Spain offers hundreds of thousands of immigrants a way to stay legally. But who are they?

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — More than half a million immigrants are believed to live in Spain without legal permission. They work jobs that few Spaniards want: picking fruits and vegetables in the fields, caring for children and the elderly, cleaning homes and hotel rooms. Some wind up homeless. The “sin papeles” (Spanish for “without papers”) are often exploited, marginalized and invisible.

Now, Spain wants to integrate them. Earlier this week, the government announced it would grant residency and work permits to all foreigners who arrived in the country before Dec. 31, 2025, have lived in Spain for at least five months, and have no criminal record. Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s socialist prime minister, said the country was opening a legal path for “people who have, together with us, built progress in this country ” in a video posted to social media Friday.

The unexpected move contrasted with harsh rhetoric and deportation efforts ramping up in the United States and other European Union countries.

Here are three people who are hoping to get their residency and work permits under Spain’s new policy.

“A week ago, I was living with constant anxiety,” said Ale Castañeda, an asylum-seeker from Colombia whose temporary permit was about to expire in February. “I didn't know what would happen to me, if I would be able to stay or not, if I would have to start from scratch again.”

Now, if his asylum case gets rejected, Castañeda has another legal pathway to remain in Spain. He just wants to be able to work and get access to “basic things," like opening a bank account. One thing he wants to make clear is that he doesn’t plan to rely on public benefits.

Castañeda says he's found odd jobs when he can but is currently out of work.

Like many of the Latin Americans who make up the majority of immigrants in Spain, Castañeda arrived legally on a tourist visa and decided to stay. A queer man, he fled discrimination in Colombia to more progressive, gay-friendly Argentina. But after right-wing, anti-woke Javier Milei was elected, the mood in the country changed and Castañeda was brutally attacked. “I just had to leave," he said.

In Spain, he finally felt safe.

While Castañeda celebrated Spain's immigration opening — “It’s the best news of 2026!” — he and other foreigners know that the devil is in the details. The government has shared the basic requirements but the fine print has yet to be published in the official state bulletin.

Castañeda knows how lengthy immigration procedures can be. Even the most basic step, getting an appointment at the immigration office, is such an impossible task that criminal groups are selling them for 50 euros ($60). He wonders how the government will process hundreds of thousands of applications in only a few months.

Spain's Minister of Migration Elma Saiz vowed that her ministry will dedicate additional resources to make sure things run smoothly. “We want this to be a success,” she said.

Paulina Valenzuela still can’t believe the news. “I still can't stop smiling,” she told The Associated Press by phone.

A former architect, Valenzuela moved to Spain after losing her job in Chile. She's struggled to legalize her status for the past three years, falling for costly scams and getting her immigration applications rejected twice without understanding why.

Like many educated Latinas who have moved to Spain, Valenzuela has taken up cleaning jobs to make a living. “I'll work in anything,” she said. At one point, she was responsible for cleaning 40 apartments listed on Airbnb, an intense and stressful job that paid little, she said.

The booming tourism sector depends heavily on cheap and informal immigrant labor. A record 97 million tourists visited Spain last year and spent more than 130 billion euros. Immigrants see only a tiny fraction of that revenue.

Physically and emotionally drained, Valenzuela quit in November and has resorted to social services to get food on the table.

She's hoping the new residency permits will lift her out of poverty. Valenzuela can't help but be suspicious of things that seem too good to be true.

“There's always an obstacle at the last minute,” she said. “But at least I have hope I didn't have before.”

Hussain Dar, 30, has been in Spain for almost a year and is struggling without papers.

He left his native Pakistan, where jobs are scarce, inflation is high and corruption is rampant, to pursue a master’s degree in the United Kingdom.

But he was unable to stay in the UK due to its harsher immigration laws and headed to Spain. Still unable to work legally, he’s used up all his savings, sold his computer, and is now thinking of selling his phone. Late on his rent payment, he's spent several nights sleeping on the streets.

“It’s been tough,” he told AP as he stood in an eight-hour line outside the Pakistani consulate in Barcelona this week.

Dar is among some 15,000 Pakistani citizens living in the northeastern region of Catalonia without permission, according to Murad Ali Wazir, Pakistan’s consul general in Barcelona.

One of the requirements — a certificate of clear criminal record — has swamped the consulate. The window to apply for legal residency in Spain will be short: from April and to the end of June only, Spanish officials say. To help its citizens get the required documents in time, the consulate announced it will even open on weekends.

“I didn’t expect that this country was going to be so good, the weather, the people, the culture,” Dar said. With permits, he and others will be able to work and pay Spanish taxes, contributing to the Spanish economy, he said. They’ll also be allowed to visit family back home that they haven’t seen in years, Dar said with a smile.

“Viva España! Viva Pedro Sánchez! We love that guy,” he exclaimed.

Follow AP’s global migration coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/migration

A crowd of Pakistanis gathers at the entrance of the Pakistani consulate in Barcelona, Spain, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026, following the Spanish government's decision to grant residency and work permits to potentially hundreds of thousands of immigrants. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Mamadou, from Senegal, transports scrap metal and discarded electrical appliances on his bicycle after salvaging them from trash containers, as he heads to sell them by weight in Barcelona, Spain, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

People from several Latin American countries, including Colombia, Peru and the Dominican Republic, along with Spaniards, wait at a bus stop in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, near Barcelona, Spain, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Alioune Beye, originally from Senegal, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press, while people stroll along the Barcelona seafront promenade, Spain, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A crowd of Pakistanis gathers at the entrance of the Pakistani consulate in Barcelona, Spain, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026, following the Spanish government's decision to grant residency and work permits to potentially hundreds of thousands of immigrants. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Blizzardlike conditions stemming from a “ bomb cyclone ” hammered parts of the Carolinas on Saturday and ushered in frigid temperatures to much of the East Coast, and tens of thousands of homes and businesses in Tennessee and Mississippi remained without power after being hit by a different icy storm last week.

