Asylum and Legal Stay in Spain for Nigerians

Overstay, lost status and residence options

First check whether your Spanish permission has ended or only your card needs attention

If your visa or residence permission has expired, first collect your passport, your last Spanish immigration decision, both sides of your TIE card and the receipt for any application you have already submitted. A Spanish immigration lawyer should compare those documents before you pay for a new regularisation application. You may still have a renewal, extension or change-of-permission application to complete, or you may need a genuinely different permission.

People often describe this problem as wanting to “legalise my stay” or “become legal in Spain”. In this guide, regularising your stay means obtaining a Spanish permission that allows you to remain when you do not currently have that permission. It is different from document legalization, which means authenticating the signatures and stamps on a Nigerian certificate so that a Spanish office can accept it.

Spain does not grant residence simply because a person has overstayed. It has several specific applications, including different forms of arraigo, and each has conditions. The right application depends on your earlier permission, time in Spain, asylum history, employment, training, family circumstances and any refusal or expulsion decision.

If you lost your TIE, check the permission behind the card

The Tarjeta de Identidad de Extranjero, usually called the TIE, is the physical card recording a foreign national’s authorised position in Spain. Losing that card does not, by itself, cancel the residence permission. Article 209 of Spain’s immigration regulation provides for a replacement card after loss, damage or destruction. The replacement is not a renewal and normally covers only the remaining validity of the original card.

If the permission is still valid, use the Policía Nacional’s TIE procedure for a replacement. Take the loss or theft report where required, your valid passport and the documents on the current police appointment checklist. The police issue the replacement card after checking your identity and existing permission. Do not submit an arraigo application solely because you cannot find the plastic card. See the Policía Nacional’s TIE information and Article 209 of the immigration regulation.

If you lost your Nigerian passport as well, the TIE replacement does not replace the passport. Ask the Nigerian diplomatic mission responsible for your location about passport replacement, and tell your Spanish lawyer if an immigration deadline is approaching. Do not assume that an appointment to replace a passport extends a Spanish residence permission.

If your visa, student stay or residence permission expired, check the actual application dates

Read the name of the permission on the Spanish decision, not only the date on the card. A short-stay visa, student stay, employee residence permission and family residence permission have different extension, renewal and modification rules. A job ending or a course finishing also does not answer, by itself, whether you can remain or change your permission.

Give your lawyer the following items together:

• The decision granting the previous permission and any later decision renewing, refusing or ending it.
• The complete passport, including entry stamps and visas, plus any earlier passport covering the relevant period.
• The registered submission receipt for a renewal, extension, change of permission or appeal.
• Any request for further documents, the response you submitted and the receipt showing when you submitted it.
• The date on which each decision was delivered, including an electronic delivery record if notification was online.

An appointment booking is not the same as a registered application. Ask the lawyer to identify which application was actually received, whether you met its deadline and what legal effect that submission has. Some applications submitted within the applicable renewal period extend the earlier permission while the Oficina de Extranjería decides. You should not assume that every late application or appointment request has that effect.

This check matters before arraigo. Under the current Article 126(h), an ordinary arraigo applicant must not already hold a stay or residence permission or be a party to an application for its grant, extension, renewal or modification. Do not abandon an existing application to satisfy that rule without a Spanish lawyer first comparing the consequences. Read Articles 126 and 200 and the provisions for your existing permission.

Check how much of your time in Spain can count towards arraigo

For Arraigo Social, Sociolaboral, Socioformativo and Segunda Oportunidad, the current starting point is at least two years of continuous presence in Spain immediately before applying. The separate Arraigo Familiar category does not require that minimum period. Two calendar years since your first arrival do not necessarily mean that you have two qualifying years.

The Oficina de Extranjería checks the dates and the evidence of presence. Under the Ministry’s SEM 1/2025 instructions, absences must not exceed 90 days during the relevant two-year period. Keep travel dates and passport stamps together so that your adviser can check both the period and any absences. Do not describe a long absence as a short holiday merely because you remained on the municipal register.

