Overview
- Carlos Prieto, the Spanish government delegate in Catalonia, said Monday the April 'plan de choque' resolved 47,596 stalled extranjería files, about 99.8% of the backlog recorded on April 16.
- Of the resolved cases 42,545 received favorable decisions (89.6%), 2,473 were denied (5.2%), and 2,071 were archived for missing documents (4.4%), with 41,498 approvals granted under arraigo social.
- Ninety-nine files remain unresolved because applicants must still provide additional paperwork, and final Catalonia totals will be set after the June 30 application deadline.
- Officials report Catalonia has already passed the initially estimated 150,000 applications and the national regularization process tops 900,000 petitions, prompting the government to plan continued intensified processing after June 30.
- Beneficiaries face a practical hurdle: many cannot complete their permits because police appointments to take fingerprints and issue the Tarjeta de Identidad de Extranjero (TIE) are hard to get, delaying the move from approval to active legal status and work access.