Spain is preparing at the end of next March to open the door for irregular migrants to submit applications to regularize their status. The operation includes half a million people. Many irregular migrants in France and other parts of Europe see this open Spanish policy as a “lifeline” to put an end to their illegal situation for years. France 24 collected three testimonies of these immigrants, who are looking to obtain residency in this European country.

Published on: 02/19/2026 - 16:51

In a move that goes against European trends, the Spanish government announced three weeks ago that it intends to regularize the conditions of irregular migrants within a plan that could benefit 500,000 people.

At the time, the Minister of Social Security and Immigration stated that this measure, which aims to revive the national economy, will allow about half a million people who have resided in Spain for at least five months and arrived before December 31, 2025, to obtain legal status and work in any sector and anywhere in the country.

Even before this decision, Spain was one of the most lenient countries on the Old Continent in regularizing the status of immigrants who do not have residency documents. In May 2025, the government of leftist Pedro Sanchez announced its intention to regularize the status of about 900,000 migrants within three years. The period required for what is known as “social rooting,” meaning the period of residence in Spain, was reduced from three years to only two years.

Reducing the period of residence required to submit a file to obtain residency is what made many young people residing illegally in France go to Spain since last year to prepare a file to be paid after two years, including a residence certificate, public transportation receipts, and a language learning certificate. However, the recent decision to regularize the status of those who have been residing in Spain since 2025 hastened their travel to the Kingdom, hoping to benefit from this procedure. Especially in light of the tightening conditions for obtaining legal residency in France for irregular immigrants.

Read also: Spain: The government plans to regularize the status of 500,000 illegal immigrants to revive the economy

Hammadi, Abdel Qader and Hossam, three stories of three young men who see the Spanish plan as a “lifeline” for their future. Here's their story.

Hammadi.. 10 years of professional success in France and “a prisoner in the cage of illegal residency”

Hamadi (a pseudonym), 35 years old, from a popular neighborhood on the outskirts of the Tunisian capital. We met him in a café in the Belleville neighborhood in Paris after his return a few days ago from Madrid, where he submitted an application to renew his passport at his country’s embassy there. He tells us about his feeling of losing his freedom due to not having residency documents and says:

"I have been living in France for ten years without residence documents. With each passing day, the conditions for regularizing the situation become more difficult. Things have become almost impossible here, and obtaining a residence card is like a miracle. I worked in construction workshops, markets, and delivering orders. I supported myself here and I can say that I succeeded professionally. The Spanish decision is for me a gift that came from heaven. I had gone to Spain last year, where I was able to obtain a residence certificate."

Regarding his situation in France, Hammadi confirms that he is proud of what he has achieved, as he succeeded in collecting some savings from his continuous work and adds:

"Materially, I can say that I have achieved what I aim for, but being abroad is not just about making money. What is the benefit of having a lot of money without being able to travel freely? I feel like a bird in a cage. I gave of my health and my life here and France gave me many things. But settling residence documents remains a major obstacle."

Regarding his recent trip to Spain, which included Madrid and Barcelona, ​​Hammadi says that he spoke with many young people coming, not only from France, but from several European countries in the hope of resolving their situation, and he adds:

“I have a friend in Spain. He often encouraged me to come there, stressing that it was enough for me to have documents proving my presence in Spain for two years and I would obtain legal residency. In 2025, I went to my friend and he gave me a residency certificate with him in his house, for free. I spent two months there before returning to France.

I was in Madrid a few days ago, things have changed this time. I spoke and saw many young men from Maghreb countries who crossed thousands of kilometers from Belgium, Germany and Italy and risked crossing the borders.”

Abdel Qader... Eight years in France and a wasted career for a chemistry engineer

Hammadi introduced us to his Algerian friend, Abdelkader (a pseudonym), 34 years old from the Algerian city of Relizane. He came to France eight years ago after obtaining a degree in chemical engineering. He talks about his suffering throughout these years:

"I suffered here from the hardships of exile. I worked on a bicycle to deliver orders. I worked 70 hours a week, all in order to secure the rent for the house and my monthly expenses. I did not gain anything from that. I came illegally to France with a university degree in chemical engineering and was hoping to complete my studies here. I submitted my candidacy to the University of Paris 8, but it was rejected since I am an illegal resident."

