Overview
- The application window closed on June 30 with about 1,174,978 submissions, more than double the government’s earlier estimate of 500,000.
- Authorities have issued roughly 608,000 provisional one‑year residence-and-work permits and recorded about 160,000 new Social Security registrations as of June 30.
- Applicants come mostly from Latin America (about 67%) and Africa (about 23%), and 87% are of working age, which helps explain the immediate impact on labour records.
- Administrative processing is uneven: admitted files get a provisional permit but many applicants still await formal admission to trámite, and officials have up to three months to resolve each dossier.
- The move is formalising large numbers out of informal work and raising contributions to Social Security, while economists predict only a modest short-term GDP boost and warn that new registrations could temporarily lift measured unemployment, and separate legal challenges leave the programme’s EU compatibility uncertain.