Short answer: the government publishes the status of every immigration file online, free, and you do not need a lawyer or a digital certificate to look at it. The tool is called Infoext and it is run by the Delegación del Gobierno.
Infoext and Mercurio: two systems people mix up
Infoext shows the status of a file that has already been submitted. It is the one you want if you applied and are waiting.
Mercurio is the portal for submitting and managing authorisations electronically. It is where a file starts, not where you check it.
If somebody tells you to log into Mercurio to see whether you have been approved, they are pointing you at the wrong door.
What you need to check your residency status online
Your NIE or, if you do not have one yet, the 15-digit file number. The form also asks for the date you submitted the application and your year of birth, whichever of the two numbers you use. There is no box for a passport number. If you applied through a lawyer, all of this is on the receipt they should have sent you the day it went in. Nothing else. No certificate, no appointment, no fee.
If you have Cl@ve you can log in with it and skip the form. One limit: the service is not open to EU citizens, who have to ask at the office that processed their card.
Checking your Spain immigration status by phone or SMS
The official procedure page lists two more routes, and it warns that whatever they tell you is for information only. One is the phone, on 902 02 22 22. The help pages of the same site also send general questions about a file to 060.
The other is a text message. Write NIE, a space and your NIE number, or EXPE, a space and the 15-digit file number, and send it to 651 714 610, the number on the national procedure page. The online form shows the same information, so that is the one we use.
Spain immigration file status: what each Infoext message means
The Infoext screen explains nothing. It gives you a word or a short phrase in Spanish and leaves the reading to you. These are the messages listed in the help pages of the government site and in the information guide of the Madrid immigration office (August 2026). The two do not word them identically, so what you see on your screen may differ a little.
- “No se ha encontrado la información solicitada” (the information requested was not found). Either one of your details does not match what the office has on record, and the first thing to check is the submission date, which must be the one on your receipt, or your file has not been entered into the system yet. Applications sent through Mercurio or a public registry are not loaded automatically. Until yours is, the receipt is your proof of the date and of the fact that the application is under way.
- “Se están realizando trámites previos a la grabación de su expediente” (preliminary steps before your file is recorded). The system is missing information it needs to show you a status. There is nothing for you to do. Look again later.
- Trámite (in progress). The file is registered and waiting for a decision. It tells you nothing, good or bad. It only becomes a problem once the office has run out of time to answer you, and that depends on the permit, as the deadlines section below explains.
- Trámite-requerido (documents requested). The office needs more paperwork before it can decide and is going to send you a formal request. This is the status to act on fast, because now the clock runs against you. The general rule is ten working days to send what is missing (article 68 of Law 39/2015). In some procedures the notice itself sets the deadline, up to fifteen working days, and arraigo is one of them (article 130.3 of Royal Decree 1155/2024). If you do not answer, you are treated as having withdrawn the application and the file is closed. If you ticked the box for electronic notifications, the request sits for ten calendar days in DEHú or in Carpeta Ciudadana. Leave it unopened and it counts as rejected. From then on the notice is treated as served, your time to answer runs anyway and the procedure carries on without you (articles 43.2 and 41.5). So the day you see this status, log into DEHú.
- Resuelto-favorable (approved). It has been granted. Even so, what counts is the decision you are notified of, not the screen. That decision sets out your next steps: Social Security registration, fingerprints or whatever your permit needs. You normally have one month to apply for the TIE card. In some cases the month runs from the notification, such as a non-lucrative renewal (article 64), and in others from your Social Security registration, as with a work permit as an employee (article 77). If the screen says favourable and no letter arrives, the government site tells you to go to your immigration office.
- Resuelto-no favorable (refused). Wait for the notification, which gives the reasons and the appeals open to you. Decisions of the Delegación or Subdelegación del Gobierno on residence and work authorisations end the administrative route (ninth additional provision of the Regulation), so in general you have two options: an optional appeal for reconsideration within one month (articles 123 and 124 of Law 39/2015) or going straight to the administrative courts within two months (article 46 of Law 29/1998). Both run from the day after you are notified, not from the day you saw it on screen. There is one exception: for initial work permits in regions with their own powers, such as Catalonia, part of the decision is regional and the appeal can be a different one. Either way, the notification has to tell you which appeal applies, where to file it and by when (article 40.2 of Law 39/2015).