Charlotte, North Carolina, saw one of its heaviest snowfalls in years, with roughly a foot (30 centimeters) or more in parts of the region.

That caused an hourslong mess on Interstate 85 northeast of the city, after a noninjury crash left dozens of semis and other vehicles backed up into the evening, according to the State Highway Patrol. The agency said it counted at least 750 traffic collisions, but no fatalities.

As snow came down steadily throughout the day, some people went out sledding with their families and dogs. Others stayed cozy at home to avoid treacherous traveling conditions.

Temperatures were expected to dip into the teens and single digits late Saturday and overnight.

About 240 million people were under cold weather advisories and winter storm warnings, said Bob Oravec, lead meteorologist for the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland. A low of minus 27 Fahrenheit (minus 33 Celsius) was recorded in West Virginia, and the frigid cold was expected to plunge as far south as Florida.

Some areas unaccustomed to snow braced for several inches to fall by Sunday.

Hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed at airports in Atlanta, Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking and data company.

Snow blanketed the neighborhood of Lee Harrison, an insurance agent in a town outside of Greenville, North Carolina, and he planned to take his three daughters sledding in the backyard.

“We’re not gonna drive anywhere,” Harrison said. “It’s thick enough that I would not feel comfortable driving with our family.”

Subfreezing weather and heavy snow were forecast in the Carolinas, Virginia and northeast Georgia continuing into Sunday. Snow was also said to be possible from Maryland to Maine.

Cindy Symonds, a teacher who lives near Columbia, South Carolina, said her husband stocked up “every snack known to mankind” in preparation. Storms in the area typically drop just an inch or two (a few centimeters), so the plan now was to stay off the roads.

“This is a complete, you know, aberration for us to have this kind of snow, where it’s coming down consistently for hours on end,” Symonds said.

In Myrtle Beach, South Carolina — whose official seal is the sun, palm trees and a seagull — snow started to accumulate in the evening, with up to 8 inches (20 centimeters) possible overnight.

With no snow-removal equipment of its own, the city was working with county and state officials, Mayor Mark Kruea said.

More than 197,000 customers were without electricity, mostly in Mississippi and Tennessee, according to the outage tracking website poweroutage.us.

Amanda Linton, a resident of Holly Springs, Mississippi, near the Tennessee border, and her family of five have tried to keep busy and stay positive during the weeklong outage. They have been stuck in the house for days with their dogs, chickens and ducks, with roads outside coated by inches (centimeters) of ice.

Linton said they managed to buy a generator ahead of the storms.

“Just lots of games and reading and really just trying to keep mine and my husband’s spirits up so that we’re staying positive for our kids,” Linton said.

Some 48,000 customers in and around Nashville, Tennessee, were still waiting for power to return. Nashville Electric Service estimated that 90% will have it back by Tuesday but it could take until next weekend — two weeks after the ice storm — for some.

Gov. Bill Lee said he shared “strong concerns” with leadership of the utility, which has defended its response and said the storm was unprecedented.

Mississippi officials said that was the state's worst winter storm since 1994. About 80 warming centers were opened, and National Guard troops delivered supplies by truck and helicopter.

In Georgia, 65-year-old Dolla Johnson, who is homeless, slept in a warming center.

“If I hadn’t have been here, I would be sleeping outside,” Johnson, said. “There’s nowhere else to go. The bridges are not safe. Everything’s freezing over.”

Experts warned of the risk of hypothermia and frostbite.

More than 100 people have died from Texas to New Jersey, roughly half of them in Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana. Some deaths have been attributed to hypothermia, while others are suspected to be related to carbon monoxide exposure. Officials have not released specific details about some deaths.

Officials closed a nearly 13-mile (21-kilometer) stretch of a main road in North Carolina’s Outer Banks, citing deteriorating conditions and poor visibility. Through social media the state Department of Transportation warned of likely “ocean overwash” and urged people to stay home.

Associated Press writers Julie Walker in New York, Gary Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed.

Snow falls outside a shopping center in Columbia, S.C., on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)

Alex Taylor, accompanied by his dog Daisy, prepared to slide down a snow-covered hill in Charlotte, N.C., Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Erik Verduzco)

Alex Taylor, 23, and his dog Daisy, make their way down a snowy hill in Charlotte, N.C., Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Erik Verduzco)

Hunter Steffen, 17, left, hands a hard-to-come by 40-pound bag of ice melt to a customer outside Town & County Hardware in Wake Forest, N.C., on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)

Tennessee National Guard Specialist Taylor Osteen, left, holds a chainsaw as he takes a break from cutting trees from a road Friday, Jan. 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Ethan Green, 21, left, an apprentice one lineman at the Yazoo Valley Power Association, looks up at a crew member Taylor Arinder on Friday, Jan. 30, 2026 in Bentonia, Miss. (AP Photo/Sophie Bates)

Tennessee National Guard members Taylor Osteen, left, and Antuwan Powell walk along an ice covered road as they work to remove trees Friday, Jan. 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Austin Bradbury uses a chainsaw to remove a tree above a road Friday, Jan. 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)