Exceptional Rootedness 2026: Immigration Offices will process residence applications

Key data

Immigration Offices strengthen their role in processing residence authorizations through exceptional rootedness from July 23, 2026. The Resolution of July 22, 2026 formalizes a management assignment between the General Directorate of Migration Management and the General Directorate of General Administration of the State in the Territory, allowing personnel from territorial delegations to support material and technical tasks that previously fell exclusively on the central body.

This measure responds to administrative efficiency criteria: leveraging the experience and resources already available in Immigration Offices to expedite a procedure that, since the entry into force of the Royal Decree 316/2026, of April 14, regulates a new rootedness figure with its own requirements.

What does this regulation establish?

The resolution publishes a management assignment agreement, an administrative instrument that allows delegating material or technical tasks between public bodies without transferring the ownership of competence. In this case, Immigration Offices assume a specific set of support functions for processing, but the final decision on each file remains with the General Directorate of Migration Management.

The functions assigned to Immigration Offices are as follows:

• Verification of identity data in the ACEX system
• Verification or generation of NIE (Foreigner Identification Number)
• Review of addresses declared by applicants
• Recording of files in the corresponding systems
• Verification of police reports associated with each application

Two fundamental conditions frame this collaboration:

• The participation of Immigration Office personnel is voluntary.
• This collaboration cannot interfere with ordinary management of each office.

The underlying regulatory framework is RD 316/2026, which modified RD 1155/2024 (Regulation of Organic Law 4/2000 on the rights and freedoms of foreigners in Spain) to introduce exceptional rootedness as a regularization pathway.

Economic and operational impact

For exceptional rootedness applicants, the main impact is operational: having more territorial processing points can reduce waiting times and facilitate access to the procedure without needing to manage everything centrally.

For Immigration Offices, the additional workload is limited by the voluntary nature of participation and by the express prohibition that this collaboration interfere with their ordinary activity. The resolution does not establish additional costs or specific budget allocations for this assignment.

For companies with foreign workers in the process of regularization through exceptional rootedness, the measure can result in:

• Greater agility in resolving files, which reduces uncertainty about the worker's administrative status.
• Possibility of managing procedures at the nearest territorial office, rather than depending exclusively on centralized processing.
• Lower risk of delays that could affect hiring or contract renewal.

Who is affected?

• Foreign nationals applying for residence through exceptional rootedness regulated in RD 316/2026: they are the main beneficiaries of increased territorial processing capacity.
• Immigration Office personnel: can voluntarily assume the assigned tasks without altering their ordinary workload.
• Companies with workers in the regularization process: especially those in sectors with high presence of foreign workers (hospitality, construction, agriculture, logistics, domestic services).
• Immigration advisors and management firms that process rootedness files on behalf of their clients: must know which offices participate and what documentation is verified in each phase.
• General Directorate of Migration Management: maintains ownership of competence and final resolution of all files.

Practical example

A foreign national resident in Zaragoza applies for a residence authorization through exceptional rootedness under RD 316/2026. Before this resolution, processing of their file depended exclusively on the General Directorate of Migration Management at the central level.

With the management assignment in force, the Zaragoza Immigration Office can collaborate by verifying their identity data in ACEX, checking or generating their NIE, reviewing the declared address, recording the file in the system, and verifying the corresponding police report. These tasks are performed in coordination with the General Directorate of Migration Management, which retains competence to issue the final resolution.

The practical result: the applicant can complete part of the procedure in their province, without traveling, and the file progresses more quickly as the workload is distributed between the central and territorial offices.

What should companies do now?

1. Identify if you have workers in the process of applying for exceptional rootedness under RD 316/2026 and review the status of their files.
2. Contact the territorial Immigration Office to confirm if it participates in the management assignment and what procedures can be managed locally.
3. Inform affected workers that they can visit the territorial office for the phases of identity verification, NIE, address, and file recording.
4. Coordinate with your immigration advisor or management firm to adapt the processing flow to the new distribution of tasks between the central and territorial offices.
5. Review the necessary documentation for the assigned verifications: identity data, NIE, accredited address, and police reports, and have it ready before visiting the office.

Official source

Consult complete regulation in official source

Notice: This article is purely informational in nature and does not constitute legal advice. For specific decisions, consult a qualified professional. Source: https://www.boe.es/diario_boe/txt.php?id=BOE-A-2026-16070