Spanish citizenship: how to get it

Spanish citizenship is obtained by naturalisation — after several years of legal residence with a resident card. For citizens of Belarus, Kazakhstan and most other non-EU countries the period is 10 years. For refugees it is 5 years; for citizens of Ibero-American countries, Portugal, Andorra, the Philippines and Equatorial Guinea, 2 years; for spouses of Spaniards and people born in Spain, 1 year.

The count starts not from the date you arrived but from the date of your first residence permit. Time on a student visa does not count. Besides the period of residence you need the CCSE and DELE A2 exams, a clean criminal record and, for citizens of most countries, a declaration renouncing your previous citizenship. The fee is €104.05, and processing takes one to three years.

Below is the detail, step by step. Almost every article on this topic stops at the line “you need to live there for ten years”: formally true, practically useless. Half of readers qualify for a different period, and the ten years are counted not from where people usually think.

We will cover how many years apply to you, from which day to count, what you need besides the period, and the main awkward question — renouncing your previous citizenship.

Spanish citizenship: the essentials

Parameter	Value
Main route	Naturalisation by residence, Articles 21–22 of the Spanish Civil Code
General period	10 years of legal residence
Reduced periods	5 years — refugees; 2 years — Ibero-America, Portugal, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea, Sephardic Jews; 1 year — spouses of Spanish citizens, people born in Spain and a number of other cases
Count starts from	The date of your first legal residence permit, not your date of arrival
Exams	CCSE is compulsory; DELE A2 for those whose native language is not Spanish
Government fee	€104.05 (modelo 790-026)
Processing time	1 year by law, in practice usually 1 to 3 years
After approval	Oath within 180 days, otherwise the decision is cancelled
After the oath	Registration in the Registro Civil, then DNI and passport at the police
Dual citizenship	Only with Ibero-American and a few other countries; others must make a renunciation declaration
Through investment	Not possible. The “golden visa” was abolished in April 2025

What grounds exist

Naturalisation by residence is the route for the vast majority of people who move, and the rest of this article is about it. But the law has five grounds, and it is worth checking whether you fall into a shorter scenario.

Ground	Spanish name	Who it suits
By residence	Nacionalidad por residencia	Most people who move: you must live in Spain legally and continuously for the required period
By origin	Nacionalidad española de origen	Children of Spaniards and certain categories linked to descent
By option	Nacionalidad por opción	Those with a special family or legal connection to Spain, for example having been under the guardianship of a Spaniard
Exceptionally	Carta de naturaleza	For special merit, by government decision. A handful of cases a year
By possession of status	Posesión de estado	A rare protective mechanism: the person was treated in good faith as Spanish in the civil register for at least 10 years

Two similar scenarios for people born in Spain should be kept apart: citizenship by origin and applying by residence after one year. They are different things, and which one applies depends on the parents’ legal situation.

How many years apply to you

This is the first thing to establish. The period does not depend on what you want but on the category you fall into.

Your situation	Residence period
Citizen of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and most other countries	10 years
Recognised refugee in Spain	5 years
Citizens of Ibero-American countries, Portugal, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea, and Sephardic Jews	2 years
Spouse of a Spanish citizen (marriage registered, living together)	1 year
Born in Spain	1 year
Children and grandchildren of Spaniards by origin	1 year
Widow or widower of a Spanish citizen	1 year

Note two lines that usually get lost in general articles.

Marriage means one year, not ten. But the marriage must be registered in the Spanish Registro Civil before you apply, and you must actually live together — this is proven by joint municipal registration. If your spouse is Spanish and you do not yet have a residence permit, start not with citizenship but with the family member of a Spanish citizen card: that is what starts the count.

Being born in Spain means one year, not automatic citizenship. A child born in Spain to foreign parents does not, as a rule, become a Spanish citizen at birth: Spain does not apply pure birthright citizenship. But such a child has the right to apply for citizenship after one year of legal residence — radically shorter than the usual ten.

The count starts from your first residence permit

This is the detail with the most costly consequences, and it is hardly ever spelled out.

What counts are years of legal residence with a resident card. Not the years since you first arrived. Not years of tourist stamps. Not the time spent waiting for a decision on your first application.