Separate time as an asylum applicant from other time in Spain

Article 126 excludes time spent in Spain while an international-protection application is being processed, until the decision is final administratively and, where applicable, judicially. The same article says that a person must not be an asylum applicant when applying for ordinary arraigo or while that arraigo application is being processed.

The Ministry’s instructions treat the expression of the wish to seek protection as relevant to the beginning of applicant status. Counting only from the later interview can therefore give the wrong answer. Give your lawyer the first document recording your wish to claim asylum, registration documents, interview receipt, renewals, refusal decision and every appeal or court decision. The lawyer needs to establish when applicant status began, whether it continues and which periods can actually count.

For example, a person who arrived three years ago and then spent most of that time with a pending asylum claim should not assume that the three years meet the two-year arraigo requirement. That example does not decide any individual’s eligibility. The exact dates, interruptions, finality of decisions and applicable rules still need checking.

Withdrawing an asylum claim does not turn the earlier excluded asylum period into qualifying arraigo time. Nor is withdrawal a harmless administrative step. It can affect the person’s right to remain and protection against return. Antarch Consulting does not recommend withdrawing a protection claim to obtain another permission. That decision requires individual advice from a Spanish lawyer who has read both the protection history and the proposed residence application.

The legal basis is in Articles 125-127 and the transitional and additional provisions of the current regulation. The Ministry’s SEM 1/2025 instructions explain the administrative approach, subject to later changes in the regulation.

Use your padrón history with other dated records to show where you have lived

Empadronamiento means registering your usual home address in the padrón municipal, the population register kept by your Ayuntamiento, or town hall. It records where you live. It does not grant a residence permit, employment permission or asylum status. The immigration office may use the registration as evidence of presence, but registration does not make an irregular stay lawful.

Register the address where you actually live. The Ayuntamiento checks your identity and the basis for registering at that address. Its checklist may require your passport, a rental agreement or other evidence of occupation, and the appropriate authorisation if another person holds the tenancy. Use the current procedure for your municipality because appointment arrangements and acceptable housing evidence vary.

For example, the Ayuntamiento de Madrid publishes separate procedures for registering or changing an address and requesting a registration certificate. Its historical certificate records registration history rather than just today’s address. Other municipalities have their own services.

If you have moved, request the relevant historical certificates from the town halls where you were registered. Check the dates, names, passport number or NIE and any gaps or cancellations. A certificate from your current town may not explain an earlier period in another town.

Keep additional dated records showing actual presence, especially for gaps in the padrón history. Depending on your circumstances, these can include public-health appointments, hospital records, municipal correspondence, school records and other reliable records identifying you and the date. Keep the full record rather than an isolated screenshot without the person’s name or issuing office. The Oficina de Extranjería must be able to connect the evidence to you and to the period claimed.

Do not buy a false registration address, backdate a tenancy or obtain a certificate containing dates that are not true. If you were not registered for part of the period, tell your lawyer and identify genuine alternative records. A missing padrón entry needs explanation, not an invented one. The municipal registration rules are in Real Decreto 1690/1986, while the qualifying presence requirement comes from the immigration regulation.

Compare the arraigo categories before paying for contracts, reports or training

The four categories below share important general conditions, but their additional requirements are different. Each ordinarily grants an initial one-year residence permission. None is an automatic reward for completing two years in Spain. The Oficina de Extranjería also checks matters such as criminal history, public-order concerns, entry restrictions, asylum status, other residence applications and the evidence required for the particular category.

Use Arraigo Social only after checking your family support or integration report

Arraigo Social is not simply a residence application with a job offer attached. Under the current Article 127(c), the family option concerns a spouse, registered partner or first-degree relative in the direct line who is another foreign national holding residence permission. First-degree relatives in the direct line are parents and children, not cousins, siblings or an uncle who offers accommodation.

If relying on that relationship, prepare the marriage certificate, registered-partnership certificate or birth certificate that proves the connection. Include the relative’s valid residence evidence and evidence of the means of support available in Spain. The Ministry’s current Hoja 28 explains the family calculation as 100% of IPREM for the resident relative and another 100% for the applicant, totalling 200%. IPREM is the Spanish public income reference used for the calculation, not the minimum wage. Check the applicable amount when preparing the application rather than using an old euro figure from an article.

