Yes. There are other ways to acquire Spanish Nationality

1- Naturalization charter;

2- Sephardic (Law 12/2015, of June 24);

3- Possession of status;

4- Option;

5- Spanish Nationality by Simple Presumption.

In order to apply for Spanish Nationality by Residence, you must provide the following documents:

1. Foreigner Identity Card (commonly known as NIE but which is not the same thing) We recommend reading the article ¿Qué What is the N.I.E? What is the T.I.E? Are they the same thing? What are their differences?
2. Full, valid passport. In the case of the passport, all pages must be attached. In the case of minors under 18 years of age from a Schengen area member country, it may be replaced by an identity card from the country of origin, provided that this was the document used for identification upon entering Spain.
3. Criminal Record Certificate from the country of origin, currently valid. If the country of origin does not certify the expiration date on the document, the General Directorate of Registries and Notaries will give it a validity of six months (only in those cases). They must be translated and legalized according to International Conventionsional Conventions. This document may be replaced by the Consular Certificate of Conduct, in accordance with the provisions established by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, duly translated and legalized. The consular certificate of conduct will only be admissible when issued based on consultation with the competent authorities of the country of origin. In the case of nationals of an EU member state, it can be replaced by the Certificate from the Spanish Central Registry of Convicted Persons where it expressly states that the records have been consulted with the country.
   • Regarding criminal and police records: if you have criminal and/or police records, the DGRN no longer automatically denies the application but since March of last year has opted to request whether the applicant has already had said records cancelled. “We are simplifying the procedures for the Administration, which no longer has to manage an additional resolution plus a corresponding appeal, simplifying life for the citizen who then has to wait less time”, stated the Deputy Director General of Nationality and Civil Status of the Ministry of Justice, Mr. Jesús Santabárbara. “We have asked the relevant authorities to update their criminal and police records and thus avoid requiring the citizen to provide them”, acota.
4. Birth Certificate from the country of origin currently valid and properly legalized. If your country belongs to the Hague Convention, the Apostille seal will suffice. If your country does not belong to the Hague Convention, it must be legalized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of your country and subsequently by the Spanish Consulate in your country. If the Consulate of your country in Spain is authorized to issue this type of document, it must be legalized by your own Consulate and by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Spain based in Madrid. Please note that only some Consulates are authorized to issue this type of document. At this link you can find the List of Consulates authorized to issue Birth Certificates. It may be the case that you requested the Birth Certificate in your country and your country is not a party to the Hague Convention and you only had it legalized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of your country without having it legalized by the Spanish Consulate in your country; in this case, you can have it legalized at the Consulate of your country in Spain and subsequently at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Spain headquartered in Madrid. It is possible to do it this way but keep in mind that it would only be valid for the purposes of the Nationality application.
5. Birth Certificate of minor children. If you have a Spanish child, a birth certificate issued by a Spanish civil registry must be provided. If you have children who do not have Spanish nationality, the birth certificate from the country of origin, properly legalized, must be provided. If you have minor children, the birth certificate of said children must ALWAYS be provided. Some people do not do this and then the headache comes because when the father or mother already has nationality and the child wants to apply for Spanish Nationality by option, the Judge will deny the application because at the time the father or mother did not provide the child’s birth certificate.
6. Marriage Certificate from your country of origin, valid and current, if you were married in your country of origin. This document must also be legalized. If your country belongs to the Hague Convention, the Apostille seal will suffice. If your country does not belong to the Hague Convention, it must be legalized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of your country and subsequently by the Spanish Consulate in your country. If the Consulate of your country in Spain is authorized to issue this type of document, it must be legalized by your own Consulate and by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Spain based in Madrid. Please note that only some Consulates are authorized to issue this type of document. At this link you can find the List of Consulates authorized to issue Birth Certificates. It may be the case that you requested the Birth Certificate in your country and your country is not a party to the Hague Convention and you only had it legalized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of your country without having it legalized by the Spanish Consulate in your country; in this case, you can have it legalized at the Consulate of your country in Spain and subsequently at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Spain headquartered in Madrid. It is possible to do it this way but keep in mind that it would only be valid for the purposes of the Nationality application. If you were married in Spain to another foreigner, you must provide the Spanish marriage certificate
7. Spanish marriage certificate current, valid (valid for 3 months) if you were married in Spain to another foreigner or if you were married to a Spanish citizen.
8. Birth certificate of your Spanish spouse in case of being married to a Spanish citizen. This document must be issued by a Spanish civil registry and is valid for three months.
9. If you are married to a Spanish citizen, you will be required to provide a historical cohabitation certificate with your spouse to demonstrate that you have lived with your spouse for at least one year prior to the application.
10. Certificates of passing the Spanish language exam (DELE A2 or higher) and culture exam (Constitutional and Sociocultural Knowledge of Spain; known as CCSE). Later in this Guide, we will refer to these documents. If you choose to submit your application electronically, it will not be necessary to provide these documents as long as you verify in the application that you have passed.
11. 100 Euro Fee. The payment of the fee for initiating the procedure to obtain Spanish nationality by residence shall be made by the interested party or their representative, after completing the corresponding payment form. And this fee must be paid by all persons who apply forSpanish Nationality by Residence including children born in Spain who apply forSpanish Nationality by Residence; this does not apply to those who apply by option or by value of simple presumption. The 100 euro fee that must be paid is Form 760, section 026. The fee can be paid electronically through the specific form accessible on the Electronic Office, or you can go in person with Form 790 Code 026, completed, to a financial institution collaborating with the Tax Agency to make the payment. The payment will be verified by the mechanical validation or authorized signature of the financial institution on the “Copy for the Administration” of Form 790 Code 026, which must be submitted along with your application. Payment through electronic banking systems: if you have an open account and an electronic signature to operate with any of the collaborating financial institutions, you can make the payment through their electronic services.
12. Other documents. You may attach to the application any documents you consider appropriate. If you submit electronically, it will not be necessary to provide your registration certificate (note: we are talking about the registration certificate, not the cohabitation certificate for those married to a Spanish citizen) nor the criminal record certificate from Spain nor a certificate to prove the time of residence in Spain. The electronic submission platform for Spanish Nationality by Residence allows you to give your consent for the General Directorate of Registries and Notaries to consult this data with the relevant authorities.
13. Is it true that I must submit an employment contract? With the New Procedure for Spanish Nationality by Residence, it is not necessary to submit an employment contract or other proof of financial means. In this article we go into detail on this specific topic: Why is it no longer necessary to provide an employment contract when applying for Spanish Nationality.
14. Minors. The need for judicial authorization for the application for Spanish nationality by residence for minors is established in the civil code. The regulation states that whenever Spanish nationality by residence is requested for minors, a report from the public prosecutor and authorization from the judge in charge of the civil registry of the minor’s place of residence is required. This is how the judicial document should look.

