Soliguia platform, a search engine for social resources in Catalonia and Andorra. Galera explained that, with the help of the Alba Association, in Lleida, the Resilis Foundation, in Girona, and the iSocial Foundation, in Barcelona and Tarragona, the tool includes social initiatives from all over the Catalan territory. Aimed at all citizens, both individuals and professionals, the Soliguia platform has around ten categories and around fifty types, among them, one of extraordinary regularization.
The team from the General Directorate of Migration and Refuge of the Generalitat de Catalunya then detailed the procedure, which began by mentioning the key role and long struggle of the self-organized movement of migrant and anti-racist groups 'Regularization Now'. In this sense, the procedure began on April 16, electronically, and on April 20, in person, and will end on June 30. Specifically, applicants for international protection with an application from before January 1, 2026 and people in an irregular administrative situation from before January 1, 2026 can access it. Therefore, the procedure will grant twelve months of residence and work authorization for special circumstances. Specifically, the first group, people applying for international protection, obtain social roots, and the second group, people in an irregular administrative situation, obtain extraordinary roots, previously proving work, family unity or a situation of vulnerability. As main requirements, applicants must be of legal age; they must be people of foreign nationality, that is, from countries outside the European Union and the Schengen area; they must be in Spanish territory; they must not hold a residence permit; they must not be from Ukraine; they must have been continuously in Spanish territory for at least five months before the application, although the big change in this procedure is that accreditation through the registration certificate is not mandatory and can be accredited with medical reports or registrations to training courses and an attached document linking the evidence, and they must not have a criminal record.
Applications can be submitted electronically, preferentially, or in person at the 48 authorized Post Offices and the 6 authorized offices of the National Institute of Social Security and the General Treasury of Social Security. This time, the immigration offices do not carry out this procedure. In this regard, to formalize the procedure, it is necessary to request a prior appointment through the official website of the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration. The application must be submitted by the foreign person, personally or through representation. In order to support citizens, an electronic register of collaborating immigration entities has been created, so that authorized entities can submit immigration procedures electronically on behalf of foreign people. These collaborating entities must be legally constituted, have been in existence for at least three years, offer free advice and have civil liability insurance that covers the professionals they accompany.
Once the procedure has been resolved, which is currently expected to take approximately three months, if it is favorable, it will grant full rights to the applicant. This will be applied retroactively from the date of the application and up to twelve months. When the end date of this extraordinary authorization arrives, the person will have to modify their status to access the general regime and obtain a four-year permit. At this time, it will be key that the person is working, that the person has contributed for at least three months or that the person is registered as a job seeker with the SOC. An extension of the extraordinary authorization of twelve months may also be requested. In parallel, minors or adults with disabilities can be regularized, processing their application simultaneously with the procedure for adults. In this case, a five-year residence card is obtained. Finally, different channels have been made available to citizens, such as the 012 telephone number and the official website , and, for professionals in administrations and entities, an email address.