Residence permits are required when a citizen of a region outside the European Union plans to stay more than three months in any of the countries. This time limit is what is usually granted to tourists to travel legally. Staying longer than these three months can mean a fine and a deportation order.
This type of documentation issued by the EU countries reached the highest number since 2009 last year, with nearly 3.7 million authorizations and with Spain as the second country with the most concessions, as reported by the agency on Friday. Eurostat.
The almost 3.7 million permits granted during 2022 throughout the community space represent an increase of 26% compared to the previous year with a total of 2,931,664. It also exceeds that of 2019, the year before the health crisis of the covidwith 3,018,198 permits granted.
Although the data is missing Poland and Croatia -25 out of 27 Member States-, Germany it ranks first in issuing residence permits with 538,690 authorizations. It is equivalent to 15% of the total of the Union.
Spain it doesn’t go very far. With 457,412 permits (12% of applications), it is in second place followed by Italy (337,788, 9%) and France with 324,200. At the national level, most of these residence permits are for family, work and/or educational reasons. In the rest of the Union, on the other hand, the main reason is work.
If analyzed country by country, Spain was the EU country that granted the most residence permits for work reasons, Germany was the one that accepted the most applications for family reasons and France granted the most concessions for reasons of studies and academic training.