If you do not have that qualifying family relationship, Article 127(c) allows consideration of your integration, supported by a favourable integration report. Request the report from the competent Autonomous Community or, where responsibility has been assigned locally, the Ayuntamiento for your home address. Ask which office takes the request and what that office needs to assess your residence, support and participation in integration activities. Do not book at an unrelated immigration office assuming every office issues the report.

The report records the matters the regional or municipal office has assessed, such as your time at your address, means of support and participation in social, cultural or employment-integration programmes. The issuing office also sends the report electronically to the competent Oficina de Extranjería. Keep your own copy and the receipt for requesting it. The regulation provides a one-month period for issuing the report. If it is not issued within that period, keep proof of the request and delay so that your lawyer can present other admissible evidence of the relevant matters.

The report does not make financial support irrelevant. Explain clearly how you will support yourself in Spain and have the lawyer check that evidence against the current rule. Where the proposed means come from self-employment, the business must meet the relevant Article 84 conditions. That can involve evidence of the necessary licence or declaration, professional qualifications where required, and sufficient investment for the activity. A business idea or a promise to start trading is not the same as demonstrating those requirements.

Keep the distinction between the two types of official report. A padrón certificate records municipal registration. An integration report assesses the matters required for social integration. Submitting one does not automatically replace the other. Read Article 127(c) with the Ministry’s current Arraigo Social application checklist.

Check the hours, salary and employer behind an Arraigo Sociolaboral contract

Arraigo Sociolaboral uses one or more employment contracts. The contracts must add up to at least 20 hours of work a week and provide at least the applicable Spanish minimum wage or collective-agreement wage in proportion to the working hours. The threshold is not “any contract”, and an employer’s verbal promise is not enough.

The regulation permits certain combinations of contracts, including simultaneous part-time work for different employers and consecutive contracts for seasonal activity. The SEM 1/2025 instructions explain the required duration where fixed-term contracts are used, including a period exceeding 90 days. Ask the lawyer to check the proposed arrangement as a whole. Two documents that each look plausible may still fail when their dates, total hours and employment conditions are compared.

Read every contract before signing. It should identify the employer, your role, workplace, hours, pay, duration and the applicable employment conditions. Compare the spelling of your name and passport details with your application. If a salary is stated monthly, ask whether the contract uses 12 or 14 payments and how the stated pay meets the current minimum or collective agreement. Do not insert a guessed annual salary merely to reach a target.

The employer also has to qualify. The Oficina de Extranjería checks the employer’s legal identity, tax and Social Security position and ability to fulfil the employment obligations. A company may need to provide its NIF, company and signatory documents and financial or employment evidence. An individual employer must also demonstrate the means required for the employment arrangement. If the job is regulated, the necessary professional qualification must be checked as well.

Do not pay for a fabricated contract or sign a contract for work that neither side intends to perform. A genuine job still needs compliant terms and supporting employer evidence. Antarch Consulting does not sell employment contracts or promise that an employer’s signature will secure residence.

There is an important current distinction between submitting and being admitted for processing. Since the April 2026 amendment, Article 130(5) provides provisional permission to reside and work as an employee once a Sociolaboral application has been admitted for processing. The notice starting the processing must record that provisional work permission. A general submission receipt or a booked appointment is not that notice.

If residence is granted, its effectiveness is tied to registration in the appropriate Social Security scheme within one month of notification. Ask the employer to complete the employment registration with the Tesorería General de la Seguridad Social and keep evidence that it has been completed. You then need to attend to the TIE requirement. Read Articles 127(b) and 130(5) and the Ministry’s Sociolaboral checklist.

Confirm that the exact course qualifies for Arraigo Socioformativo before enrolling

Arraigo Socioformativo combines qualifying training with the ordinary residence and integration conditions. It is not available simply because a private provider advertises a course for migrants. Before paying, obtain the full course name, recognised level, awarding body, provider registration details, start and finish dates, timetable and attendance format.

