Family residence: criminal records require an individual assessment in protected EU cases

Spain’s Supreme Court has annulled the parts of Articles 97.4 and 98.1 of the Immigration Regulation that allowed automatic refusal based on a criminal record without an individual assessment, in cases covered by Article 20 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

This matters for qualifying residence cases involving family members of Spanish nationals. A past conviction alone cannot automatically decide the outcome within that protected scope. The ruling does not guarantee approval or remove public-order and security checks, and it does not extend the same result to every visa applicant.

The judgment is dated 8 July 2026 and was published in the BOE on 22 September 2026. The BOE’s consolidated regulation records the change as in force from 22 September 2026.

Source: Supreme Court judgment, BOE-A-2026-19632 · Published 22 September 2026 https://www.boe.es/buscar/doc.php?id=BOE-A-2026-19632

Why it matters

A criminal record cannot automatically determine refusal within the ruling’s protected scope; other requirements and public-order checks remain relevant.