Spanish nationality by residence: how to apply

What this route is

Nacionalidad por residencia — obtaining Spanish nationality after legal, continuous and immediately prior residence in the country.

Check which path fits

The Ministerio de Justicia decides; the application is filed mostly online.

It is not the same as por opción, por carta de naturaleza or por nacimiento — here residence is the key.

You must show “sufficient integration”: the CCSE exam and, as a rule, the DELE A2 (Instituto Cervantes).

How many years you need

• 10 years — the general legal-residence period.
• 2 years — origin nationals of Ibero-American countries, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea, Portugal, and Sephardic Jews.
• 1 year — born in Spain; at the time of application, married for 1 year to a Spaniard and not legally or de facto separated; widow/widower; certain origin cases.
• 5 years — people with refugee status.
• EU citizens (including Romanians) can naturalise too: the certificado de registro UE counts as legal residence.
• When the clock starts: from legal residence — your first residence card / certificado de registro — not from empadronamiento, a student stay (estancia) or an asylum application as such. Time on a student visa does not count as residence; time as an asylum seeker is contested: the Ministry tends to count from the grant of protection, while courts have in cases accepted earlier counting — have the dates of your file checked before applying.
• Absences that break “continuous”: the residence must also be continuous and immediately prior to the application. Short trips (holidays, weeks) do not break it; long stays abroad do — as a guide from case law, a single absence of several months or frequent long absences puts continuity at risk, and moving your real life abroad breaks it outright. Keep boarding passes and stamps if your passport shows heavy travel.

Requirements

• Legal, continuous and immediately prior residence for the required period.
• “Good civic conduct”: Spanish and origin-country records and conduct are checked; criminal records can affect the file.
• CCSE — the exam on the Constitution and Spanish socio-cultural knowledge (Instituto Cervantes).
• DELE A2 — the Spanish-language exam; nationals of Spanish-speaking countries are exempt (Romania is not → the DELE is required).
• The right to appeal a refusal and to re-apply once the grounds are fixed.

Order and timing

• Take the CCSE and (if needed) the DELE first, then file the application — the order matters.
• The law gives the Ministerio de Justicia up to 1 year to decide from when the file is registered; silence counts as a refusal (silencio negativo).
• After approval: the oath/pledge of allegiance and any required renunciation of your former nationality — you have 180 days from notification.
• It ends with registration in the Registro Civil; then you can get the DNI and a Spanish passport.

Documents

• A valid passport and TIE / certificado de registro UE (proof of legal residence).
• Birth certificate (legalised/apostilled and translated) and certificado de empadronamiento.
• Criminal records: Spanish record check/authorisation or certificate if needed, plus the country-of-origin certificate; for EU nationals there can be a substitution depending on the case.
• CCSE and DELE A2 certificates; payment of the tasa (modelo 790, code 026).
• If you are a refugee (5-year route): do NOT contact your origin country’s consulate for documents — that contact can be read as re-availing yourself of its protection and endanger your status. The file accepts substitutions: your blue UNHCR/Geneva travel document and OAR/asylum resolution instead of a passport, and where a birth certificate or origin-country criminal record is impossible to obtain, a reasoned impossibility statement with the documentation the OAR file already contains. Get the substitution set right before filing — it is the most common refugee-file defect.

How to apply

• Check which residence period applies to you (10/5/2/1 year).
• Pass the CCSE and, if required, the DELE A2 at the Instituto Cervantes.
• Gather your documents; legalise and translate the foreign ones.
• Pay the tasa (modelo 790-026) and file the application online on the Ministerio de Justicia portal.
• Once approved, within 180 days take the oath and register in the Registro Civil.

Common mistakes

• Gaps in legal residence — they break continuity and reset the count.
• Filing without the required exams or an approved dispensation, or with invalid certificates.
• Not handling the required criminal-record checks or certificates correctly.
• Missing the oath within 180 days — the grant can be cancelled.
• Assuming an EU citizen is exempt from the DELE — only Spanish-speaking countries are.

Refusal and appeal

• A refusal can be appealed: recurso de reposición (optional) or contencioso-administrativo within the window.
• If there is no decision after a year, that is silencio negativo and can also be appealed.
• Common grounds: insufficient integration, conduct, gaps in residence — these can be fixed and re-filed.
• Keep your filing, payment and certificate justificantes — you need them to appeal.

Related guides

Frequently asked questions

Official sources