Spanish authorities have received over 900,000 applications for the socialist government’s mass amnesty plans for 500,000 illegal migrants, far exceeding initial official estimates, a report states.
Over the past months, the administration of socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has been carrying out a widely-rejected and highly controversial mass amnesty plan, seeking to benefit as many as 500,000 illegal migrants living in Spain with legal residence status, work permits, and other subsequent benefits.
Illegal migrants seeking to obtain amnesty from the Sánchez administration have a June 30 deadline to present their applications before local authorities.
The Spanish newspaper El País reports that it obtained access to records showing that more than 900,000 applications have been submitted by illegal migrants between late April and mid-June — two weeks before the June 30 deadline. The amount of applications received so far, described by El País as “record-breaking” is also much higher than the “750,000” that Spanish authorities reportedly expected to receive throughout the entire process before its start in April.
El País explained that, “for the time being,” Spanish authorities have accepted some 360,000 applications out of the total bulk received. In contrast, the newspaper noted, Spanish authorities had received some 550,000 applications by May 22. By then, roughly 91,000 applications had already been accepted, and the corresponding work and residence permits already issued.
“Since then, more than a month after the application windows opened, an additional 350,000 applications have been submitted, indicating that many people have been waiting to gather all the required documentation before beginning the process,” El País wrote.
Prime Minister Sánchez carried out its mass amnesty plans through a Royal Decree — allowing the Spanish government to bypass parliamentary approval for its implementation. Over the next months, Spain’s socialist government will provide amnesty to half a million illegal migrants despite fierce rejection from a majority of Spanish society and its lawmakers.
Migrants queue at a public service office to obtain paperwork needed to apply for Spain’s immigration amnesty, which could allow hundreds of thousands of people to obtain legal status, in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat near Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, April 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
According to a study conducted in late April, 80 percent of Spanish youth aged 17-25 reject the amnesty plans. E.U. immigration officials have also publicly expressed their criticism and concerns over Spain’s mass amnesty for illegal migrants.
Spain’s illegal and mass migration problem has dramatically worsened over the past years, to the point that a recent study found that Spaniards now see illegal migration as the main threat that their country now faces, finding it a more pressing matter than international conflicts and Spain’s ailing economy.
Illegal migrants in Spain seeking to become beneficiaries of Sánchez’s mass amnesty plan are only required to comply with a list of notoriously lax requirements, such as proof that they were in the country before January 1, 2026. They must also show proof that they have “no criminal record and do not pose a threat to public order, public safety, or public health.”
Despite the “lack of criminal records” being one of the most indispensable requirements, reports published in April indicated that, during the first days of the process, some amnesty requests were processed without clerks checking for criminal records.
Following the impending June 30 deadline, and as per the terms of the Spanish government’s own mass amnesty plans authorities have up to three months to process each and every application. Unnamed government sources claimed to El País that the process is “proceeding normally” despite the sheer volume of applications received.
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