Arraigo Laboral (Employment-Based Residence)

Prove at least 2 years of continuous residence in Spain immediately before the application (art. 126.b RD 1155/2024). The regulation sets no cap on absences; the Ministry's official sheet for this arraigo does — absences across those two years may not exceed 90 days. If you were an international protection applicant, the time your claim was being processed until a final decision does not count (art. 126.b, second paragraph).

A contrato de trabajo (Spanish employment contract) signed by you and by the employer. What art. 127.b RD 1155/2024 requires: a weekly working time of no less than 20 hours in aggregate, and pay of at least the SMI (Spain's statutory minimum wage) or the convenio colectivo (collective bargaining agreement) rate as it stands at the time of the application, in proportion to that working time. You may submit more than one contract only in two cases set out in the article: seasonal work, with two or more consecutive contracts from different employers; or part-time activities carried out simultaneously for more than one employer. On duration: art. 127.b sets no minimum number of months, but it applies art. 74 (except its section 1.a), and art. 74.1.b requires the contract to provide continued activity throughout the period of validity of the authorisation, which is one year (art. 125.2). The contract start date must be conditional on the authorisation taking effect.

No criminal record in Spain and in the countries where you have lived during the five years before you entered Spain, for offences that also exist under Spanish law (art. 126.d RD 1155/2024) — not only your country of origin, and only for conduct that is also a crime here. You do NOT have to produce the Spanish certificate yourself — the immigration office obtains the central criminal records report, and the police report on you, on its own initiative (art. 130.2). You do have to produce the one from your countries of residence yourself, if you are above the age of criminal responsibility, except in two cases — having stayed continuously in Spain for the last five years, or having already evidenced this in an earlier application within those five years without leaving Spain since (art. 130.2). These reports are issued within seven days. And a record appearing in the police report is not, in itself and automatically, grounds for refusal — the competent body assesses case by case whether you represent a threat to public order, internal security, public health or the international relations of any EU Member State (art. 130.2).

The regulation requires two distinct things: not being listed as inadmissible in the territory of countries with which Spain has signed an agreement to that effect (art. 126.e), and not being within the period of the no-return commitment you accepted on voluntarily returning to your country of origin (art. 126.f).

You must not hold the status of international protection applicant when you file the application, nor while it is being processed (art. 126.a RD 1155/2024).

You must not represent a threat to public order, public security or public health (art. 126.c RD 1155/2024). This is checked against your criminal record in Spain and an assessment of the corresponding police report (art. 74.1.h, which applies through art. 127.b).

Requirement added by RD 316/2026 — you must not hold a stay or residence authorisation, nor be an interested party in proceedings for the granting, extension, renewal or modification of stay or residence authorisations (art. 126.h RD 1155/2024).

Paying the processing fee is a general requirement under art. 126.g RD 1155/2024, not merely a step in the process.

A complete copy of your valid passport. The regulation equally accepts a cédula de inscripción (registration certificate for undocumented foreigners) or a valid travel document recognised in Spain (art. 130.1.a RD 1155/2024).

Empadronamiento (municipal registration) history evidencing the 2 continuous years. The regulation requires you to prove the stay but does not set the means of proof; the historical empadronamiento certificate is what immigration offices ask for in practice.