Forced to pay for immigration appointments in Spain: "They play on our desperation"

The appointment for immigration procedures is free, but the lack of availability has created an irregular market in which middlemen charge between 50 and 200 euros to get one, and where scams also abound. The Spanish National Police have arrested several networks that blocked the system with automated programs to resell the appointments.

The appointment to renew immigration paperwork is free. In practice, getting one is not always free. In recent years an irregular market has grown in which middlemen charge for booking an appointment that the administration offers at no cost, and scammers also appear who vanish after receiving the money. The root of the problem is scarcity: more people need appointments than there are appointments available.

The case of Valeria, a pseudonym for a Colombian asylum seeker, sums up the journey. Her red card, the document proving her asylum application was still pending, expired on **6 September 2024**. She spent two months trying to get an appointment on the website without success. At the call shop where she sent money to her family in Colombia, she was offered a solution: they could get it for her. She paid **50 euros** in cash and renewed.

A year later, the card was about to expire again and the story repeated itself. A month and a half checking the immigration website until midnight without finding a slot. An acquaintance passed her a phone number. This time they asked **120 euros** for the same procedure. She made the payment via Bizum and the person on the other end stopped answering. She had been scammed. Through **CEAR** she found a lawyer who renewed her document without middlemen. Two weeks ago she was granted asylum and has given her fingerprints for her first residence card, after four and a half years of waiting.

## From 50 to 200 euros for a procedure that costs nothing

**Elena Muñoz**, head of the legal department of the **Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid (CEAR)**, has been watching this irregular market in asylum procedures for years. After the pandemic, she explains, accessing these appointments became increasingly difficult or delayed "in practically every province". That scarcity brought out ads on platforms such as **Wallapop** or the Yellow Pages with prices ranging from **50 to 200 euros**, or even more.

The comparison Muñoz offers is revealing: in provinces where there was no shortage of appointments, or in other procedures such as temporary protection for those fleeing the war in Ukraine, that market never emerged. "The origin of this black market is the scarcity of appointments. When there are more people who need appointments than appointments available, there are those who profit from the situation," she argues.

The international protection system has been under pressure for years. According to the **Ministry of the Interior**, in **2025** **144,396 applications** for international protection were filed and the **Asylum and Refugee Office** resolved **160,951 cases**, **67.2%** more than the previous year and the highest figure since the office was created in **1992**. Resolving more cases does not guarantee access to the procedure from the start: under European directives, a person applying for asylum should have their application registered within a maximum of **3 to 6 days**, Muñoz recalls.

## Bots, phones and arrests

The Ministry of the Interior states that the **National Police** work "constantly to improve the appointment system and make it more agile and secure". In the provinces with the highest demand, alternatives to the appointment website have been set up, through phone numbers, email addresses or in-person service, and they refer people to the immigration portal to check which option is available in each place. The security forces, they add, are investigating to prevent any kind of fraud.

The operations have trinc one after another. In **May 2023**, **69 people** were arrested after a network was dismantled that, by circumventing the security measures of the immigration website, blocked the appointment system with a computer bot and resold the appointments for between **30 and 200 euros**. In **September 2024**, police arrested two people in the province of **Valencia** who allegedly blocked the online system with a bot; the case began after complaints from victims who had paid for a non-existent appointment. Months later, a larger network fell, with **21 arrests** in several provinces for the same scheme; falsified documents linked to the ringleader appeared in the searches. The latest known arrest took place in **October 2025**: two people in the Madrid neighbourhood of **Puente de Vallecas**, accused of obtaining appointments en masse by phone and reselling them for **50 euros** each.

The problem is not limited to immigration. The union **UGT** has also denounced this black market for appointments in other public services, such as processing unemployment benefits or Social Security procedures. For Muñoz, the change of channels has partly slowed the phenomenon and the arrests are pogre, but they have not solved the root cause: "None of these measures has 100% prevented these appointments from continuing to be sold and bought."

## The appointment is the gateway to the system

For those applying for international protection, the appointment is not just a date on the calendar. It is the gateway. The provisional document proving the application is pending must be renewed periodically until the case is resolved. If that renewal is blocked, the consequences are concrete: the person is more exposed during a police identification, access to the provisional work permit is delayed, healthcare becomes more complicated and paths into the reception system, with accommodation, food and social, psychological and legal support, are closed off.

In **June 2023**, CEAR and more than **20 specialised organisations** filed a complaint with the **European Commission** denouncing that the lack of appointments in Spain creates serious deficiencies and difficulties in accessing the asylum procedure. Denouncing the networks is important, Muñoz insists, but safe channels are needed: those who have not yet entered the procedure have no documents to protect them and can face expulsion for reporting the fraud.

"As a foreigner, you do it out of antiestéticar," says Valeria about why she paid. Antiestéticar of not having that "little piece of red paper" that tells her she is at least legal and can work. Muñoz understands the situation but insists on not feeding the market. Among the alternatives, she suggests putting things in writing: filing a written request with the competent unit asking for an appointment and, if it does not come, turning to the **Defensor del Pueblo** (Spanish ombudsman) or seeking support from specialised organisations and legal advice services. That is what Valeria did after the scam. "We should not have to pay third parties to do this for us when this belongs to us too," she says. "They should not be able to manipulate us like that and play on our desperation."