Today we are going to focus specifically on the three main requirements to obtain it:

• Continuous permanent legal residence, which  means, uninterrupted legal residence.
• A certificate proving the lack of  a criminal record both in Spain and in the  country of origin.
• Social integration through national tests throughout the Spanish territory, organized by the Cervantes Institute.

To obtain detailed information about these three requirements we highly recommend you to access the video.

We remind you that if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us!

We hope you find this post it useful!

To obtain Spanish citizenship, you must reside legally in Spain for the required period of time without interruption. It must be a regular and uninterrupted stay. Therefore, you should not confuse residence with stay. The case of a stay for a student is not taken into account in the calculation of the period of residence required to qualify for Spanish nationality.

In order to obtain Spanish nationality, three basic requirements must be met. The first is the length of stay, the second is the civic behavior of the resident applying for Spanish nationality and the third condition is social integration in Spain.

As a general rule, the period required to obtain Spanish nationality is 10 years of legal residence; however, there are exceptions: there are countries for which the required period of residence is two years. These countries are the following  :  

• Latin American countries    
• Philippines    
• Andorra   
• Portugal    

There are also more specific, but common, cases to which Spanish nationality would be granted in a shorter period of time:    

• Asylum seekers: in this case, the period of residence in Spain would be 5 years.    
• Marriage: being married to a Spaniard gives the right to Spanish nationality after one year of marriage.    
• Widowhood: if the spouse dies during the marriage, the Spanish nationality is granted to the partner.   
• Birth in Spain: the only requirement in this case is one year of residence in Spanish territory.  



4. Civic behavior of the applicant for Spanish nationality

The second condition to be able to apply for Spanish nationality is not to have a criminal record, neither in the applicant’s country of origin nor in Spain. It is really important to bear in mind that a criminal record is required.




5. Social integration in Spain

The third requirement for applying for Spanish citizenship is social integration in Spain. In order to apply for Spanish nationality, it is necessary to pass two exams:    

1 Spanish General Culture Exam: consists of 25 questions of which a maximum of 10 can be failed.    

2 DELE: This is a Spanish language exam in which the candidate must demonstrate the ability to understand and manage in Spanish. It is an exam that you must prepare for because it is not easy. It consists of four steps and is conducted in the presence of an examiner.    

General Culture about Spain: 25 questions, 10 to fail and 15 to correct 

Countries whose official language is Spanish are exempt from taking this exam.




6. Processing time for the application

The application for Spanish nationality is made by electronic means. The processing time for the file is a maximum of one year, but in reality it takes more than a year to process the file. In this situation, it is possible to go to court. In general, the administration resolves a case that has been pending for more than a year before going to court.