The permitted categories include specified post-compulsory secondary education and vocational programmes, qualifying professional certificates and certain adult compulsory-education programmes. There is also a permitted commitment to training promoted by Spanish public employment services for occupations in the official shortage-occupation catalogue. The precise course category matters. A language class, general online certificate or unrecognised short course does not automatically qualify.

The SEM 1/2025 instructions explain the training categories and attendance conditions. For permitted blended learning, they require at least 50% in-person teaching. The instructions also limit repeating the same training within the relevant three-year period. Ask the provider for written confirmation of the recognised course and attendance arrangement, and have the lawyer compare those details with the regulation and instructions. A provider’s assurance about immigration eligibility is not an immigration decision.

You also need the integration report described in Article 127(c). Request it from the competent regional or municipal office, retain the application receipt and keep the report. Do not confuse the training-enrolment certificate with the integration report, because they demonstrate different requirements.

Where the recognised programme has an official enrolment window, the regulation allows an application in the two months before that window opens, with proof of enrolment submitted within three months after residence is granted. The public-employment training option has its own permitted commitment and later proof requirement. Match your application to the correct category and record the deadline for supplying enrolment evidence. Paying a deposit does not necessarily show that you are enrolled in the required programme.

After approval, continue the training and retain attendance, assessment and completion records. Failing to establish the required training can put the permission at risk. The permission allows employee work for up to 30 hours a week in total, with lawful pay proportionate to the hours. It is not an unrestricted self-employment permission, and the ordinary Sociolaboral provisional-work rule should not be copied across to this category.

The current Hoja 30 lists personal presentation at the provincial Oficina de Extranjería. Confirm that office’s current appointment and submission arrangements before attending. Do not assume that an online channel available for another arraigo category is automatically available for this one. See Articles 127(d), 131 and 132 and the Ministry’s Socioformativo checklist.

Use Segunda Oportunidad only if your former residence permission fits the rule

Arraigo de Segunda Oportunidad concerns a previous residence permission that was not granted for exceptional circumstances, held within the two years immediately before the new application, whose renewal did not take place for an eligible reason. It does not mean that anyone who once had any Spanish immigration document receives a second permission.

A short-stay visa, an asylum-applicant document and a student-stay permission should not be treated as an ordinary residence permission without checking their legal category. The SEM instructions also require attention to whether the previous residence permission could be renewed or extended. The old card alone may not explain either point.

Bring the original grant, all renewals, the last TIE, any renewal submission receipt and the refusal or termination decision to the lawyer. If you did not apply to renew, explain that honestly and provide the dates. The lawyer needs to distinguish an eligible non-renewal from another reason the permission ended. The instructions distinguish expiry under Article 200(1) from other termination grounds.

The general rule excludes non-renewal on public-order, security or public-health grounds. Article 127(a) contains a qualification involving the relevant judicial outcome. If police or court matters are involved, provide the actual judgment, dismissal or acquittal and proof of its finality. Do not describe a pending criminal matter as cleared because you have not received another letter.

The category still requires the other ordinary arraigo conditions, including qualifying presence and the rules on asylum and other applications. If granted, it is ordinarily a one-year permission with work authorisation under Article 131. Read Articles 126, 127(a), 131 and 132 and the Ministry’s Segunda Oportunidad checklist. The official checklist still uses “arraigo-laboral” in its web address, but the page heading identifies Segunda Oportunidad.

Check Spanish-family and humanitarian circumstances separately from ordinary arraigo

If you have a Spanish child or partner, identify the correct family permission

A Nigerian parent of a Spanish minor should not automatically be directed to the current Arraigo Familiar category. Spain now has a separate residence permission for qualifying relatives of Spanish nationals under Articles 93-98. The applicable category can include a parent or guardian responsible for a Spanish minor who lives with the child or is meeting the relevant obligations towards the child.

The child’s Spanish nationality must be established, not assumed from birth in Spain. Bring the child’s birth certificate and Spanish nationality or identity evidence, your passport, and the documents showing parenthood, guardianship, cohabitation or the fulfilment of parental obligations. If custody is shared or the parents live separately, the court order and evidence of compliance may matter more than a general statement that you have a child.

