Spain's looming migrant amnesty strains services, sends applicants scrambling

MADRID, Feb 26 - Spain's newest drive to fast-track legal status for at least half a million undocumented migrants has already burdened immigration offices and sparked anxiety among prospective applicants weeks before the process even begins, a dozen union officials, lawyers, and migrants said. Read more at straitstimes.com.

MADRID, Feb 26 - Spain's newest drive to fast-track legal status for at least half a million undocumented migrants has already burdened immigration offices and sparked anxiety among prospective applicants weeks before the process even begins, a dozen union officials, lawyers, and migrants said.

A lack of information and state funding for the process could derail the planned mass amnesty announced by the Spanish government last month, said two people involved in the drive, which is the latest installment of the relatively inclusive migration policy credited with driving Spain’s economic boom in recent years.

The Spanish government has said the drive will run from early April through June but has provided few details on the application process or documentation required. The migration ministry said on its website in January that no additional budget or staffing had been earmarked for the expected surge in applications.

That has unsettled both the migrants aspiring to use the legalization window, and the frontline workers at immigration offices already overloaded with a months-old backlog.

“Our offices are completely jammed. If there are no more people, if there is no technological reinforcement, without more money, this is impossible,” said César Pérez, a union leader for Spain’s immigration officers.

Pérez told Reuters most of his colleagues were still working through legal status applications submitted in June 2025.