The red card is a provisional document that is granted to those foreigners coming from a country in conflict or in which a natural disaster has occurred so that they can stay in Spain. According to the Asylum and Subsidiary Protection Law, people in this situation can apply for residency in our country for humanitarian reasons or political asylum.
This type of application can take up to 2 years, and to allow the applicant to remain in Spanish territory during all this time, they are granted the red card - whose official name is "document accrediting the status of applicant in the process of protection international" - while waiting for the resolution. Thus, this document is only granted when the application has been admitted for processing and is valid for 6 months. If no resolution has been obtained after this period, it is renewed for another 6 months.
This card allows foreigners in an asylum situation to live legally in Spain with a NIE that allows them to obtain certain rights as citizens.
What this document does not allow is the possibility of traveling outside of Spain, since when submitting the asylum application the applicant's passport is retained by the authorities until the resolution is issued.
On the other hand, during the first 6 months once the red card has been granted, the foreigner cannot work, and this is specified in the regulations. However, in the event that the card has to be extended for a new period of 6 months since a decision on political asylum has not yet been received, the foreigner can work. He will be able to do it both for someone else's account and for his own account and with full labor rights.
If a person leaves their country escaping from a situation of conflict or natural disaster, and wants to get the red card, when they arrive in Spain they will have to follow the following procedure:
After carrying out this process, you will receive a white card with your data and the specification that your file is waiting to be admitted for processing. From that moment, immigration will have 30 days to finally decide whether or not to admit the file. The decision will depend on the likelihood of the applicant's situation and the justification for him to get this card.
In the event that the application is admitted for processing, they would directly grant the red card as a provisional document. If the political asylum application is finally accepted, it will become a definitive card. If, on the contrary, the resolution is unfavorable, the card would be invalidated. This second assumption is the most common according to figures from the latest report by CEAR, the Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid, which indicates that 95% of applications are denied.
