Spain’s new immigration regulation

Royal Decree 1155/2024 of 19 November was published in Spain’s Official State Gazette (BOE) on 20 November 2024. This legal act approves the Regulation implementing Organic Law 4/2000 of 11 January, which governs the rights and freedoms of foreigners in Spain and their social integration (Real Decreto 1155/2024, de 19 de noviembre, por el que se aprueba el Reglamento de la Ley Orgánica 4/2000, de 11 de enero, sobre derechos y libertades de los extranjeros en España y su integración social). The new regulation entered into force on 20 May 2025.

The main aim of the royal decree is to bring the legislation into line with current migration realities. Among the key changes: administrative procedures in Spain will now be simpler and faster, and the time needed to obtain some forms of legal migration will be reduced. There will also be greater legal certainty. This may not be the last news about changes to the laws for foreigners in Spain.

Updated in October 2026. In September 2026 the BOE published Supreme Court judgments that struck down part of the Regulation: mandatory online filing, the automatic refusal over a criminal record for some family members of Spanish citizens, and several rules on families, children and seasonal work. Details are in the section “The 2026 Supreme Court ruling”.

Where to read it in the BOE. The decree is published under reference BOE-A-2024-24099 (BOE no. 280 of 20 November 2024, pages 152608–152809). Work from the consolidated text: it already marks the provisions struck down by the Supreme Court, and its latest update was published on 22 September 2026. The law the Regulation implements, Organic Law 4/2000 on foreigners, is reference BOE-A-2000-544.

Key changes in the reform for migrants in Spain

Age limits introduced

– For language courses and grado medio vocational training, a permit can now be requested only from the age of 18.
– For higher education and grado superior — from 17.
– Children as independent students are mentioned only in the context of school exchange programmes, from the age of 12.

Legalisation through study in Spain

– A student residence permit can be requested while legally in Spain (for example, on a Schengen visa or another European country’s residence permit) only for higher education, grado superior or healthcare staff training.

– The period of legal stay in Spain at the time of application must be at least 2 months (until 20 May 2025 — 30 days).

Permits for language courses

From 20 May 2025, to study on language courses in Spain you need to apply in advance for a type D visa at a Spanish consulate in your country of residence, no later than 2 months before the programme starts.

More options for language schools

A student visa can now be requested both for schools accredited by the Instituto Cervantes and for official state language schools (Escuelas Oficiales de Idiomas, EOI).

Work for students in Spain

– Students at Spanish universities and on grado superior programmes automatically get the right to work up to 30 hours a week.
– For other students this right can be arranged through the immigration offices.

Residence permits for students’ spouses and children

The family reunification rules have been simplified, making it easier for EU and other citizens to bring their loved ones. The minimum age for spouses for reunification is now 18, and special categories have been added for children, including school programmes and vocational training programmes.

Spouses and children of university or grado superior students can now be applied for from within Spain, not only through consulates.

Online study

– University programmes may be partly online, but no more than 50%.
– To be approved, a student must be enrolled in at least 90% of the annual study plan.

Limits on renewal

– After language courses the permit can be renewed only once, that is, for a maximum of 2 years.
– Residence permits for university programmes can be renewed at most twice, but in practice this is not needed, since such permits are now issued for the whole duration of study.

Requirement to prove Spanish language learning

– For renewal you need to provide a DELE or SIELE certificate or an EOI exam.
– Minimum level: after the first year — A2, after the second — B1.

Loss of accreditation by a school

If an educational institution loses its accreditation, all residence permits issued on its basis are revoked. Schools are required to monitor foreign students’ attendance.

Health insurance through employment

– For students who are working at the time of renewal and have a Seguridad Social card, this cover counts as health insurance.

Job search after study: renewal replaced by a separate residence permit

– A student stay can no longer be extended to look for work. Instead of an extension, a graduate with a bachelor’s degree or higher applies for a separate permit — a 24-month job-search residence permit under Article 190 of the Regulation. It does not give the right to work but allows you to stay in the country legally and look for a contract.
– Separately, the Regulation introduces a consular job-search visa (Art. 43–45). That one really is only for certain categories of people, such as descendants of Spaniards, and for a limited range of occupations. The two are often confused.

Silencio negativo

If no answer on a renewal arrives within 2 months, it is automatically deemed a refusal.

Modification to a residence permit with the right to work

– Possible after higher education programmes (grado superior), upper secondary school (bachillerato) or vocational training (grado medio).
– Modification after language courses is no longer available from 20 May 2025.
A separate modification route applies to holders of temporary protection: since April 2026 they have been allowed to switch to general grounds directly from within Spain — the mechanism is described in our guide to modifying temporary protection.

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Options after language courses

Enrol in official education and obtain a degree or certificate so that you can modify your status.

Legalisation through settlement for training (arraigo socioformativo)

– Available after 2 years in Spain.
– Suitable for medio and superior vocational training programmes, as well as professional certificate courses.
– This legalisation allows you to work up to 30 hours a week alongside your studies.
– It can be extended for another year, either for study or for job seeking, by registering with the employment office.

