The extraordinary regularization of migrants can now be requested electronically and, since April 20, also in person. The process, opened under the protection of Royal Decree 316/2026, will be in force until June 30 and is expected to benefit around 500,000 people nationwide.
In Tarragona, the implementation of the procedure has already had a first impact. Between Wednesday and Thursday, 786 people registered to request documentation, especially the vulnerability report, one of the necessary documents to complete the file in certain cases.
First registrations in Tarragona
The Institut Municipal de Serveis Socials de Tarragona will summon the applicants next week to manage the files. The demand focuses on obtaining the required documents to access regularization, among them the certificate of census registration and, when applicable, the vulnerability report.
The measure was announced on January 27, 2026, and sets several requirements. Adults who prove uninterrupted stay in Spain since before December 31, 2025, with at least five months of continuous permanence, and who do not have a criminal record, will be able to avail themselves of it.
Pressure on social services
The lawyer specializing in immigration and criminal law Redouane Ennajy warns that the greatest administrative pressure will arrive in the coming days.
"The collapse we will see especially in social services and the offices enabled to obtain the vulnerability report" - Redouane Ennajy, lawyer specializing in migratory and criminal law
That document will be decisive for a part of the applicants.
"If a migrant has no papers, nor children in their care, nor work, they need this vulnerability report to be able to regularize their status" - Redouane Ennajy, specialized lawyer in immigration and criminal law
The same lawyer rejects that the measure is going to provoke new arrivals linked to this process.
"There is no call effect" - Redouane Ennajy, lawyer specialized in migratory and criminal law
Expectation among the applicants
Among those who hope to avail themselves of this extraordinary path, the idea prevails that it can mean an immediate change in their administrative and labor situation. Pilar Sandoval summarizes it as a long-awaited opportunity.
"It seems to me that it is a good opportunity. In my case, it favors me quite a lot, and more than one; to everyone who has not been able to access legalization due to not being regular" - Pilar Sandoval
In the same vein expresses Brayan Yepes, originally from Colombia, who links regularization with access to basic rights in the day to day.
"It's not just a piece of paper; it's the right to have a legal contract or to rent an apartment without the obstacles we've had until now" - Brayan Yepes
Procedures and documentation
The regularization requires gathering the documentation within the fixed deadline. The registration certificate will be one of the basic pieces of the file and, in the foreseen cases, also the vulnerability report. In parallel, the consulate of Morocco has expedited the issuance of criminal record certificates and has activated mobile offices and itinerant services to facilitate this process.
With the deadline already underway and in-person service about to open, Tarragona faces the coming weeks with high demand in municipal services, while hundreds of people prepare the documentation to try to access a regularization that can change their legal situation before June 30.