Empty results: 404 instead of 502
18/09/2026
Until today, any text SEPE returned when rejecting a query came back as 502. That included the answers where the authority replies perfectly well and what it says is that there is nothing:
No existen certificados para ese NIFNo se encuentra el documento en esta fecha 19/06/2026. Última fecha disponible para descargar…No se encontraron datos para la consulta solicitada.
For an integration that is indistinguishable from a service failure, so the reasonable response was to retry — and retrying a query with no results always returns the same.
From now on:
| Code | When |
|---|---|
404 | SEPE answered and there is no data for that query. Final answer: do not retry. |
422 | SEPE rejects the data sent (for example, El NIF/NIE del trabajador es erróneo). |
502 | SEPE rejects the operation for another reason, or answers unexpectedly. |
503 | SEPE is under maintenance (maintenance: true). |
The response body does not change: same success, message and errors.sepe with the authority’s text. Only the HTTP status changes.
It affects every SEPE query, and in particular Certific@2 duplicate, Detail and Data.
What to check in your integration: if you treat any 5xx as “retry”, 404 and 422 now leave that path and you stop repeating queries that will not change. The full table is in SEPE errors.