In Algeria, after obtaining my degree, I was working as an associate professor at the university and submitted my candidacy to work at the state petrochemical company Sonatrach. But thousands applied, and only 500 files were accepted, of which I was not one of them. I tried to obtain residence documents in France, but things did not go well. The only remaining solution to obtain a residence card in France is marriage, which is a solution I reject for personal considerations.”

After all his attempts to obtain a French residence card failed, Abdelkader confirms that he went to Spain in 2025 to prepare his file before returning again to France:

I went to Spain last year, specifically to the city of Alicante. There I met a Maghreb person who offered me some help and gave me a residence permit in his house for a thousand euros. I spent about two months there and left because I could not find work.

Spain is different from France, as employers do not risk hiring those who do not have legal documents, unlike France, where there is some leniency. I will be back in a few weeks, to pay my file in the city of Alicante and hopefully the end of the spiral of illegal residency from Spain. If I am granted residency, I will stay there and will not return to France. I want to resume my studies there so that I can return to the field in which I obtained a university degree.

Hossam.. 15 years of “wandering” and health problems while in illegal exile

Houssam (a pseudonym), 36 years old, from the interior region of Tunisia, traveled to Spain two weeks ago, immediately after he learned of the Spanish government’s conditions for regularizing the status of immigrants. Houssem arrived in France in 2011, in the wave of Tunisian youth migration after the revolution, after a dangerous sea voyage to the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Before leaving for France, he obtained Italian residence documents for one year without working or residing there, which made him quickly lose them and find himself in a spiral of poverty and problems:

"I came to France at the age of 20. I was a young and impulsive young man. The beginning was very difficult in France. The number of Tunisian immigrants was large and getting work was difficult. At that time, I slept in the streets and under bridges in the rain and the bitter cold for two years. I was able to find work after that, in a restaurant, for 12 hours a day, without a day of rest. I was not thinking at that time about obtaining residency documents. I only thought about work, and did not collect the documents required to regularize my situation. I returned. Then to unemployment due to my health condition. After the cold nights of homelessness and long working hours, I developed chronic lower back pain. The doctor asked me to rest, but can someone like me rest?”

Hossam admits that he made several mistakes in his youth, which he spent in France, but he believes that he paid the price with his life without achieving his goal:

“I worked everything and everywhere in France, as a farmer in the countryside, delivering orders, assembling home furniture, and in restaurants in Paris, Marseille, and Strasbourg. In France, I spent nearly half my life and all of my youth. The fifth decade of my life was dawning and I had not achieved anything.”

Hossam feels that his opportunity in France has evaporated, and he was among the first illegal immigrants who thought about leaving to Spain in search of a new life opportunity there. Hossam adds:

“It can be said that I was among the first people to travel from France to Spain, even before the decision last May was issued to reduce the required period of residence from three years to two years. With the advice of my brothers and a friend there, I traveled to Spain in February 2025 on a trip in which I almost got arrested at the border due to tight controls. I stayed in a suburb of Madrid with my villager, then rented a room in which I obtained a housing certificate from the municipality and enrolled in a class to learn the Spanish language. I tried to find work there, but All the employers welcomed me and confirmed that they were impressed with my experience, but they asked for a residence permit. After four months, I spent all my savings and had to return to work in France, and now I am in Spain again, and I hope to obtain a residence permit so that I can see my father and mother after 15 years of wandering abroad.

Fraud network for "selling Spanish illusions"

With the story of Hammadi, Abdel Qader, and Hossam, who possess documents proving their residence in Spain last year, Hammadi confirms that many of the immigrants he met do not have these proofs, which makes them resort to brokers. He says that they are “scammers” who sell “fake documents” that will not help them in their files, and he adds:

“I warn you against these people. They do more dangerous work than migrant smugglers. They see in them an opportunity to make easy money by deceiving them... The best solution is to go to professional lawyers to find out what can be done.” Will Spain’s plan to regularize the status of migrants save “prisoners in the cage of illegal residence” in France?

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