Hence a simple conclusion: every month you delay your first residence permit delays your passport by a month. Someone who spent two years “looking around” on tourist visas will get citizenship two years later than a neighbour who got a residence permit straight away.

The whole path looks like this:

1. First residence permit — on any basis: digital nomad residence permit, startup visa, non-lucrative residence (no right to work), autónomo (self-employed), employment, family. The count starts from this date.
2. Permanent residence (residencia de larga duración) — after 5 years of continuous residence.
3. Citizenship — after 10 years or your reduced period.

A student visa does not count towards citizenship at all. A stay for studies (estancia por estudios) is not residence but a stay: legally these are different statuses. The count starts only after you switch to a residence permit. Someone who studied in Spain for four years and only then obtained residence starts from zero — the four years do not count.

A different rule applies to permanent residence: there, study time counts at half. This discrepancy is why both claims can be found online — they refer to different statuses.

Breaks also matter. Residence must be continuous and immediately precede the application. Long absences from Spain interrupt the count, and it will have to be built up again.

How long can you be away from Spain before applying for citizenship

Article 22.3 of the Civil Code requires residence to be “legal, continuada e inmediatamente anterior a la petición”: legal, continuous and immediately preceding the application. The law does not say how many days you may spend abroad — there is no number in it.

The line is drawn by the courts. The Supreme Court starts from the idea that continuity means a real home in Spain and a life tied to the country: a source of income, family, social and administrative links. Temporary trips for work, study or similar reasons do not break it, as long as the link with Spain is kept. But it is up to the applicant to prove that they actually lived here (Supreme Court, judgment 2271/2016 of 24 October 2016).

How this plays out in actual rulings:

• Two long trips within two years — refusal. A Peruvian national on a two-year period was away for two and a half months and then for five months and gave no reasons. The Supreme Court upheld the refusal: these absences amounted to almost a third of the required period (judgment 2271/2016 of 24.10.2016).
• Frequent trips and one longer than three months — refusal. An applicant from Argentina had entered and left Spain many times and was abroad from 26 August to 18 December 2018. The ministry asked him to explain the reasons for the trips; no explanation was given. A rental contract, IRPF returns, a work record and a family with Spanish citizens did not help (Audiencia Nacional, 16.06.2025, case 1761/2021).
• Permanent residence as an argument for continuity. The ministry refused a Brazilian national on a two-year period, finding that two continuous years had not been completed. The court granted citizenship: shortly before applying she had obtained permanent residence, which is only granted after five years of continuous residence (Audiencia Nacional, 11.12.2023, case 2820/2021).

Our conclusion from these rulings. A holiday of a few weeks a year while your life stays in Spain is normal and is not a break. The risk of refusal comes from a single trip longer than three months and from frequent departures, especially without a clear reason. On a two-year period every month abroad weighs more than on a ten-year one: the court measures absences against the required period.

Example: six weeks every summer, about three months over two years. This pattern does not match the refusals above, which involved absences of two and a half months or more in a row with no explanation, or constant back-and-forth travel. The law gives no guarantee, so it is worth documenting the reason for each trip and your return in advance.

The ministry sees absences from your passport and police data and may ask you to explain them. Life in Spain is proven with documents:

• a padrón certificate — registration at your address;
• a rental contract or title to your home, rent and utility payments;
• work or business in Spain: your social security work record (vida laboral), IRPF returns as a tax resident;
• for children — a school attendance certificate;
• a health card (tarjeta sanitaria) and visits to doctors in Spain;
• for every long trip — its reason and your return tickets.

The residence permit itself has its own absence limits, and they have to be met separately (RD 1155/2024):

• The non-lucrative residence permit (no lucrativa) is renewed only if you actually lived in Spain for more than 183 days in the calendar year (art. 64.2.f).
• To obtain permanent residence, over five years you may be absent for no more than six months in a row and no more than ten months in total; for work-related trips, up to 18 months in total (arts. 176 and 183).
• Permanent residence once granted ends after 12 consecutive months outside the EU, and EU long-term residence (larga duración-UE) also after six years outside Spain (art. 201).

