Below we are going to explain in detail how to obtain a residence permit in Spain as a person in an illegal situation in this country, we are going to talk about social integration and how the new immigration regulations open up various possibilities of obtaining residence, being a much more flexible regulation than the previous one.

As of 26 August, with the entry into force of the new immigration law, both obtaining residency in Spain and other procedures related to residency will be easier to carry out than before.

But we are going to focus on explaining the facilities that now exist to obtain residence in Spain for people in an illegal situation thanks to the new regulations.

We are going to start explaining the options to obtain a residence permit in Spain with “social integration training”.

As we have already mentioned, there are several options and probably the most innovative option is to obtain residence with two years of irregular status and without the need for a work contract, it is only necessary to commit to take a training course.

This first option basically consists of first committing to a training course, which will grant us one year of residence, but within a maximum of three months of being granted this permit we must begin the training course or the one-year residence permit we have obtained will be withdrawn.

We will start the training course that we are going to do, these courses can be, to be an electrician, gardener, etc. and they must be courses recognised by the ministry, by private academies or by the employment office (SEPE), once we have finished this course after having done it for several months we will apply for residence in Spain to be granted a two-year permit, to apply for this two-year permit we have three main options.

The first option is to get a work contract that does not have to be indefinite nor does it have to last a year, something that was required by the previous regulations, now it is enough to get a work contract for a few months and that has a part-time working day of, for example, 30 hours, in addition to the fact that it has to have a salary that is like the agreed wages of the agreement of those jobs and comply with the minimum interprofessional wage (SMI).

The second option would be to elaborate a small business project that has its corresponding viability certificate and with a minimum amount of investment where only the initial investment is requested, for example, a computer scientist can create a small business project with the purchase of a computer and can work from home.

This investment is minimal and in this way we become self-employed and we will have to be self-employed for one year, but with the renewal of the residence permit after the first year we will be able to work both self-employed and employed, it should also be noted that during the first year as a self-employed worker we will pay approximately 68 euros of social security.

Then we are granted a 4-year residence permit and when we renew it, as we have already been here for five years, we can access a permanent residence permit if we have not left the country for more than 10 months, an option that is very interesting.

The third option is to have a sufficient amount of money to support oneself and with which we are granted a non-profit residence permit, this minimum amount of money consists of multiplying the minimum vital income by 12 months.

However, this non-lucrative residence is not interesting because a residence permit for work allows us to be self-employed as well as employed, while a non-lucrative residence permit does not allow it, but not only that, but when renewing it we will have to have an excessive amount of money in the bank account and be able to justify it, so this option is not recommended.

The other way to obtain residence is with a residence permit for classic social integration , through which there are several advantages such as, for example, that the work contract only lasts three months and that it is not full-time, it can even be a contract of only 20 hours a week if I am in charge of minors or disabled people, and we can obtain a residence permit for one year.

Then we can renew this residence permit for four more years and when we have been in the country for a total of five years we can apply for a permanent residence permit, as long as we have not left the country for more than 10 months, a very interesting aspect since it is now much more flexible to obtain residence than before.

Likewise, with the classic “social integration” option, we can access a residence permit with a small business project as in the case mentioned above, where a report from the city council and a minimum investment are required, which will allow us to obtain a first year of residence as a self-employed or freelance worker.

In addition to these great advantages that we have explained for the cases of residence permits for social integration ad social integration  training, the new immigration regulations grant other new advantages such as for cases of regrouping where the amounts are minimal to be able to regroup minors, as well as other advantages such as the granting of four-year residence permits, among other advantages that the new immigration law brings.

We will explain these advantages later on, as in this case we have only focused on explaining the advantages for residences due to social integration and social integration training, therefore we will be commenting on other interesting aspects of this new immigration law in the future, we hope this information has helped you and we are at your disposal to assist you in any language and to take care of your procedures at a national level.

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