Barcelona enables a fair pavilion to speed up regularization procedures

BarcelonaTwo weeks after the in-person process for processing the extraordinary regularization of immigrants was launched, Barcelona City Council has announced that it will open Pavilion 2 of the Montjuïc Exhibition Centre from this Wednesday to speed up procedures. Since it was launched, 94,000 registration certificates and 17,000 vulnerability reports have been issued – the majority of which (10,000) have been downloaded online – as detailed this Tuesday by the Deputy Mayor for Social Rights, Raquel Gil.

This series of procedures has been carried out from four city facilities – the Sant Miquel Citizen Services Office (OAC), the Miquel Bleach street office, Monumental, and SAIER – prioritizing in a first phase those people who are registered to speed up the process of submitting the required documentation. From next week, Gil pointed out, vulnerability reports can be made "to people who are residents in Barcelona, but who do not have registration". Throughout this week, it is foreseen "to anticipate what documentation is needed to verify residency", confirmed the manager of Social Rights, Marta Clari.

The space at the Montjuïc Exhibition Centre will be operational from Wednesday at 10 a.m., and for the rest of the week from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., as a point where appointments will be given to request documentation. "What had been done so far in the four facilities was a double queue, that of people who already had an appointment to process and those who came to get a time slot for another day", recalled Gil, adding that this second queue is the one that will be attended from tomorrow in pavilion number two of the venue to de-escalate work at the OACs.

Likewise, the deputy mayor for Social Rights has pointed out that it is a way to gain quality in waiting areas. "Having more space should help us to have shorter queues and for waiting times, more or less long, to be in places where people can take shelter if it rains or there is air conditioning," Gil has highlighted. In addition, in the hall there will also be two information points to resolve personal doubts regarding processing. All in all, the idea put forward by the municipal government is that around May 15, the main attention can be located at the SAIER, at the office on Miquel Bleach street and in pavilion 2 of the Montjuïc Fair, so that the rest of the OACs can carry out other ordinary procedures.

Nearly 200,000 applications throughout the State

In parallel, the Spanish government delegate in Catalonia, Carlos Prieto, and the Secretary of State for Migration, Pilar Cancela, indicated this Tuesday that as of last week, there were already more than 130,000 people across the State who had been entered into the centralized system after applying for regularization. Thus, after a meeting with the different administrations, Cancela detailed that, taking into account the pace of applications submitted, the Spanish government expects to reach an approximate figure of 200,000 applicants by the end of this week.

Although the total number of applications in Catalonia has not been specified so far, Prieto pointed out that the decree has already allowed the immigration offices to accelerate the processing of pending residency applications. Thus, of the 46,500 that were pending in Catalonia, more than 21,000 have already been resolved. "The process is advancing as it should, and people are already receiving the first notification of the process, which allows for a residence and work permit," Prieto stated.

Cancela has ruled out having to extend the application period, which closes on June 30. "We already knew that there would be more presence in physical offices in the first few weeks; it's normal," she admitted. Likewise, in response to images of long queues that have characterized these first weeks of the regularization process, the Secretary of State for Migration wanted to send a message of reassurance to potential beneficiaries. "We are still in early May," she recalled, adding that "the necessary resources will be reinforced so that everyone can be attended to."