Asylum and international protection

Process and procedure for submitting the application 

Presentation of the application in person at the legally established place, or in case of physical or legal impossibility, through a person representing you. In the latter case, the applicant must ratify the request once the impediment disappears. 

The appearance must take place, in any case, within a maximum period of one month from entry into Spanish territory or, in any case, from the occurrence of the events that justify the well-founded fear of persecution or serious harm. 

Asylum and refuge. To request an appointment to formalize an application for international protection (first interview), you must do so in person from Monday to Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. You must provide, at the time of requesting the appointment: Passport, identity or travel document (if you have identification documentation) and passport-sized photograph. 

In the European Union, several regulations stand out that affect the core of the asylum system, Council Directive 2004/83/EC, of April 29, which establishes minimum standards regarding the requirements for the recognition and status of third country nationals or stateless persons such as refugees or persons in need of other types of international protection and the content of the protection granted; Council Directive 2005/85/EC of 1 December on minimum standards for the procedures to be applied by Member States to grant or withdraw refugee status; and Chapter V of Council Directive 2003/86/EC of September 22, on the right to family reunification relating to refugees. 

It follows from these rules that member states have the power to introduce or maintain more favorable provisions for persons from third countries or stateless persons who request international protection from a Member State, provided that such rules are compatible with the provisions of the Community Directives. 

These directives are adopted within the legislation of Spain, as well as the doctrine and jurisprudence of the asylum courts (ECHR). 

In this sense, Law 29/2009, of October 30, regulating the right of asylum and subsidiary protection, is published. 

The purpose of this Law, in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, is to establish the terms in which nationals of non-EU third countries and stateless persons can enjoy in Spain the international protection constituted by the right of asylum and subsidiary protection. , as well as the content of said international protection. 

CONCEPT

The right of asylum is the protection afforded to non-EU nationals or stateless persons whose refugee status is recognized in the following paragraph. 

According to article 1.A.2 of the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, a refugee is a person who, "due to well-founded fears of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinions, membership of a certain social group, gender or sexual orientation, is outside the country of his nationality and cannot, due to such fears, , does not want to avail himself of the protection of such country, or the stateless person who, lacking nationality and being outside the country where he previously had his habitual residence, for the same reasons cannot or, due to said fears, does not want to return to it », and is not subject to any of the causes of exclusion of article 8 or the causes of denial or revocation of article 9 of Law 29/2009, of October 30, regulating the right of asylum and subsidiary protection. 

The right to subsidiary protection is that granted to people from other countries and to stateless persons who, without meeting the requirements to obtain asylum or be recognized as refugees, but with respect to whom there are well-founded reasons to believe that if they returned to their country of origin in the case of nationals or, of their previous habitual residence in the case of stateless persons, would face a real risk of suffering any of the serious damages provided for in Article 10 of this Law, and which cannot or , because of said risk, do not want to avail themselves of the protection of the country in question, provided that any of the cases mentioned in articles 11 and 12 of this Law do not occur. 

Conditions that must be met for the right to asylum 

1. The acts on which the well-founded fear of being subject to persecution is based: 

  • Be sufficiently serious due to their nature or repeated character to constitute a serious violation of fundamental rights. (Art. 15 European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, 
  • Be a sufficiently serious accumulation of several measures, including human rights violations. 
  • Acts of physical and psychological violence, including acts of sexual violence; 
  • Legislative, administrative, police or judicial measures that are discriminatory in themselves or that are applied in a discriminatory manner; 
  • Prosecution or penalties that are disproportionate or discriminatory; 
  • Denial of judicial protection resulting in disproportionate or discriminatory penalties; 
  • Prosecutions or penalties for refusal to provide military service in a conflict in which the fulfillment of said service would entail crimes or acts included in article 8 of Law 29/2009, of October 30, regulating the right of asylum and subsidiary protection. 
  • Acts of a sexual nature that affect adults or children.

Rights guaranteed with asylum and subsidiary protection. 

  • Free legal assistance (from the moment of submission of the application); 
  • Access to healthcare (from the moment the application is submitted); 
  • No return or expulsion (from the moment of submission of the application); 
  • Access to information on the rights and obligations related to the international protection granted in a language that is understandable to you (from the moment of submission of the application); 
  • Authorization for permanent residence and work in the terms established by Organic Law 4/2000, of January 11, on the rights and freedoms of foreigners in Spain and their social integration; 
  • The issuance of identity documents to those whose status of asylum, refuge or subsidiary protection is recognized. 
  • Access to public employment services; 
  • Access to education (from the moment of application); 
  • Access to housing. 
  • Access to social assistance and social services (from the moment of submission of the application); 
  • Access to the rights recognized by the legislation applicable to victims of gender violence, where applicable, to Social Security and integration programs under the same conditions as Spaniards (from the moment the application is submitted); 
  • Access to continuing or occupational training and internship work;
  • Access to the recognition of academic and professional diplomas and certificates and other official tests issued abroad;
  • Freedom of movement;
  • Access to general or specific integration programs that are established;
  • Access to voluntary return assistance programs that may be established;
  • Access to maintaining the family unit (Family Reunification) and support programs for this purpose;
  • In specific cases, to specialized document interpretation and translation services, permanent aid for the elderly and people with disabilities, and emergency financial aid. 