The process is electronic in all its phases, which will significantly shorten resolution times. That is, Spanish Nationality by Residence can be submitted electronically. The procedure is overseen by the General Directorate of Registries and Notaries.

However, until June 30, 2017, there was a transitional regime that allowed all persons applying for Spanish Nationality to do so at any Civil Registry (with or without their scheduled appointments) or electronically, that is, either in paper or electronic format. Our recommendation is to submit it electronically because this way we avoid waiting for a scheduled appointment for the official to upload it to the computer system. Submitting it electronically means that from the moment we submit it, it is directly in the hands of the General Directorate of Registries and Notaries.

It is very important to keep in mind that if you submit the application with the assistance of a voluntary representative, you must always attach the corresponding power of representation.

At Escalona Abogados we insist on the importance of always choosing electronic submission of the Spanish Nationality by Residence application for a simple reason: by submitting your application electronically, the General Directorate of Registries and Notaries will already have your file fully digitized and catalogued. If you submit it at the Civil Registry, you will have to wait for an official to digitize it and send it to the DGRN.

You should keep in mind that from the moment the first document is uploaded to the online platform, you have 4 months to finish submitting the file electronically, and if this is not done, the application will be deleted and you will have to start over from scratch.

Before the New Procedure for Spanish Nationality by Residence came into effect on October 15, 2015, foreigners had to somehow demonstrate their degree of integration into Spanish society and culture. This was something highly questioned because, in the absence of a legal concept that defined what was meant by “integration,” it was left to the discretion of each civil registry to interpret whether the foreigner was “integrated.” In fact, to this day, denials of Spanish Nationality by Residence applications continue to arrive due to “lack of integration.”

Fortunately, the legislator has decided, or at least that has been the intent, to regulate in some way how foreigners can demonstrate their degree of integration. And since October 15, 2015, for a foreigner to demonstrate their degree of integration, they can do so by providing two PASS certificates. One for culture (Constitutional and Sociocultural Knowledge of Spain, known as CCSE) and another for the Spanish language (DELE A2).

Applicants for Spanish nationality by residence may prove their basic knowledge of the Spanish language by submitting to the Instituto Cervantes the official certificates at the basic (A2), intermediate, and advanced levels of Spanish as a foreign language education, issued by the corresponding educational administration under Royal Decree 1629/2006, of December 29, which establishes the basic aspects of the curriculum for special language education regulated by Organic Law 2/2006, of May 3, on Education.

In these cases, applicants will be exempt from the Spanish language proficiency validation tests provided for in Article 6 of the Regulation governing the procedure for acquiring Spanish nationality by residence.

