Moroccans in Spain can bring a child raised under kafala, but only if a Moroccan judge declared the child abandoned first

If you are Moroccan and living legally in Spain, the family you want to bring over may not fit the shape Spanish law expects. Morocco's Family Code does not allow adoption. The way a Moroccan family takes in a child who is not its own is kafala, a commitment to feed, raise and protect the child without creating a parent and child relationship. Spanish immigration law has a door that kafala can pass through, because it lets a resident reunite a minor they legally represent. But the door only opens for one kind of kafala, and the most common kind, the arrangement a brother or sister makes before two adouls to hand a child to a relative in Spain, is the one Spanish consulates refuse.

Can a Moroccan resident in Spain reunite a child held under kafala?

Yes, if the kafala makes you the child's legal representative in the eyes of Spanish law. Article 17 of Organic Law 4/2000, the foreigners' law, lists the relatives a resident may reunite. Next to the spouse and the resident's own children it names minors under eighteen when the resident is their legal representative and the legal act from which that representation arises is not contrary to the principles of Spanish law. Article 66 of the 2024 regulation, Royal Decree 1155/2024, repeats the same category for people the resident represents legally.

Kafala is not mentioned by name in either text. What decides its effect is how Spain classifies it. Law 54/2007 on international adoption says that a child protection measure created by a foreign authority, which under the law of the country that made it creates no parent and child relationship, is treated as Spanish foster care or, where it fits, as guardianship. Four conditions apply: the effects must be equivalent, a competent foreign judicial or administrative authority must have granted it, it must not breach Spanish public order in light of the child's best interests, and the document must be apostilled and translated into Spanish. Article 19 of the same law closes the other route most families ask about. A child whose national law prohibits adoption cannot be adopted in Spain, unless the child is in Spain, declared abandoned and under the guardianship of a Spanish public child protection agency.

So a Moroccan kafala is never an adoption in Spain. At best it is foster care or guardianship, and only that version gives you the legal representation the reunification rules require.

Why does a notarial kafala get refused?

Morocco has two kinds of kafala. Under Law 15-01, a judge grants kafala of a child who has first been declared abandoned, usually a child living in an official centre. Separately, many families sign a kafala before adouls, the Moroccan notaries, in which living parents hand a child to an uncle, an aunt or a grandparent who will look after them, sometimes with a court confirming the act afterwards.

Spain's Supreme Court ruled on exactly that second situation in a judgment of 9 December 2011, appeal 2917/2010. A woman living in Spain asked for a reunification visa for her niece. The girl's parents had signed a kafala before adouls in January 2006, a court in Oujda had confirmed it, and the request reached the Spanish consulate in Nador that summer. The consulate refused, the High Court of Justice of Madrid agreed, and the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal. Its reasoning is the one every Moroccan family should know before paying for a file. A kafala given by living parents does not strip them of parental authority, so the aunt was not the child's legal representative, and without that the niece was not a relative Spain could reunite. The court added that, because the EU family reunification directive is written for spouses and minor children, the Spanish category should not be stretched to cover nieces and nephews whose parents are alive and still hold that authority.

The court also cited two instructions from Spain's immigration directorate, from 2007 and 2008, telling consulates to refuse reunification visas based on a kafala constituted by a child's biological parents, and to refuse whenever the child remains under the parental authority of a living parent and there is no declaration of abandonment. That is why the answer at a Spanish consulate in Morocco is so predictable. The ruling did leave one narrow alternative: a stay visa for the child for schooling, medical treatment or holidays, when the stay is paid for by someone other than the parents. That is a temporary stay, not residence, and it does not turn into reunification.

What does the Spanish consulate ask for in a kafala case?

When the kafala is the judicial kind, for a child declared abandoned in an official centre, the Spanish Consulate General in Casablanca publishes its own document list. For a resident who is not an EU citizen, under the general reunification scheme, it asks for the following:

• , Proof that Morocco's Ministry of Justice made the mandatory consultation under article 33 of the Hague Convention with Spain's Ministry of Justice, and that Spain authorised placing the child with a foster family in Spain.
• , The initial temporary residence authorisation for family reunification, issued by the Spanish government delegation or sub-delegation.
• , The resident's passport and residence card, and the family book where there is one.
• , The child's passport, two national visa application forms and two photographs.
• , The child's birth record.
• , The certificate from the Moroccan authority declaring the child officially abandoned, or permanently deprived of parental authority.
• , The Moroccan court act appointing the guardians, and the court act handing the child over to them.
• , The Moroccan court's authorisation to obtain the passport, which must state that the child may travel outside Morocco and live abroad with the receiving family.

The Moroccan documents, from the birth record to the passport authorisation, must carry the Hague apostille, which Morocco has issued since the Apostille Convention entered into force for it on 14 August 2016, and then be translated into Spanish by a sworn translator. Notice that the list has no line for a notarial kafala at all. A file built on an adoul act is missing the abandonment certificate and the guardianship act that the consulate expects to see.

The consulate publishes a separate list for residents who are EU, EEA or Swiss citizens, which covers Moroccans who have since become Spanish. It asks for the same abandonment certificate and court acts. Becoming Spanish changes the immigration scheme you apply under. It does not change what a kafala is.

Can a Moroccan man in Spain bring a second wife?

No, and this rule has no exception. Morocco's Family Code still allows a second marriage with a judge's permission, and Spanish law answers that directly. Article 17 of the foreigners' law says that in no case may more than one spouse be reunited, even if the foreigner's personal law allows that form of marriage, and article 66 of the regulation says the same in the same words. The government's information sheet requires the resident to sign a declaration that no other spouse or partner lives with them in Spain.

The rule reaches back into earlier marriages too. A resident married for a second or later time can only reunite the new spouse if the earlier marriage was dissolved through a legal procedure that fixed the former spouse's position on the family home, maintenance and support for the children. A Moroccan repudiation or divorce that never settled those points is a reason for refusal. The children of a first marriage are a separate question. They can come to Spain if the parent in Spain has sole parental authority or sole custody, or if the other parent consents to the move, which is something to arrange in writing before the application, not at the consulate.

What does the reunification itself require?

Kafala or not, every reunification sits on the same base. The resident must have lived legally in Spain for at least a year and have applied to renew for at least another year, have stable income of at least 150 percent of IPREM, Spain's benchmark index for public payments, for a household of two, plus 50 percent for each additional member, hold health insurance for the family, and show adequate housing. The housing proof is a report from the regional government, or from the town hall where the region allows it, no more than six months old. If that report is not issued within a month, other evidence can be used.

The application is filed by the resident at the immigration office in their province, or online, with the 790 code 052 fee, and the office has two months to decide. Silence after two months counts as a refusal. Once it is granted, the family member has two months to apply in person for the visa at the Spanish consulate for their area of Morocco. For a child, the legal representative files it. After the visa is collected, the family member has one month to enter Spain and then one month to apply for the foreigner's identity card. A reunited spouse, and children of working age, can work in Spain without any further permit.

If your family is spread across Morocco and Spain, the settlement side of the move is usually as important as the paperwork. Our guide to settling in Europe shows how a residence route like this one leads toward long-term residence.

Frequently asked questions

This article reflects Organic Law 4/2000, Royal Decree 1155/2024, Law 54/2007, the Supreme Court judgment of 9 December 2011 and the published requirements of the Spanish Consulate General in Casablanca as they stood in October 2026. Kafala cases turn on the exact Moroccan documents, so speak to a Visagrad expert before a file is lodged.