 Obligations of applicants for international protection are the following: 

  • Cooperate with the Spanish authorities in the procedure for granting international protection; 
  • Submit, as soon as possible, all those elements that, together with your own declaration, contribute to substantiating your request. 
  • Documents that prove your personal data. 
  • Age; 
  • Past (including that of related relatives); 
  • Identity; 
  • Nationality/s; 
  • Places of previous residence;
  • Previous applications for international protection; 
  • travel itineraries; 
  • Travel documents and reasons why you request protection. 
  • Provide your fingerprints; 
  • Allow yourself to be photographed; 
  • If applicable, consent to have your statements recorded, with prior information;
  • Inform about your address in Spain and any changes that occur there; 
  • Likewise, inform the competent authority or appear before it, when required to do so in relation to any circumstance of your request. 

Causes for denial of asylum status 

  • People who constitute, for well-founded reasons, a danger to the security of Spain. 
  • People who, having been convicted of a serious crime, constitute a threat to the community. 

Conditions for granting the right to subsidiary protection

That in the country of origin or provenance there are well-founded fears of:

  • The sentence to the death penalty or the risk of its physical execution; 
  • Torture and inhuman or degrading treatment in the applicant's country of origin; 
  • Serious threats against the life or integrity of civilians motivated by indiscriminate violence in situations of international or internal conflict. 

Causes for exclusion from subsidiary protection 

  • Those who have committed a crime against peace, a war crime or a crime against humanity. 
  • Those who have committed a serious crime outside the country of protection before being admitted as beneficiaries of subsidiary protection, understood as those that are serious crimes in accordance with the Spanish penal code and that affect life, liberty, indemnity or liberty. sexual, the integrity of people or property, whenever they were carried out with outside things, or violence or intimidation against people, as well as in cases of organized crime, which must be understood to be included, in any case, in the term organized crime included in the fourth section of article 282 bis of the Criminal Procedure Law, in relation to the crimes listed; 
  • Those who are guilty of acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations established in the Preamble and in articles 1 and 2 of the Charter of the United Nations. 
  • Those who constitute a danger to the internal or external security of Spain or to public order. 
  • Likewise, to those who incite the commission of the crimes or acts mentioned therein, or participate in their commission. 

Causes for denial of subsidiary protection 

  • Constitute, for well-founded reasons, a danger to the security of Spain;
  • Have been convicted in a final sentence of a serious crime and constitute a threat to the community. 

Place of submission of the initial application

Any person who wishes to request international protection in Spain, regardless of their age, can do so at the following offices where they will have to express their wishes to the competent authorities:

  • Foreigner Documentation Section of the General Secretariat of the Higher Police Headquarters. 

Address : Avenida de los Poblados S/N – 28047 Madrid 

Phone : In-person appointment 

Fax : 913228529 (provisional)

  • Border posts authorized for entry into Spanish territory (international ports or airports).
  • In the Foreigners Offices or in the authorized police stations, depending on the province in which you live.
  • People who are in Foreigner Detention Centers and want to request asylum/international protection must inform the Center Management so that the request can be transferred to the corresponding police station.

In the case of unaccompanied foreign minors, it is the legally assigned guardian who must consider the possibility of requesting asylum/subsidiary protection for the child, even if he or she has not made express mention of this type of protection.

It is important to note that applications for asylum/international protection before the Spanish authorities must be submitted outside the country of nationality of the applicant.

Apply for asylum/international protection outside of Spain

The possibility of requesting international protection at Spanish Embassies or Consulates, in those cases in which the applicant was outside of Spain and as long as they were in a country other than that of their nationality, has been modified in the new Law. In its Article 38 establishes that, in those cases in which a person who is not a national of the country in which he is located addresses the authorities of the Spanish Diplomatic Representation alleging a danger to his physical integrity, the respective Ambassadors may promote his transfer. to Spain to allow the presentation of your application in accordance with the established procedure.

Family unity of beneficiaries of international protection 
 
The maintenance of the family of refugees and beneficiaries of subsidiary protection will be guaranteed. 
When, during the processing of an application for international protection, the family members of the interested person are also in Spain, and have not submitted an independent application for international protection, they will be authorized to reside in Spain on a provisional basis, conditional. to the resolution of the application for international protection. 
 
