Spanish citizenship by residence: the years, the two exams and the oath

How many years you need

Article 22 of the Civil Code sets the periods, and the general one is ten years of residence. Refugees need five. Two years is enough for nationals of origin of the Ibero-American countries, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea or Portugal, and for Sephardic Jews.

One year is enough in six situations: you were born in Spain; you did not use a right to opt for Spanish nationality when you had it; you were legally under the guardianship, care or foster placement of a Spanish citizen or institution for two consecutive years; you have been married to a Spaniard for a year and are not separated, legally or in fact; you are the widow or widower of a Spaniard and were not separated when they died; or you were born outside Spain to a father, mother, grandfather or grandmother who were originally Spanish.

Nationality of origin matters for the two-year route. A person who was born, say, Colombian qualifies; a person who acquired Colombian nationality later does not, because the Code says 'nacionales de origen'.

What counts as residence — and what breaks it

The same article says that in every case the residence must be legal, continuous and immediately before the application. Each word does work. Legal means under a residence authorisation or an EU registration, not time spent in Spain without papers — years before an arraigo permit do not count towards nationality even though they counted towards the arraigo itself. Continuous means without breaks that interrupt it. Immediately before means the clock has to be running on the day you apply: ten years of residence that ended three years ago do not qualify.

Time on a student stay is a common trap. Spanish immigration law classes a stay for studies as a stay, not as residence, and the Civil Code asks for residence. If most of your time in Spain was on a student card, do not plan around those years: count from the date you moved to a residence authorisation, and ask a professional before relying on anything earlier.

The two exams

Since 2015 the law requires two tests to prove 'sufficient integration in Spanish society', both designed and run by the Instituto Cervantes. The first is the DELE, a Spanish-language diploma at level A2 or higher. The second is the CCSE, a test of constitutional and sociocultural knowledge of Spain.

Nationals of countries or territories where Spanish is an official language are exempt from the DELE. The regulation lists them by name: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Equatorial Guinea, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela. Anyone who already holds a DELE at A2 or above does not sit it again. Everyone else — including native English speakers who have lived in Spain for decades — sits both.

Applicants under eighteen and people whose legal capacity has been modified by a court are exempt from both tests. People who cannot read or write, or who have learning difficulties, can ask the Ministry of Justice for a dispensation, through a separate online procedure on the same page as the application.

The CCSE has 25 questions in five tasks, multiple choice with three options or true/false, and lasts 45 minutes. You pass with 15 correct answers. Wrong and blank answers are not penalised. Sixty per cent of the questions are on government, law and civic participation; forty per cent on culture, history and society, including how to deal with administrative procedures in Spain. The fee includes the preparation materials, among them the official CCSE preparation manual.

The CCSE costs €85, and that pays for up to two sittings if you fail or miss the first. It is held once a month in Spain except August and December. For 2026 the last sitting is on 26 November, with registration closing on 5 November; registration for 2027 opens on 23 November 2026. The DELE price depends on the level and on the country where you sit it — the Cervantes publishes a table rather than one figure, so we do not quote one.

Documents

The regulation lists them in article 5. You need the application form; your birth certificate from your country of origin, legalised and translated where needed; your passport; the certificates of the two exams, or your authorisation in the form for the Ministry to check them directly with the Cervantes; and proof that you paid the fee.

Adults also need a criminal record certificate from their country of origin, legalised and translated. Nationals of an EU member state can instead provide the Spanish Central Register of Convicted Persons certificate, provided it states expressly that the records of the country of origin were consulted. Refugees and stateless people are excused the birth certificate, the passport and the foreign criminal record.

Your Spanish padrón certificate, Spanish criminal record certificate and residence card can be replaced by ticking the authorisations in the application, which let the Ministry look them up itself. Ticking them is simpler and avoids documents that expire while the application waits. See our guide to documents from abroad for how legalisation and sworn translation work.

The fee, and why we do not print a figure

The law that created the procedure set the fee at €100, payable whatever the outcome. The amount has since been updated by budget legislation, and websites quote several different figures depending on when they were written. The reliable amount is the one on your own form 790, code 026, which you generate on the Ministry of Justice's electronic office — each form carries a unique number, and the Ministry warns you not to photocopy one for a second application.

You pay it either online during the application or at a bank using the printed form.

How the application works

The whole procedure is electronic, and all communications about it are electronic. You apply through the Ministry of Justice electronic office with a digital certificate or Cl@ve, and you need AutoFirma installed to sign. Once you create an application you have two months to complete and submit it; after that it is deleted automatically.

You can also apply through a lawyer, gestor or graduado social: the regulation allows professional bodies to sign agreements with the Ministry to file on applicants' behalf. Using one is optional. The regulation says so expressly, and it says the professional acts for you, not for the Ministry.

If something is missing the Ministry sends a request to correct it, and you have three months to respond before the application is treated as withdrawn. Notifications arrive through the government's electronic notification system, DEHú. The Ministry's own page links a guide to reading them there, and a status-tracking service for applications in progress.

How long it takes, and what silence means

The regulation gives the Ministry one year from the day the application enters the Directorate-General to decide and notify. If that year passes with no decision, the application is deemed refused. That is the legal position, and it is the opposite of what many applicants assume. In practice many applications take longer than a year; the deemed refusal is what gives you the right to go to court over the delay, not a signal that the file is lost.

A refusal can be challenged by an administrative appeal for reconsideration, recurso de reposición, and then before the contentious-administrative courts. The Civil Code reserves that judicial route expressly.

The Ministry can refuse on reasoned grounds of public order or national interest even when the residence is complete. Its decision is based on the file and a mandatory report from the Ministry of the Interior on your conduct and your compliance with the conditions of your residence.

After approval: the oath, the renunciation and the register

Approval is not the end. The grant lapses 180 days after it is notified unless, within that time, you appear before the Civil Registry to swear or promise loyalty to the King and obedience to the Constitution and the laws, renounce your previous nationality where that applies, and ask for the acquisition to be registered. The registrar records it within five days of that appearance, and only then are you Spanish.

The renunciation is the part people ask about most. Article 23 of the Civil Code requires it, then exempts nationals of the Ibero-American countries, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea and Portugal, and Sephardic Jews originating from Spain. French nationals are also exempt under the Spain–France nationality convention signed in Montauban in 2021. For everyone else, the declaration is required by Spanish law — whether your other country then treats you as having lost its nationality is a question for that country's law, not Spain's.

The regulation originally let the Registry block the registration for misconduct committed between approval and oath. The Supreme Court annulled part of that rule in July 2024, and the consolidated text marks the passage that fell.