More than 1.17 million applications for extraordinary regularization have been handled by attorneys throughout Spain. This figure was highlighted this week at the opening of the second Immigration Congress of the Madrid Bar Association (ICAM), which is being held from Wednesday through Friday. The goal: to take a close look at the regulatory changes that are reshaping immigration management here and across the rest of Europe.
The underlying message was conveyed by Emilio Ramírez Matos, a member of the ICAM Governing Board responsible for immigration. You can get along with the government and, at the same time, stand up for yourself when the rights of the person in front of you are at stake. Behind every case file is a family, a life plan, someone who wants to stay and live here—not just a case number. This requires us to constantly update our knowledge, because the rules are always changing.
The Secretary of State for Migration, Pilar Cancela, acknowledged the role of the legal profession in the regularization process at the same event. She advocated for an orderly immigration policy, with streamlined procedures but with safeguards in place. In the Community of Madrid, 202,424 applications were filed—the second-highest number in the country—according to data from the Government’s subdelegate in Madrid, Pilar Trinidad. She emphasized that legal assistance was what turned the regulation into a real and enforceable right. How is this evident? In things like these:
- Information and guidance from the very beginning.
- Review of documents before submission.
- Verification of personal circumstances.
- Correction of errors and procedures to rectify them.
The Challenges Ahead
The implementation of the European Union’s Pact on Migration and Asylum is now the major challenge. Cancela called on Spain to keep the protection of human rights at the center and not to sacrifice it in favor of a purely security-based approach. He also referred to the events in Ceuta in late July, within an international context where mobility can end up being exploited by interests unrelated to migration itself. And he warned of the rise of racist and xenophobic rhetoric.
From the police perspective, the commissioner of the Madrid Immigration Brigade, Jaime Nicolás González, pointed out another bottleneck: the volume of residence cards that the National Police will have to issue.
What’s in store for you? If you have an ongoing case, don’t wait until the last minute to meet deadlines, and keep copies of everything you submit. A clerical error or a notice that never arrives carries more weight than it seems. Having legal representation isn’t a luxury: in proceedings that determine your residency, it makes the difference between a case that moves forward and one that gets stuck.
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