Tens of thousands of applications for Spanish residency and work permits have been put on hold due to a failure in the computer system used to check whether the applicant has a criminal record or not.
Experts estimate that approximately 150,000 applications are paralysed due to the inability to process requests for police records.
Sources from the Interior Interior Ministry told newspaper El Periódico de Catalunya that the Adexttra immigration database and its query system has experienced a “serious incident” that prevents it from working.
They have partly attributed the breakdown to the increase in applications for Spanish nationality, which also requires the use of this system.
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Sources say that the problem began in December and has only gotten worse, but the Interior Ministry has declined to confirm this.
Normally when someone applies for residency, the Adexttra immigration database automatically checks for records. This process is used in 80 percent of cases.
However, workers at these foreign offices say that the system can no longer give a reliable automatic response, so they are having to check manually, verifying one by one whether applicants have police records or not.
As a result, some of the most urgent cases are being sent to the National Police, but this is increasing their workload too.
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It is thought that the problem is only going to get worse as the government recently announced that they would issue papers to 500,000 undocumented migrants, which is expected to begin in April.
Immigration law establishes a maximum period of three months from the time of the application to receive a response to say whether it’s been successful or not. If this period elapses without a response, the application may be considered denied through administrative silence.
If the application is an extension or a renewal or a long-term residence permit instead of a first-time application, when three pass without a response, it is understood that the application has been granted though administrative silence.
The Interior Ministry anticipates that Adexttra system will be operational again this week, however other sources maintain that the backlog of requests makes it impossible to return to normal service in the near future.
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The Ministry has also said that not all areas of the country are experiencing the same levels of backlogs, so it could be worse in some places than others.
Madrid and Barcelona are thought to be suffering the most due to the sheer number of applications in those areas, but the situation is also worrying in other locations due to the limited number of police officers they have.