Other qualifying relationships include spouses, registered partners and sufficiently proven stable partners, subject to the detailed conditions. A marriage certificate does not remove the need to demonstrate a genuine, continuing relationship and satisfy the applicable requirements. If either partner was previously married, the earlier marriage and its legal dissolution must be addressed with the appropriate certificates or court documents.

The application uses Form EX-24, not the ordinary arraigo Form EX-10. Where the relevant family category permits an application from within Spain, it is handled by the Oficina de Extranjería for the province of residence. Other arrangements involve a Spanish consulate, depending on where the relatives are and which category applies. Do not assume every adult child, parent or extended relative can apply from inside Spain on the same terms.

The rights while a family application is pending are also category-specific. Do not assume that every applicant can work immediately because a spouse in another case could. Ask the lawyer to identify the particular family paragraph, whether an in-country application is allowed and what the submission permits while it is being decided. See Articles 93-98 of the regulation and Hoja 18 for the current family checklist.

Current Arraigo Familiar instead covers specified relationships involving nationals of another EU or EEA country or Switzerland, including certain parents or guardians of minors and relatives supporting a person with a disability. It has no minimum prior-presence requirement and ordinarily lasts five years. A lawyer should also check whether the EU-family regime applies. A family relationship must be put into the correct legal category before the application is prepared.

If illness, violence or exploitation is involved, obtain specialist advice on the evidence

Humanitarian residence is not a general application for anyone experiencing hardship. Article 128 includes defined situations, such as a serious illness arising in Spain that needs specialised treatment unavailable in the country of origin, where interruption or lack of treatment creates a serious risk to health or life. The regulation requires a clinical report from the relevant health authority. A short note saying that treatment would be better in Spain does not establish those conditions.

If illness may be relevant, ask the treating hospital or health service for a clinical report explaining the diagnosis, treatment and consequences of interruption. A lawyer must then assess the legal requirements, including the evidence about access to treatment in Nigeria. Do not stop treatment or postpone urgent care while trying to identify a residence category.

Article 128 also covers certain crime victims where a final judicial decision establishes the required victim status, and certain cases where returning to apply for a visa would endanger the person or family while the other residence requirements are met. These are defined grounds, not interchangeable explanations to attach to an unsuccessful arraigo application.

Trafficking, gender violence, sexual violence and cooperation with labour or law-enforcement authorities have additional provisions. The evidence and safeguards differ. An applicant may need a protection order, prosecutor’s report, judicial decision, police identification or a labour-inspection decision, depending on the category. Tell the lawyer exactly which report or decision exists. Do not assume that any police complaint grants residence or that a person must wait until they meet two years of arraigo residence before asking for protection.

For irregular employment, Article 129(2) provides a specific cooperation procedure involving evidence of at least six months of irregular work during the two years before cooperation begins, with the required judicial or labour-administration decision. That is not the same as buying a contract for Sociolaboral. A specialist should review the safety and employment implications before the person takes action against an employer. See Articles 128-149 and the Ministry’s humanitarian checklist.

Submit the correct application to the provincial Oficina de Extranjería and keep the receipt

For the ordinary arraigo categories covered here, the current application form is EX-10. Download the current version from the Ministry’s official forms page, select the actual category and complete the identity and notification details accurately. A Spanish-family application under Articles 93-98 uses EX-24 instead. Do not use an old saved form without checking that its options still match the current procedure.

Use a Nigerian document only when the receiving authority or regulated adviser identifies it. Follow the written preparation instructions for that exact procedure, including any translation, authentication or legalization expressly required.

The provincial Oficina de Extranjería handles the arraigo residence application. The current Social, Sociolaboral and Segunda Oportunidad information sheets list presentation at the office for your home province or electronically through Mercurio. The Socioformativo sheet lists personal presentation at the provincial office. Check the applicable sheet and the actual province’s appointment arrangements rather than assuming every category uses an identical channel.

For an electronic submission, the applicant or properly authorised representative uses the permitted electronic identity and submits the signed application and supporting scans through the official service. Download the registered submission receipt and preserve the submitted documents. For an in-person submission, retain the registration receipt identifying what was submitted and when. An agent’s WhatsApp message saying “submitted” is not a replacement for the official receipt.