Staying within these limits is mandatory, but for citizenship it may not be enough: a renewed temporary card does not in itself prove continuity — the Supreme Court accepted this reasoning in the 2016 case. The limits for each type of permit are covered in our overview of Spanish residence permits and in the article on permanent residence in Spain.

How to get Spanish citizenship faster

The honest answer: there is no fast track. For citizens of Belarus, Kazakhstan and most third countries the term is the same — 10 years of lawful residence — and it cannot be shortened with money, investment or a premium fee. Only the ground shortens it: marriage to a Spanish citizen means 1 year, refugee status 5 years, and citizenship of an Ibero-American country, Portugal, Andorra, the Philippines or Equatorial Guinea, or Sephardic origin, 2 years.

What is in your hands is the date the clock starts. The term runs from your first residence permit, so «faster» really means «start earlier and do not break it». Three things genuinely move the passport date:

• Get residence now instead of watching from a tourist visa. Two years of looking around are two years added to the wait.
• Pick the ground with the shortest entry. In 2026 that is the digital nomad permit: UGE decides within 20 working days, silence counts as approval, and an application filed from inside Spain gets a card for three years straight away. By comparison, a national visa takes as long as the consulate takes, and the first card lasts a year.
• Do not break your residence, and do not count study years. Estancia por estudios does not count towards citizenship at all, and long absences from Spain break the continuity.

If you do not have residence yet, «how to get citizenship faster» really means «how to get the first permit faster». The conditions, income and documents are covered in the guide to the digital nomad visa, and the full service is on the digital nomad permit service page.

What you need besides the residence period

The period is a necessary condition, but not the only one.

Good civic conduct

In practice this means: no criminal record in Spain or in your country of origin, no open criminal cases, no debts to the tax authorities or social security. You bring a criminal record certificate from your country of origin, with an apostille and translation (article 5 of RD 1004/2015); the ministry checks the Spanish criminal record itself if you consent to the check.

Integration into Spanish society

This is proven by two Instituto Cervantes exams:

• CCSE — a test on the Spanish constitution and social and cultural life. 25 questions, 60% needed to pass. It costs about €85. Compulsory for almost everyone.
• DELE A2 — a basic-level Spanish language exam. It costs €138 in Spain; levels, session dates and prices are in our article on the DELE and SIELE exams. Citizens of countries where Spanish is an official language are exempt; everyone else has to take it.

A2 is “survival” level: introduce yourself, explain where you live and what you do, understand a simple conversation in a shop or at the doctor’s. Living in Spain you pick it up naturally, and starting from scratch a few months of classes is enough.

Documents

The main set: passport, birth certificate with a sworn translation and, as a rule, an apostille, a criminal record certificate from your country of origin with an apostille and translation, a registration certificate (empadronamiento) only if you do not consent to your data being checked, resident card, CCSE and DELE certificates, and the fee payment receipt.

The key detail people trip over: certificates have an expiry date: a criminal record certificate, for example, is accepted only for a limited time after issue. Documents must be gathered in the right order, otherwise the first certificates will expire while you are getting the last ones.

How the application works

The application is submitted electronically to the Ministry of Justice. The fee is €104.05 on form 790-026.

By law the ministry must issue a decision within a year. In practice, in 2026, because the system is overloaded, processing takes one to three years. A refusal can be appealed: one month to appeal to the ministry itself and two months to go to the National High Court.

After a positive decision comes the oath within 180 days. This is a strict deadline: miss it and the decision is cancelled, and you will have to go through the whole process again. At the oath you swear allegiance to the King and the Constitution, and that is also where what we discuss below takes place.

The 180-day trap

The oath is usually taken at the Registro Civil, and getting an appointment there is not easy: in busy regions the wait ranges from several months to a year. So the 180 days can run out while you are waiting for an appointment.

There is a way out: the oath can be taken before an accredited notary — it costs money but is quick. Book immediately after receiving the positive decision, not “when you have time”.

If the ministry stays silent

A separate situation is when there is no decision at all: not a refusal, but silence beyond the one year set by law. For this there is an administrative lawsuit (recurso contencioso-administrativo), by which the applicant compels the ministry to issue a decision. The mechanism works and is regularly used when delays are significant.

