Spain has begun officially recognizing expired passports of Belarusian citizens residing in the country

On 21 January 2026, the Office of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya announced an important decision by the Spanish authorities: Spain has begun officially recognizing expired passports of Belarusian citizens residing in the country. This decision is based on a joint instruction issued on 19 January by the Directorate-General for Migration Management and the Spanish General Commissariat for Immigration and Borders, following consultations with the Office of Tsikhanouskaya.

An exceptional humanitarian approach

The document emphasizes that its provisions go beyond Spain’s general immigration legislation, which normally requires the presentation of a valid passport or travel document for the processing of residence permits and the issuance of foreigner identity cards (TIE). However, the Spanish authorities have officially acknowledged the practical impossibility for Belarusians abroad to renew or obtain new passports.

This situation results from a measure adopted by the Belarusian authorities on 4 September 2023, which prohibited Belarusian embassies and consulates abroad from issuing or renewing passports. In practice, this policy forces citizens living abroad to return to Belarus to replace their documents. For many of them (estimated by Spanish authorities at around six thousand people in Spain) such a return carries a real risk of detention and politically motivated persecution.

As a result, many Belarusians found themselves in a situation of legal vulnerability: even when holding a lawful migration status, they faced difficulties extending their residence permits or obtaining a TIE due to the formal requirement of a valid passport. The joint instruction is intended to eliminate this legal trap and is explicitly based on an exceptional and humanitarian approach.

Spain is not alone in adopting such measures. The document notes that the country relied on the experience of other EU member states, including Austria, Cyprus, Lithuania, France, Sweden, and Estonia, which had previously adopted similar decisions with respect to Belarusian citizens.*

* The Childoc team cannot confirm the adoption of similar instructions in the listed countries. In order to obtain further clarification regarding the practices of migration authorities, the team has submitted information requests to the relevant institutions.

According to the instruction, an expired Belarusian passport may be accepted:

• for any immigration procedure within Spain;

• for the application, issuance, and collection of a TIE.

At the same time, the document stresses that the measure:

• applies exclusively to Belarusian citizens who are already present in Spain;

• is temporary in nature and will remain in force only for the duration of the extraordinary circumstances, namely while the Belarusian authorities’ ban on issuing passports abroad remains in place.

This is an exceptional but highly significant decision that ensures administrative continuity and a minimum level of legal certainty for thousands of people. Belarusian nationals and professionals assisting them are advised to explicitly refer to this instruction in administrative procedures and to retain all documents confirming identity and previous lawful status abroad.

Newborn children: a regulatory gap

It is important to note that the instruction does not address the situation of children born in Spain to Belarusian parents who are unable to obtain a Belarusian passport.

Under Spanish law, the mere fact of being born in Spain does not automatically confer Spanish citizenship. As a general rule, children born to foreign parents acquire the nationality of their parents and obtain residence in Spain on the basis of their parents’ status. Exceptions exist only where both parents are stateless or where the legislation of the parents’ country of nationality does not grant the child any citizenship.

Formally, Belarus continues to recognize such children as its citizens by descent. However, due to the ban on issuing Belarusian passports abroad, a newborn child is effectively unable to obtain a document confirming this citizenship.

Spanish law provides a mechanism for foreign nationals whom no state is able to document — the so-called cédula de inscripción. This document may be used to obtain a Spanish foreigner identification number (NIE) in place of a national passport. However, the application of this mechanism to Belarusian newborns is not explicitly regulated, is not mentioned in the instruction, and in practice depends on the discretion of individual administrative authorities.

As a result, such children may find themselves in a situation of legal uncertainty:

• they do not automatically acquire Spanish citizenship;

• obtaining a Belarusian passport outside Belarus is impossible;

• the absence of a passport complicates international travel and identification outside Spain, since the Spanish foreigner identification number (NIE) is valid only within Spain.

Thus, despite the importance of the instruction recognizing expired passports, the issue of Belarusian newborns remains unresolved and requires separate regulatory attention. The existing gap creates a risk of prolonged legal uncertainty for families and calls for an independent solution from the Spanish authorities - either through extending the scope of the instruction or by issuing additional guidance to migration authorities.