Immigration in Madrid in 2026: What Has Changed and Who It Affects

A regulation that has been running for more than a year, an extraordinary regularization that has already closed and two routes that no longer exist. If you live in Madrid and immigration touches you closely, whether directly or through your neighbors, coworkers or family, here is the news in order and with dates: what is still open and what is not.

More Than a Year Under the New Regulation: What Madrid’s Foreign Residents Notice

Since May 20, 2025, Spain has applied Royal Decree 1155/2024, the Immigration Regulation (Reglamento de Extranjería) that repealed the 2011 one. The settlement permit (arraigo) now comes in five forms: social, socio-labor, socio-educational, family and second chance. All of them except the family one require two years of continuous stay and lead to a one-year permit; the family arraigo permit lasts five.

For many families, the most visible change is a different one: the foreign mother or father of a Spanish child no longer applies for family arraigo, but for the residence permit for family members of a Spanish citizen. If they apply in Spain, since April 16, 2026 they can live and work provisionally as soon as the application is admitted for processing. And renewals are filed from two months before until three months after the permit expires.

Check the consolidated version of the Regulation in the BOE, Spain’s Official State Gazette: a Supreme Court judgment of July 8, 2026, published in September, struck down Article 197.2 in its entirety, on the obligation to deal with the authorities electronically, and several passages of other articles.

The Extraordinary Regularization Closed on June 30: What Is Left for Those Who Applied

The extraordinary regularization under Royal Decree 316/2026 accepted applications from April 16 to June 30, 2026. That window is closed. It required having arrived in Spain before January 1, 2026 and five months of stay; the permit it grants lasts one year and includes the right to work.

Those who applied on time still have tasks: responding if the office asks for documents, appealing if a refusal arrives and, if they already hold the permit, marking the two months before that year runs out, which is when they can apply for the change under Article 191 of the Regulation to move to another permit.

Those who missed it can no longer get in through this route: what remains are the ordinary procedures, each with its own conditions. The official information is on the website of the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration.

Refusals and Document Requests in 2026: Reconsideration in One Month or Court in Two

Under the general regime, a refusal of a visa or of a residence and work permit ends the administrative route, so there is no hierarchical appeal (alzada): you can file an optional appeal for reconsideration within one month or go directly to judicial review before the administrative courts within two. Permits from the Large Companies and Strategic Groups Unit (UGE), such as the digital nomad permit, do allow a hierarchical appeal.

With a refusal in hand, it makes sense to have a specialist in Spanish immigration law, what locals call an abogado extranjería Madrid, review the decision before the one-month reconsideration period runs out: the specific ground for refusal determines what to submit and which route to take.

A request for additional documents (cure of defects) is something else: the office has not decided yet and is asking for documents. You answer within the period set in the request itself, in many procedures 15 days at most, counted in business days. If a document has to come from another country, ask for an extension before the deadline expires: the law limits it to half the period granted, but when the procedure requires a step abroad, the maximum extension applies in all cases (Article 32 of Law 39/2015).

And silence is not a yes: in immigration matters it is, as a general rule, a deemed refusal (administrative silence), with exceptions such as renewals. Against that refusal the one-month clock does not run: the appeal for reconsideration can be filed at any time (Article 124.1 of the same law).

The 2026 Minimum Wage and the Permits That Depend on It

Spain’s minimum interprofessional wage (SMI) for 2026 is €1,221 a month in 14 payments, €17,094 a year, effective from January 1 (Royal Decree 126/2026). Several permits are measured against it, and not all in the same way.

For the initial residence and work permit as an employee, part-time hours do not lower the bar: pay must reach the full-time annual SMI (Article 74.1.c of the Regulation). Useful for the neighborhood shop or bar that wants to hire someone half-time.

In the socio-labor arraigo, by contrast, the contract or contracts must reach the SMI or the collective agreement wage in proportion to the hours worked, with a minimum of 20 hours a week (Article 127.b). And for international remote work, the so-called digital nomad visa, the income benchmark starts at 200% of the SMI: €2,849 gross a month.

What No Longer Exists: The Golden Visa and the Democratic Memory Window

Two routes that people in Madrid still talk about no longer accept applications. Residence through investment, the so-called Golden Visa, closed to new applications on April 3, 2025, when Organic Law 1/2025 emptied Articles 63 to 67 of Law 14/2013 of content, and some transitional provisions remained for applications already filed and permits in force.

The window to apply for citizenship under the Democratic Memory Law (Law 20/2022) closed on October 22, 2025: applications filed before then are still being processed, but no new ones are accepted.

Spanish citizenship by residency under Article 22 of the Civil Code remains open: ten years as a general rule and less in some cases, such as the two years for nationals by origin of Ibero-American countries.

Before Giving Anything Up for Lost

In immigration, 2026 has been a year of dates: what was filed on time is following its course, and what came too late has to find another route. When a notice arrives from the Immigration Office, the first step is to read it in full and check which deadline is running and from when.