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Related guide: Do you need health insurance for arraigo in Spain?
The 5 arraigo routes compared: residence, requirements and validity
Royal Decree 1155/2024 restructured arraigo from 3 routes to 5, also cutting the general residence requirement from 3 years to 2 and simplifying how an employment relationship is proved. The table below compares what each route demands in terms of procedure, relationship and validity. None of the five routes requires private health insurance: our immigration lawyer confirms it.
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Comparison compiled from Royal Decree 1155/2024 and the FAQ guide of the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, consulted in July 2026. This content is informational and is not legal or tax advice: the requirements of each arraigo route, the exact calculation of deadlines and the documentation required should be confirmed with an immigration lawyer, a specialist agency or the immigration office competent for your specific case, as administrative interpretation can vary.
Common questions
Direct answers, the same we give at the office.
Do I need health insurance for any of the arraigo routes (social, sociolaboral, socioformativo, familiar or second chance)?
No. For arraigo, in any of its five routes, you do not have to take out private health insurance: our immigration lawyer confirms it. What varies between the routes is the administrative procedure (years of residence, family tie, employment contract or evidenced training), not any insurance requirement. If you would still like private healthcare while you sort out your residence, we help you choose it, but it is not an arraigo requirement.
How do I know which arraigo route applies to me?
It depends on your history in Spain: if you have 2 years of continuous residence and foreign relatives who are residents, it is probably arraigo social; if you have had an employment contract during those 2 years, sociolaboral; if you are enrolled in formal education, socioformativo; if you are the parent or guardian of an EU minor, familiar (with no 2-year requirement); and if you previously held residence you could not renew, second chance. This is a legal assessment for an immigration lawyer or a specialist agency, not for an insurance office, so before filing it is worth confirming your route with them.
Arraigo familiar no longer covers parents of Spanish minors: what does that mean in practice?
It means that if you are the parent or guardian of a minor with Spanish nationality you must file the new temporary residence permit for family members of Spanish nationals, not arraigo familiar, which since RD 1155/2024 only covers ties with minors from the European Union, the European Economic Area or Switzerland. This is a significant change from the previous regulation, which did allow this route for Spanish minors. This point often causes confusion, so it is worth confirming with your immigration lawyer which permit fits your case before you file anything.
What is arraigo of second chance and who does it help?
It is an entirely new route, with no equivalent in the previous regulation, for anyone who held a residence permit (not a stay permit) in the 2 years before the application and could not renew it because it lapsed, or had it refused for failing requirements, provided that permit was not granted on exceptional-circumstances grounds and the non-renewal was not on public-order or security grounds. It has been in force since 20 May 2025, with the new regulation. Like the other four routes, it does not require private health insurance: our immigration lawyer confirms it.
What does evidencing 100% of the IPREM mean for arraigo social?
It means demonstrating a reference level of monthly income or financial means (the Ministry cites €600/month, i.e. €7,200/year over 12 payments, a figure subject to annual review in the Budget Act) when you cannot evidence family ties to another resident foreign national and instead take the integration-effort report route. It is a requirement about financial means, set by the immigration authorities, and it has nothing to do with health insurance, which arraigo does not require: our immigration lawyer confirms it.
Do I need to budget for health insurance in my arraigo file?
No: none of the five routes requires private health insurance, so it is not a cost of the arraigo procedure, as our immigration lawyer confirms. If you would still like private healthcare while you sort out your residence, we help you choose it, but it is not an arraigo requirement. In that case the price depends on the plan, your age, your postcode and how many people you insure (the premium per person goes down with 2 or 3 insured and further with 4 or more), and the calculator gives you the exact figure without asking for personal details.
Is it true that only 2 years of residence are now required instead of 3?
Yes: RD 1155/2024 generally cut the continuous residence requirement from 3 years to 2 for arraigo social, sociolaboral and socioformativo, with cumulative absences of up to 90 days allowed. Arraigo familiar requires no minimum prior residence (it is the only route exempt from this requirement), and second chance looks at the 2 years before the application, but in terms of having held a previous residence permit, not simply having been in the country. This is a regulatory change worth confirming with an immigration lawyer or the Ministry's official source before working out the exact date of your application, because calculating absences and meeting the continuous-residence test allows for nuances depending on the specific case.