This route is covered separately, with the requirements for length of stay and types of programmes: arraigo socioformativo. The other settlement routes — employment, family and social — are covered in our overview of residence permits through settlement in Spain, and the one-off regularisation campaign in our article on simplified legalisation.

The 2026 Supreme Court ruling: what was struck down

On 8 July 2026 Spain’s Supreme Court (Tribunal Supremo) partly upheld a challenge by human-rights organisations against Royal Decree 1155/2024 — judgment STS 868/2026. Together with the correction order of 1 September 2026, it was published in the BOE on 22 September 2026. On the same day the BOE published a second judgment, of 29 July 2026, in a case brought by Cáritas, CEAR and other organisations: it annulled Article 197.2 again. The annulled provisions no longer apply from 22 September 2026. The court upheld the other challenged provisions, and the student rules described above are substantively unchanged.

Filing: in person is allowed again

Article 197.2 required seven types of applications to be filed online only: extensions of student stays (estancia por estudios), renewals of the non-lucrative residence permit (residencia no lucrativa), initial employee work permits (cuenta ajena), renewals of self-employed permits (cuenta propia) and of permits exempt from a work authorisation (excepción de trabajo), and initial seasonal-work and collective-recruitment-in-origin permits (gestión colectiva en origen). The court struck the article down in full. These applications can now be filed in person at the immigration office (oficina de extranjería) or online — the applicant chooses. The government may reintroduce mandatory online filing for specific procedures, but only if it justifies that this is necessary and proportionate.

Who is affected: above all people renewing a non-lucrative residence permit and self-employed people renewing theirs. A family living in Spain on investment income can now hand in its renewal file in person, without a digital certificate (certificado digital) or a representative.

Procedures under the Entrepreneurs Act (Ley 14/2013) — the digital nomad permit, highly qualified professionals, startups — are not affected: they are handled by the Large Companies and Strategic Groups Unit (UGE), and electronic filing there is set by the law itself (Articles 69 and 76), not by the Regulation.

A criminal record and family members of Spanish citizens

Articles 97.4 and 98.1 concern residence permits for family members of Spanish citizens. For some of them — an unregistered partner, a relative caring for a Spaniard with a recognised dependency (dependencia), children of Spaniards by origin and other dependants — the Regulation required a clean criminal record, so any conviction meant refusal. The court struck down this automatic rule in situations protected by Article 20 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU: where a refusal would in practice force a Spanish citizen, most often a child, to leave the EU. In such cases the immigration office must assess the individual circumstances.

Who is affected: a narrow group. A criminal record has stopped being an automatic refusal not for all foreigners, but only for these family members of Spanish citizens. For the other routes — non-lucrative, work, study — a clean record is still required.

Dependent parents: where the dependency arose no longer matters

Article 196.2.b required economic dependency (persona a cargo) to arise in the country of origin. The court struck down this condition to the extent that it prevented a parent who is already in Spain from proving dependency. Who is affected: families applying for parents as dependants, for example the parents of a Spanish citizen or of their spouse. The other conditions remain: the dependency must be real, stable and pre-date the application.

Seasonal work through temp agencies (ETT)

Article 101.1 barred temporary employment agencies (empresas de trabajo temporal, ETT) from being the employer under a seasonal work permit, from taking on such a worker on a change of employer, and from taking part in a chain of successive contracts. The ban has been lifted. Who is affected: seasonal workers and companies that hire them through ETTs.

Children and guardianship

– A child born in Spain to resident parents (Art. 159.1) and a child born abroad who lives here with a parent (Art. 160.1) no longer have to be “unmarried”: the word solteros has been removed.
– Under Article 159.1 a child born in Spain lost the simplified route if they had ever left the country. What matters now is that the child habitually lives in Spain; temporary, justified absences do not close the route by themselves.
– The requirement that a parent’s or guardian’s relationship with a Spanish minor (Art. 94.1.f) and guardianship of a foreign child (Art. 160.2) be established under Spanish law has been removed. Guardianship set up abroad is no longer excluded.
– If the age of an undocumented young person cannot be established, child-protection services must help them as soon as the police report it, not merely “where appropriate” (Art. 166.1).

Who is affected: families with children born in Spain or brought here, and guardians. The last point concerns unaccompanied minors.

The consolidated text of the Regulation in the BOE already shows which passages have been annulled: RD 1155/2024, current version.

Conclusion

The Regulation introduces significant changes aimed at making approvals easier to obtain, simplifying legalisation through settlement and integrating foreign students and workers into Spanish society. How the reform has affected each individual route — from study and settlement to self-employment — is covered in our overview of all grounds for a Spanish residence permit. Faster procedures will protect migrants’ rights, ensure social integration and improve cooperation between educational institutions, foreigners and the Spanish social security system.

The adoption of the new regulation is an important step in improving Spain’s migration policy. Simpler document procedures, rights for labour migrants and legalisation for refugees will help improve living conditions for hundreds of thousands of people. These changes promote the integration of immigrants and their families while protecting their rights and ensuring social stability. In the coming years the Spanish government plans to further revise the provisions on citizenship and modernise the systems for processing data on migrants living in the country.

The full text of the new immigration regulation is published in the BOE.