FAMILY EXTENSION 
 
The right to asylum or subsidiary protection, by extension, will be granted to the following family members: 
 
First-degree ascendants who prove dependency and their first-degree descendants who are minors, with the exception of the right to family extension in cases of different nationalities. 
The family relationships of the ascendants and descendants must be established through the necessary scientific tests, in cases where the kinship relationship cannot be determined without doubt. 
 
The spouse or person linked by a similar emotional and cohabitation relationship, except in cases of divorce, legal separation, de facto separation, different nationality or granting of refugee status due to gender, when the application file proves that the person has suffered or had well-founded fears of suffering individualized persecution due to gender violence by their spouse or cohabitant. 
 
Another adult who is responsible for the beneficiary of international protection, in accordance with current Spanish legislation, when said beneficiary is an unmarried minor. 
 
Asylum or subsidiary protection may also be granted through family extension to other members of the family of the refugee or beneficiary of subsidiary protection, provided that dependency on them and the existence of previous cohabitation in the country of origin is sufficiently established. 
 
The resolution that agrees to grant the right of asylum or subsidiary protection through family extension will entail for the beneficiaries the same effects provided for the applicants. 
 
In no case will international protection by family extension be granted to people falling into any of the cases of exclusion or denial provided for. 
 
The family extension application will be processed by the Asylum and Refuge Office. 
 
FAMILY REUNION 
 
Refugees and beneficiaries of subsidiary protection may choose to reunite the family members listed above, even if they are already in Spain, without requesting the extension of the status they enjoy. This regrouping will always be applicable when the beneficiaries are of a different nationality than the refugee or beneficiary of subsidiary protection. 
 
In this case, the requirements established in the current immigration and immigration regulations will not be required of refugees or beneficiaries of subsidiary protection, nor of beneficiaries of family reunification. 
 
The resolution by which family reunification is agreed will imply the granting of residence authorization and, where appropriate, work authorization, of analogous validity to that of the reunifying person. 
 
Family reunification will be exercisable only once, without people who have been reunified and obtained authorization to reside in Spain by virtue of the provisions of the previous section being able to request successive reunifications of their family members. 
 
Extends the validity of certain documents for asylum seekers. 
 
The government, with good judgment due to the health and social emergency situation that we are currently facing, has made the decision to issue a communication regarding the extension of validity of certain documents issued by the Immigration and Border Units, which we transcribe :
 
1. Registration cards for undocumented foreigners whose validity expires during the state of alarm or in the 90 calendar days prior to the date on which it was decreed, will have it extended for a period of six months from the date on which the validity of the document had expired.
 
2.- The applicant for a letter of invitation, issued prior to the declaration of the state of alarm that could not be used because the planned entry date coincides with its validity, you may request the same agency that issued it to cancel it, as well as a refund. of the fees for issuing the letter (fees for the “invitation letter”) and the processing fees (fees for the “issuance authorization”), and must inexcusably deliver the original of the same to the acting staff.
 
3.- The receipt for submitting an application for international protection (“white receipt”), which had been issued prior to the state of alarm, will have its validity extended by nine months from the expiration of the validity of the document, as long as the resolution of the file has not been negatively notified.
 
4.- The document accrediting the applicant for international protection (“red card”) and the document accrediting the applicant for stateless status (“green card”) that had been issued prior to the state of alarm, will have their validity extended seven months from the expiration of the validity of the documents, as long as they are not has notified negatively the resolution of the file.
All appointments that have been granted to date to attend to the renewal of the aforementioned documents are cancelled. In this sense and in order to attend to all future renewal requests in an orderly manner, it is recommended that new appointment requests not be processed until the expiration of the extension of the document to be renewed has occurred.
 
5.-The receipt for submitting an application for international protection (“white receipt”), as well as the documents accrediting the applicant for international protection (“red card”), will entail, starting six months from the date of application, the right to work, regardless of whether it does not include the legend “Authorized to work”, as long as you have not been negatively notified of the resolution of your request.
 
6.- The document (“flyer”) of expression of will to request international protection that has expired as a result of the state of alarm will have its validity automatically extended during the validity of the same and for the three months following counting from the date on which its lifting is decreed for the exclusive purposes of guarantee the right of non-refund, without prejudice to the fact that the interested party must, within said period and as soon as possible, process the issuance of a new flyer so that a new formalization date is assigned.
 
7.- The travel documents of those who have recognized international protection or stateless status, whose validity had expired during the state of alarm or in the 90 calendar days prior to the date on which it was decreed, will see it extended under the same terms in which the validity of their foreign identity cards has been extended (extension six months from the end of the state of alarm).
 
 
We advise you in the process 696 976 407
 
Rafael Reyes Pulido