Certain specific cases will be exempt from these exams, although they would still be required to request said exemption from the Ministry of Justice, according to Order JUS/1625/2016, of September 30, regarding the processing of procedures for granting Spanish nationality by residence, published on October 12, 2016. This exemption request is known as a “dispensa” (waiver). The following may request a “dispensa”:

1. foreigners who can demonstrate that they cannot read or write (to request the waiver, it is necessary to do so ALWAYS before submitting the application for Spanish Nationality by Residence. That is, do not venture to submit the nationality application if you do not already have in your possession the waiver certifying that you can apply for nationality without the obligation to provide the CCSE or DELE, since it will be the Ministry of Justice itself that determines whether you are not waived or authorized to apply for nationality without having these Pass certificates. In this regard, it is worth noting that the waiver does not necessarily have to be “total,” as the Ministry of Justice could grant you a “partial” waiver. That is, you may be exempted from taking both exams in their entirety. If it is demonstrated, for example, that you cannot read or write, the Ministry of Justice could say “agreed, we waive you from taking the written exams but you can take them orally”
2. foreigners with learning difficulties
3. foreigners who hold a Secondary Education (ESO) diploma in Spain.

It has a cost of 124.00 euros.

It has indefinite validity, meaning once the certificate is obtained, it will NEVER expire.

The first results were released three months later; however, those who took the exam in February 2016 already had their results, that is, their PASS or FAIL certificates, by the end of March 2016, meaning one month later.

No, you can take it at any branch or accredited center of the Instituto Cervantes anywhere in the world.

Sí. You can contact Escalona Abogados. You can write us an email at info@escalonaabogados with the Subject: “I would like to receive the free Study Guide for the Spanish language exam“.

Not necessarily, you can consent in the Application Form for it to be accessed automatically. The General Directorate of Registries and Notaries can officially verify the results of the DELE exam at level A2 or higher through electronic consultation with the Instituto Cervantes, a verification with evidentiary value that makes it unnecessary for applicants to submit the certificate. However, our advice is to submit it when filing the application.

Of course. Those who already have an Instituto Cervantes DELE certificate in Spanish as a foreign language at level A2 or higher can use it for the new procedure because they do not have an expiration date.

Citizens from a country where Spanish is an official language:
Argentina.
Bolivia.
Chile.
Colombia.
Costa Rica.
Cuba.
Ecuador.
El Salvador.
Guatemala.
Guinea Ecuatorial.
Honduras.
México.
Nicaragua.
Panamá.
Paraguay.
Perú.
Puerto Rico.
República Dominicana.
Uruguay.
Venezuela.

You can sit for a second exam session without having to pay again. Registration for the DELE exam entitles you to take it up to a maximum of two times, provided the candidate does not pass the exam on the first attempt or did not attend the first session. In this case, the candidate must take the second exam at the same examination center where the first one was taken, within a maximum period of 18 months from the exam date.

You can register when there are available spots and exam sessions. However, spots are not always available.

Yes. And all applicants will need to demonstrate this, except minors under 18 years of age, those judicially incapacitated, persons who have been granted a waiver (dispensa) from the exams as we explained previously, or those who hold an ESO (Compulsory Secondary Education) diploma in Spain. For the exam, the Instituto Cervantes has been designated to administer a Constitutional and Sociocultural Knowledge exam of Spain (CCSE), which, once the status of “pass” is granted, will allow the applicant to obtain a certificate issued by said Institute.

The enrollment fee to take the exam costs 85 euros and will allow the applicant, in case of not obtaining a passing certificate, to retake the exam without having to pay 85 euros again. Enrollment in the test entitles the candidate to take it up to two times at no additional cost, only in the event that a candidate does not pass the test on the first attempt, or in the event that a candidate did not attend the first session. In this case, the candidate must take the second session at the same exam center where they took the first one, within a maximum period of 18 months from enrollment. There is no limit on the number of times a candidate can enroll or the timeframe in which multiple enrollments can be made.

20 days later.

It is valid for 4 years.

Not necessarily, you can consent in the Application Form for it to be accessed automatically. The General Directorate of Registries and Notaries can officially verify the results of the constitutional and sociocultural knowledge exams of Spain through electronic consultation with the Instituto Cervantes, a verification with evidentiary value that makes it unnecessary for applicants to submit the corresponding certificate.

• Yes, of course. Since it is a procedure that can be submitted electronically, at Escalona Abogados we can submit applications even if you are residing in any Spanish city.
• If you want to submit your Spanish Nationality by Residence application electronically through our firm in less than 24 hours, you can do so for a price of 400 euros (VAT included) and not 500 euros plus VAT as before.