Spain Grants Second Most Residency Permits To Foreigners

The latest data published by the European Commission has revealed that Spain is one of the leading EU countries for granting residence permits to non-EU nationals.

Residence permits are an authorisation for a third-country or non-EU national to remain in the Member State for more than three months.

Despite the Coronavirus pandemic, the number of foreign nationals that were granted first residence permits within the EU in 2021 increased by 31% up 693,700 on 2020.

Spain accounted for 13% of all approved residence permits with 371,800 successful applications in 2021. However, it was Poland that saw the biggest rise which was fueled by the recent conflict. In total, the country approved 967,300 permits accounting for 33% of the EU total. Of these, 875 800 were from Ukraine.

These were followed by France (285,200 or 10%), Italy (274 100, or 9 %), Germany (185 200, or 6 %) and the Netherlands (103 600, or 4 %).

The six Member States together accounted for almost three-quarters (74 %) of all first residence permits issued in the EU in 2021 with a total of nearly 3 million approved applications.

It was Italy which saw the biggest relative increase compared to 2020 up 159%. In total, there were 274,100 applications compared to 105,700 in the previous year.

Main reasons for residency applications

The EC data also tracks the reason for the residence permit applications which includes employment, family reunification and education/study.

When it comes to residency permits issued for family reunification, Spain came out on top accounting for 159,200 or 5% of the EU total.

Spain remains an attractive proposition for those looking for employment and with the government now making it even easier for foreign nationals to work here, the number of applications for employment reasons has remained high and accounted for 88,100 permits being granted in 2021.

According to the country’s National Statistics Institute (INE) there are now more than 5.4 million foreign nationals living in Spain. This accounts for 11.4% of the total population of 47.4 million people.

Official figures show that there are now 316,529 British nationals resident in the country. However, this is still less than Moroccans with 776,223 and Romanians with 632,859 registered citizens. These are followed by Colombians (315,885) and Italians (298,817).

To learn more about your residency and visa options for Spain, please see our Guide To Residency Visas For Spain and How To Apply For Residency In Spain

Source

https://ec.europa.eu
https://www.thelocal.es/20220817/spain-the-second-eu-country-that-grants-most-residency-permits-to-foreigners/