Renouncing your previous citizenship: how it really works

Here most articles make do with one line: “Spain does not recognise dual citizenship, so you will have to give up your current one.” The line is correct, but it does not explain the mechanics, and the mechanics are exactly what worries people most.

What Spain requires. At the oath, a person whose country is not on the list of exceptions makes a declaration of renunciation of their previous citizenship. This is a declaration that is spoken and recorded in the Registro Civil. The list of exceptions is Ibero-American countries, Portugal, Andorra, the Philippines and Equatorial Guinea; their citizens officially keep both passports.

What happens to your previous citizenship. The Spanish declaration does not in itself terminate it: whether and how it ends is decided by the law of your country.

What this means in practice. In fact many people find themselves in a position where Spain considers them to have renounced, while their country of origin continues to regard them as its citizens. Legally this is a grey area, not permitted dual citizenship, and it can have consequences in that country.

We do not give advice on how to get around this requirement and do not advise on the law of other countries. Our aim is for you to make a decision understanding the real mechanics, not just the line “you will have to renounce”.

Why permanent residence is enough for many people

And now the most important point for those reading this at the start of their journey.

Between a residence permit and citizenship there is an intermediate step — permanent residence, residencia de larga duración. It is granted after 5 years instead of 10 and covers most of what people want a passport for.

What	Permanent residence (5 years)	Citizenship (10 years)
Live in Spain indefinitely	yes	yes
Work without permits or restrictions	yes	yes
Healthcare and education	yes	yes
Family reunification	yes	yes
Giving up your previous passport	not required	required
CCSE and DELE A2 exams	not required	required
Vote in elections	no	yes
Work in the public sector	limited	yes
EU passport and freedom to live in any EU country	no	yes
Risk of losing the status	yes, after long absences: for larga duración-UE — 12 consecutive months outside the EU or 6 years outside Spain; different rules apply to national permanent residence	practically none
Card	renewed every 5 years	no status renewals

Reading this table, ask yourself honestly: what exactly do you need?

If it shows that permanent residence is enough for you, you can stop reading about citizenship here: the conditions, absence limits, documents and the difference between the national and the EU version are covered in a separate article — how to get permanent residence in Spain.

If you want to live and work in Spain in peace — permanent residence gives you that after five years, without exams and without the question of renouncing your passport. In everyday life the difference from citizenship is barely noticeable.

If you need an EU passport — to move freely to France or Germany, for your children to have a European passport, to vote in elections — then yes, you need citizenship, and you will have to go through the ten years.

What citizenship gives your children

For parents this is usually a weightier argument than the right to vote.

A child who is a citizen follows their educational path not as a foreign student from a non-EU country but as an EU citizen: school, bachillerato, admission to a public university, a master’s degree, internships and a first job add up to one clear European path without migration barriers at every step. Access to public scholarships and grants also becomes easier, provided the academic and financial conditions are met.

One more detail: children of a naturalised citizen born after the parent obtained Spanish citizenship are Spanish by origin — they do not have to go through the whole process again.

Both goals require the same first step, and that is what makes the difference: a legal residence permit obtained as early as possible. Everything else is a matter of time.

Does citizenship change your taxes?

Not in itself. Tax obligations in Spain are determined by tax residence, not by your passport: what matters is where you live for more than 183 days a year and where the centre of your economic interests is.

A person with a Spanish passport living outside Spain pays tax here only on Spanish income. Conversely, a residence permit holder who has lived in the country for more than six months declares their worldwide income, even though they are not a citizen. This is covered in detail in the article on taxes in Spain.

Can you get citizenship through investment or buying property?

No. And you never could.

The “golden visa” for buying property worth €500,000 or more gave a residence permit, not citizenship: the investor obtained a residence permit, then permanent residence, and only after ten years could apply for a passport — on general grounds, like everyone else.

Moreover, the programme itself was abolished in April 2025. Today you cannot get a Spanish residence permit for buying property at all.

A separate note on citizenship by letter of naturalisation (carta de naturaleza): the law does provide for it, and it is granted by government decision for exceptional merit. There are only a handful of cases a year. It is not a route you can plan for.

The Spanish passport: what it gives and what it looks like

What it gives. A Spanish passport is a European Union citizen’s passport. The right to live, work and study in any EU country without permits. According to the Passport Index ranking — 132 countries visa-free and another 43 with simplified entry rules. Consular protection anywhere in the world. The right to vote in all elections and to hold public sector posts.