The ordinary arraigo fee is paid using Modelo 790, code 052, item 2.3.1, within the period stated in the current checklist, which is ten working days from the application. Generate the current fee form from the official service and retain proof of payment. Do not use an old quoted amount or confuse this residence-application fee with the later fee for the physical TIE card.

The general published decision period is three months from the day after the application reaches the competent office’s register. The published silence rule is negative, not automatic approval. If the period passes without a decision, ask the lawyer to check the status and available remedy. Do not start work solely because three months have passed.

If the Oficina de Extranjería requests missing documents, read the exact list and deadline on the notification. Submit the named documents through the accepted channel and keep the response receipt. Under Article 130(3), failure to correct deficiencies within the notified period can lead to the application being treated as withdrawn and closed. Sending documents informally to someone who helped you apply does not establish that the office received them.

Monitor the notification address and electronic channel used in the application. Where electronic notification applies, the Ministry warns that a decision can be treated as notified after ten calendar days without access. A representative receiving the notification must tell you promptly and retain the delivery record. An unread email reminder does not necessarily prevent a deadline from running.

These submission details should be checked against Article 130 and the linked information sheet for the chosen arraigo category. They are not a promise that the office will approve the application within a particular number of days.

After approval, complete the Social Security and TIE steps that apply to your permission

Read the approval decision in full. It identifies the permission granted, validity dates and any condition that must be completed. For Sociolaboral, check the Social Security registration requirement explained above. For a permission relying on self-employment, check the specific effectiveness and registration requirements in the decision. Do not treat all approval letters as having identical conditions.

Article 130(6) requires the applicant to request the TIE personally within one month of notification of the grant. Use the official police appointment service for the relevant TIE procedure. The current police checklist tells you which application form, passport, photograph, fee receipt, approval evidence and other supporting items to bring. At the appointment, the police check identity and take the required fingerprints. You receive the relevant receipt and collection instructions for the card.

Keep the residence decision as well as the TIE. The decision explains the permission and any conditions, while the card is the physical identity document recording it. Record the expiry date and check the extension or modification requirements early. An initial one-year arraigo permission is not permanent residence and does not renew itself simply because you remain employed or registered at an address.

If you have a refusal, expulsion decision or entry ban, have a lawyer check it before applying

An asylum refusal, a residence refusal, an instruction to leave, an expulsion decision and an entry ban are not the same document. Each may have different consequences and deadlines. Send the full decision, attachments and proof of notification to a Spanish immigration lawyer. If you have only photographs, photograph every page clearly and keep the original.

For an asylum refusal, the date the claim was formalised now matters. The Ministry of Interior publishes separate instructions for claims formalised before 12 June 2026 and those formalised from that date. In the newer procedure, the Ministry says an administrative reconsideration appeal, recurso de reposición, is not available. Judicial appeal periods and suspension rules depend on the decision. Do not rely on a generic statement that every refused claimant has one month or two months to appeal.

An arraigo application is not an appeal against an asylum refusal and does not automatically suspend an expulsion decision. The lawyer must check the specific overlap provisions in Article 63(6) of Ley Orgánica 4/2000 and Article 240 of the regulation, whether a return or expulsion measure is enforceable, whether a suspension has been requested or granted, and whether any residence application can proceed in those circumstances. Family responsibilities, illness and protection concerns should be supported by the relevant evidence and raised in the correct procedure.

Spanish law permits expulsion in defined circumstances and provides for entry bans, subject to the relevant conditions and safeguards. It does not mean that every overstayer is automatically expelled on the same timetable. Equally, paying a fine, registering at a town hall or having a work offer does not itself confer residence. Do not travel out of Spain assuming that re-entry will be possible with an expired card or an unresolved entry ban.

Use the Ministry of Interior’s current protection-procedure selector and Articles 57-64 of Ley Orgánica 4/2000. If detention or removal is imminent, obtain legal assistance immediately. Do not wait for Nigerian document preparation or a general consultation with Antarch Consulting before contacting a Spanish lawyer.