A file closed because you did not answer a request is also a decision, and it can be appealed like any other. Our lawyers can read the decision or the request with you and tell you which deadline is running.
How long the immigration office legally has to decide
This is where most of the anxiety comes from. A file sitting on “in progress” for four months feels like it has been forgotten, and sometimes it has, but the law puts a limit on it and the limit is not the same for every permit.
Under the Immigration Regulation, initial applications for temporary residence and work generally have to be resolved and notified within three months. Several other procedures run to shorter deadlines: two months under article 54 and article 89, and one month under article 55 and article 103.
What happens when the deadline passes is the part that catches people out, because it depends on which permit you applied for.
In most cases silence counts against you. If the deadline passes with no answer, the law treats your application as refused, and that opens the door to an appeal rather than closing your case.
In at least one case silence works in your favour. On a renewal of residence through family reunification, article 71 says that if three months pass from the date you applied without an express decision being notified, you are entitled to treat it as granted.
That article is not a one-off. The first additional provision of the Immigration Act sets the same rule for applications to extend a residence permit or renew a work permit: three months with no express answer and the extension or renewal is taken as granted.
That distinction is worth knowing before you panic, and worth checking before you assume the worst.
How to check your arraigo status
Arraigo files go through the same immigration offices, so you check them the same way: Infoext, with your NIE or the file number on your receipt, the date you applied and your year of birth. There is no separate arraigo portal.
What changes is what to expect while you wait. The arraigo procedure sets no deadline of its own, so the general one applies: three months, counted from the day after your application reaches the office that handles it (seventh additional provision of the Regulation). If that time passes with no answer, you can treat the application as refused (eighth additional provision) and appeal.
Two details matter for arraigo. When documents are missing, the office gives you the time stated in the notice, never more than fifteen working days, and closes the file if you do not answer. And if you applied for arraigo sociolaboral, once the application is admitted you are provisionally allowed to live in Spain and work as an employee until it is decided (article 130.5). The letter telling you that processing has started says so in writing. If that arraigo is granted, it only takes effect if you are registered with Social Security within one month of the notification. After any arraigo approval you have one month from the notification to apply for your TIE.
The requirements for each of the five types, including the two years of prior stay that all of them except family arraigo ask for, are in our arraigo guide.
What a long wait on your residency application means
A file that has not moved is not the same as a file that has gone wrong. Offices process in batches and some provinces are far slower than others, so a delay on its own tells you very little.
What does tell you something is a request for further documents. If one arrives, the office’s own deadline to decide can be put on hold while you answer, and answering late or incompletely is the single most common way a good application dies.
When to get a lawyer involved
If the legal deadline has passed and nothing has been notified, that is not a waiting problem any more, it is a procedural one, and it has remedies. The same is true if you have been asked for documents you do not have or do not understand.
Tell us which permit you applied for, the date it went in and what the screen says today, and we will tell you whether you are still inside the normal window or past the point where something should be done about it.
Spain residency status check: questions we get asked
Can I check my Spain immigration status online without a digital certificate?
Yes. Infoext has two doors, Cl@ve and a plain form, and the form needs no certificate at all: your NIE or file number, the date you applied, your year of birth and a captcha.
Can I check my residency status in Spain with my passport number?
No. The form only takes a NIE or the 15-digit file number. If you have neither, the government site tells you to ask your immigration office for the full file number.
How can I check the status of my NIE application in Spain?
It depends on what you applied for. A residence application shows up on Infoext under your NIE once the office has recorded it. A request for the NIE number on its own is a different thing: the number is assigned by the National Police (article 205 of the Regulation), so the place to ask is the police station, immigration office or consulate where you filed it. Tell us where you applied and we will point you to the right office.
Does a favourable status on Infoext count as my residence permit?
No. The site itself says its data is for information only. Your rights start with the decision you are notified of, and the deadlines for your next steps run from that notification, not from the screen.
How do I check my Spain visa application status?
Infoext covers files handled by the immigration offices of the Delegaciones and Subdelegaciones del Gobierno in Spain. A visa requested at a consulate is decided by that consulate, so that is who you ask. If your case has both steps, a permit approved in Spain first and the visa afterwards, Infoext only shows the first. Tell us which consulate has your file and we will tell you where it stands.