What it looks like. A burgundy cover with the Spanish coat of arms and the words Unión Europea / España, and a biometric chip. It looks no different from the passports of other EU countries — the format is standard.

Validity. Under 5, 2 years; from 5 to 30, 5 years; from 30, 10 years. That is where the question about the “five-year passport” comes from: it is the passport of anyone under 30, not a special type.

From what age a passport and DNI are issued. There is no minimum age: a passport can be issued even to a newborn — with the parents’ consent and with the child present in person (RD 896/2003). The DNI identity card can be obtained at any age, and from 14 it is compulsory for those living in Spain (RD 1553/2005). A DNI is valid for 2 years under the age of 5, 5 years from 5 to 30, 10 years from 30 to 70 and indefinitely after 70. The fee is €30 for a passport and €12 for a DNI, free for large families.

Domestic ID. Besides the passport, a Spanish citizen has a DNI — the national identity card. All citizens get one, and it is what is used in everyday life, while the passport is only for travel.

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How to get a Spanish passport after the oath

The passport is not issued at the oath. Four more steps follow, strictly in order: each document requires the previous one.

Step 1. Registering citizenship in the Registro Civil

Citizenship only takes effect once it is entered in the Spanish Registro Civil: this is an express requirement of Article 23 of the Spanish Civil Code. Citizenship is noted in the birth record, so anyone born abroad first gets a birth record created in the Spanish register (Article 68 of Law 20/2011 on the Civil Registry).

This is how you get a Spanish birth certificate: an extract from that record. Your foreign birth certificate with a sworn translation was needed for the application; from then on Spanish authorities work with their own record.

Step 2. Birth certificate and padrón

For your first DNI you need:

• a full birth certificate (certificación literal de nacimiento) from the Registro Civil, no older than six months and marked as issued for obtaining a DNI;
• a certificate of registration at your address (certificado or volante de empadronamiento) from the town hall, no older than three months;
• a colour photo 32 × 26 mm on a white background, without headwear or dark glasses;
• the paid fee.

By law the Registro Civil issues certificates electronically (Article 81 of the same law).

Step 3. DNI at the police

The DNI is issued at National Police offices. You must attend in person: the fingerprints of both index fingers are taken when you apply (RD 1553/2005, Articles 2 and 5).

From 14 the DNI is compulsory for citizens living in Spain. A citizen over 14 living abroad must obtain one when moving to Spain for six months or longer.

Step 4. Passport

With a valid DNI you apply for the passport, also in person: at a police office, or abroad at a Spanish consulate. You need the application form, your DNI, a 32 × 26 mm photo and the paid fee (RD 896/2003, Articles 3–5).

A child under 14 without a DNI gets a passport on a birth certificate no older than six months and with the parents’ consent. Such a passport is valid until the child turns 14, but no longer than five years.

How much it costs

Item	Amount
Government fee (modelo 790-026)	€104.05
CCSE exam	about €85
DELE A2 exam	about €138
Apostilles, sworn translations, certificates	usually €150–400
Total if you do it yourself	about €500–750

The amount is small. What is expensive in this process is not the fee but time: a mistake in the documents pushes back your passport by months, and a missed 180-day oath deadline by years.

Five costly mistakes

• Counting the years from your arrival. What counts are years with a resident card. Tourist stamps and time waiting for a decision do not count.
• Putting off your first residence permit. Every month without a card is a month taken from your future.
• Gathering documents in the wrong order. A criminal record certificate is accepted only for a limited time after issue. Start with what takes longest — apostilles on documents from your country of origin.
• Not registering your marriage in the Spanish registry. For the one-year period the marriage must be entered in the Registro Civil. A foreign marriage certificate does not replace this on its own.
• Missing the oath. 180 days after approval, and that’s it. The deadline cannot be restored.

Americans face a different set of rules, because the United States is not exempt from the renunciation and taxes its citizens wherever they live: see dual citizenship in Spain for Americans.

Frequently asked questions

How quickly can you get Spanish citizenship?

