Spain races to grant migrant permits as Supreme Court weighs EU referral
With over 1.3 million applications submitted, the Spanish government is accelerating provisional permits before the Supreme Court decides whether to refer the mass regularization to the EU Court of Justice.
The regularization decree
In April 2026, the Spanish government approved a royal decree allowing undocumented migrants residing in Spain before 31 December 2025 to apply for a one-year residence and work permit. The application window closed on 30 June, with more than 1.3 million requests filed, far exceeding the government's initial scenarios of 500,000 to one million.
Supreme Court questions EU compatibility
On 24 June, the Supreme Court's fifth chamber issued a procedural order asking parties whether it should refer a preliminary question to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). The three conservative judges expressed doubts that the decree might conflict with the EU Migration and Asylum Pact, the Return Directive, and Schengen rules. The court gave a five-day deadline for responses, ending on 2 July.
The regularization regime raises the question of whether it could collide with the rules implementing the EU Migration and Asylum Pact.
Regional governments push for suspension
The Valencian and Aragonese regional governments, both led by the opposition People's Party, have backed the referral and demanded immediate suspension of the regularization. Valencia argued that the measure could affect the entire Schengen area and that the central government acted "unilaterally, without sufficient coordination" with Brussels.
This is not a mere technical reform of immigration law, but an extraordinary and mass regularization of irregular persons, approved by regulatory means and with potential effects on hundreds of thousands of people.
Government races to issue provisional permits
The government is accelerating the processing of applications to grant as many provisional residence and work authorizations as possible before any suspension. Once a provisional permit is issued, the procedure is no longer affected by judicial suspension. The Ministry of Inclusion aims to resolve cases within three months, but the volume of applications has slowed admissions. By mid-June, only 40% of the then 900,000 applications had been resolved.
We haven't slowed down.
Timeline and next steps
- Government approves regularization decree
- Supreme Court asks parties about CJEU referral
- Application deadline ends; over 1.3 million requests
- Deadline for parties to respond to Supreme Court
- Government expects Supreme Court decision
The government expects the Supreme Court to decide after 7 July. It remains confident because the court previously rejected precautionary measures in other appeals against the decree. The People's Party sees this as the last opportunity to halt a policy it considers legally and economically risky.
Government confidence and legal precedent
The government insists the decree complies with all legal requirements and notes that the Council of State's recommendations were fully incorporated. It also highlights that six previous regularizations under both Socialist and PP governments never faced EU judicial scrutiny. The executive believes the Supreme Court will not suspend the process, as it already rejected precautionary measures requested by Madrid, Vox, and other groups.
