Prohibition of withdrawal of foreign passport

The new Organic Law on the Protection of Citizen Security (LOPSC) in its article 13.2 contemplates the possibility of withdrawing a foreigner's documentation of origin only in the course of criminal judicial investigations, thus maintaining the right and obligation to preserve and carry with you the documentation that accredits and allows the verification of the identity of the foreigner:

Article 13. Accreditation of the identity of foreign citizens.

• Foreigners who are in Spanish territory have the right and obligation to keep and carry with them the documentation that proves their identity issued by the competent authorities of the country of origin or of their origin, as well as that that accredits their regular situation in Spain.
• Foreigners may not be deprived of their original documentation, except in the course of criminal judicial investigations.
• Foreigners will be required to display the documentation mentioned in section 1 of this article and allow the verification of its security measures, when required by the authorities or their agents in accordance with the provisions of the law, and by the essential time for such verification, without prejudice to being able to prove your identity by other means if they did not carry it with them.

As a result of the foregoing, the deprivation of the foreigner's passport by judicial order remains the same as before July 1st, 2015, that is, the withdrawal of the foreign passport only as a precautionary measure, in the scope of the criminal process or in the case of passive extradition.

The precept does not introduce an explicit change in the Immigration Act, but expressly repeals how many provisions, of equal or lower rank, are contrary to the provisions of this Law.

Eva María Ortega - Tramiuris S.L.