The term cannot be shortened with money or investment: for citizens of most third countries it is 10 years of lawful residence. Only the ground makes it shorter — 1 year for the spouse of a Spanish citizen, 5 years for refugees, 2 years for citizens of Ibero-American countries. What you can speed up is the start: the clock runs from your first residence permit, and the quickest entry in 2026 is the digital nomad permit, decided by UGE within 20 working days.

How can a foreigner get Spanish citizenship?

Through naturalisation after 10 years of legal residence with a resident card. A reduced period of 1 year applies to those married to a Spanish citizen and in a number of other cases. You need to pass the CCSE and DELE A2 exams, prove you have no criminal record and apply to the Ministry of Justice.

How many years do you have to live in Spain to get citizenship?

10 years as a general rule. 5 years for refugees, 2 years for citizens of Ibero-American countries, Portugal, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea and Sephardic Jews, 1 year for spouses of Spaniards, people born in Spain and descendants of Spaniards.

From when are these years counted?

From the date you obtained your first legal residence permit. Time on a student visa does not count towards citizenship — the count starts only after you switch to a residence permit.

How long can you be away from Spain without breaking the residence period for citizenship?

There is no exact limit in the law: article 22.3 of the Civil Code requires legal and continuous residence immediately before the application. The courts look at where your real home and centre of life are. A holiday of a few weeks while your life stays in Spain is normal. The risk of refusal comes from a trip longer than three months and from frequent departures without a clear reason. The residence permit has its own limits: a non-lucrative permit is renewed if you lived in Spain for more than 183 days in the year.

Is it difficult to get Spanish citizenship?

The procedure is not complicated, but it is long and formal. The main difficulties are maintaining continuous residence, gathering apostilled documents on time and passing two exams. If the conditions are met, granting citizenship is an obligation of the administration, not a matter of its discretion.

What do you need to get Spanish citizenship?

The required period of residence with a resident card, no criminal record or debts, passed CCSE and DELE A2 exams, a full set of documents with apostilles and translations, and the €104.05 fee paid.

Can you have dual citizenship in Spain?

Officially, only with certain countries, mainly in Ibero-America. Citizens of other countries must declare that they renounce their previous citizenship at the oath.

Does buying property give the right to Spanish citizenship?

No. The “golden visa” programme was abolished in April 2025, and even when it was in force it gave a residence permit, not citizenship.

Will a child get citizenship if born in Spain?

Not automatically. But the child gains the right to apply for citizenship after one year of legal residence.

How long can you live in Spain without citizenship?

As long as you like. Permanent residence gives the right to live and work indefinitely; the card is renewed every five years, but the status itself has no time limit.

Does study count towards the period for citizenship?

No. A stay on a student visa (estancia por estudios) does not count towards citizenship: the count starts only after you switch to a residence permit. The rule is different for permanent residence — there, study time counts at half.

How long does it take to process the application?

A year by law. In practice, because of the backlog, one to three years.

How do you get a Spanish passport after obtaining citizenship?

After the oath, citizenship is entered in the Registro Civil. Then you get a birth certificate from it no older than six months, a padrón certificate no older than three months, and apply for a DNI at the police. With a valid DNI you apply for the passport at the police or a consulate.

Will I have a Spanish birth certificate if I was born abroad?

Yes. To enter your citizenship in the Registro Civil, a record of your birth is first created in the Spanish register. The certificate from that record is what you need for your first DNI.

At what age do people in Spain get a passport and DNI?

There is no minimum age: a passport and DNI can be issued even to a baby. The DNI is compulsory from 14 for citizens living in Spain. A passport for a child under 14 without a DNI is valid until 14, but no longer than five years.

Can parents get Spanish citizenship through a child who is a Spanish citizen?

No. A child's citizenship does not pass to the parents. But a parent of a minor Spanish citizen can obtain a residence permit through family ties (arraigo familiar), and citizenship later on the general terms based on years of residence: 10 years, or 2 years for citizens of Ibero-American countries.

Where to start

If you are reading this to find out when you can apply, the answer depends on the date of your first residence permit. If you do not have one yet, the passport starts not with a citizenship application but with choosing a basis for residence.

We select the basis for your specific situation — income, family, work, business — and handle the case through to the resident card.