Spanish Citizenship by Descent

A child of a Spanish father or mother is Spanish from birth, and the Ley de Nietos grandchild window closed on October 22, 2025. This guide sets out the three Codigo Civil provisions Spanish citizenship by descent runs on today: Article 17.1(a) for a child of a Spanish parent, Article 20.1(b) for a parent who was originally Spanish and born in Spain, and Article 22.2(f) for a grandparent claim, plus where the Ley de Nietos now stands. A lawyer confirms which one applies before you gather documents for the wrong route.

Am I eligible for Spanish citizenship by descent?

A child of a Spanish father or mother is Spanish from birth under Codigo Civil Article 17.1(a), whatever the country of birth. A grandchild now files under Article 22.2(f), because the Ley de Nietos window closed on October 22, 2025.

Article 17.1(a) of the Codigo Civil reads “Son espanoles de origen: a) Los nacidos de padre o madre espanoles”. Two further provisions carry a claim built on a Spanish parent or grandparent, and each sets conditions of its own.

What’s the difference between citizenship by descent and the Ley de Nietos route?

The two differ in legal character and in when they could be filed.

A claim under Article 17.1(a) is nationality of origin. The Ley de Nietos was a right of option: Ley 20/2022, de Memoria Democratica, in its disposicion adicional octava, the eighth additional provision, let the people it named opt for Spanish nationality for the purposes of Article 20. Article 23 sets the common requirements for any acquisition by option, letter of naturalization or residence, so the oath, the renunciation declaration and the registration step reached a Ley de Nietos filing, except for an applicant the exemption below covers.

The option also ran to a deadline. Ley 20/2022 gave a two-year filing window from the law’s entry into force and let the Consejo de Ministros extend it once by one year. The Council agreed that extension on July 9, 2024, in its own press reference, and the window closed on October 22, 2025. No further extension has been granted since.

Our guide to the routes to Spanish citizenship covers the other paths this page leaves out.

Who qualifies under the Ley de Nietos (grandchildren’s law)?

The eighth additional provision of Ley 20/2022 covered three groups, and only the first turned on exile.

• Descendants of an exiled Spaniard. It reached a person born outside Spain to a father, mother, grandfather or grandmother who was originally Spanish and who lost or renounced Spanish nationality as a consequence of exile for political, ideological or belief reasons, or reasons of sexual orientation and gender identity.
• Children of Spanish women who lost nationality by marriage. It also reached anyone born abroad to a Spanish woman who lost her nationality by marrying a foreigner before the 1978 Constitution came into force. That group carried no exile requirement.
• Adult children of those already recognized. It reached the adult children of Spaniards whose nationality of origin was recognized under this same option or under the seventh additional provision of Ley 52/2007.

The window closed on October 22, 2025. One consulate’s notice on the closing date states that an applicant holding a confirmed pre-deadline appointment kept the ability to present documents after it. That notice sets out one office’s own procedure.

Have a lawyer confirm which route applies to your case

Your route decides everything downstream: the provision you file under, whether Article 23 asks you for an oath and a renunciation declaration, and whether you need a year of legal residence in Spain first. One Spanish parent points at Article 17.1(a). A family history that runs through a grandparent points at Article 22.2(f) and its residency term. An ancestor who left Spain, married abroad or naturalized somewhere else brings Articles 20 and 24.1 into the question, and the answer turns on dates in your own family record.

Describe your family history in the form at the top of this page, and the Spanish citizenship lawyer handling your case reads those dates and names the provision that applies to you.

What documents do you need to prove Spanish ancestry?

The document checklist differs by route. What follows is the standard of proof the Ley de Nietos applied, and what a sworn translation does once a document reaches a Spanish office.

The Direccion General de Seguridad Juridica y Fe Publica set the exile evidence rule in its instruction of October 25, 2022. Exile was presumed for every Spaniard who left Spain between July 18, 1936 and December 31, 1955, and in those cases only the departure from Spanish territory had to be proven, using one of the documents the instruction lists. A departure between January 1, 1956 and December 28, 1978 required the exile condition itself to be proven.

The Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores appoints traductores jurados, sworn translators. Its Oficina de Interpretacion de Lenguas states that translations these professionals certify with their signature and seal carry official character and may be submitted to judicial and administrative bodies. The list of documents a given office asks to see translated varies by case, and the lawyer who takes on your case confirms it for yours.

What disqualifies a citizenship by descent application?

Two published rules can close a route off. A third raises the proof bar without closing anything, and Article 24.1 keeps a fourth route open.

• A Ley de Nietos filing is out of time. That window closed on October 22, 2025.
• A 1956-1978 departure raises the proof bar; it does not disqualify. The exile presumption covers only a departure between July 18, 1936 and December 31, 1955. A departure between January 1, 1956 and December 28, 1978 can still qualify, but the presumption does not apply, so the applicant proves the exile condition directly.
• Residence has to meet Article 22.3. A shortened term counts only residence that is legal, continuous and immediately prior.

An ancestor’s naturalization abroad does not automatically break the chain. Article 24.1 makes an emancipated Spaniard living abroad lose Spanish nationality three years after voluntarily acquiring another, unless they declare their will to keep it to the Registro Civil inside that period. The same paragraph lifts that rule for a list: the nationality of an Ibero-American country, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea or Portugal is not sufficient to cause the loss, and the Spain-France nationality convention added France on April 1, 2022. A grandparent who took Argentine, Mexican or Cuban nationality never started that clock.

Do you have to live in Spain to apply for citizenship by descent?

It depends on the route. Article 17.1(a) makes a child of a Spanish father or mother Spanish by origin from birth, whatever the country of birth, and it sets no residency term.

A grandchild filing today sits in a different position. Article 22.2(f) belongs to the naturalization-by-residence article, and it gives someone born outside Spain to a Spanish-origin parent or grandparent a one-year residency term against the general ten-year term Article 22.1 sets. Article 22.3 requires that year to be legal, continuous and immediately prior to the application, so the route asks you to live in Spain lawfully first. Which provision your case runs under therefore decides whether you need to move to Spain at all.

Do you keep your other nationality if you become a Spanish citizen by descent?

The answer splits by route.

Article 23 sets the common requirements for acquiring Spanish nationality by option, letter of naturalization or residence: the applicant swears or promises fidelity to the King and obedience to the Constitution and the laws, declares renunciation of the prior nationality, and registers the acquisition in the Spanish Civil Registry. Nationality of origin under Article 17.1(a) is none of those three acquisitions, so the renunciation declaration does not reach it.

Article 23 then exempts two groups from that declaration: nationals of the countries named in Article 24.1, which are the Ibero-American countries, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea and Portugal, and Sephardic Jews of Spanish origin. French citizens joined them on April 1, 2022, when the Spain-France nationality convention entered into force, as the Direccion General de Seguridad Juridica y Fe Publica set out in its instruction of March 31, 2022.

Where do you apply: in Spain or at a consulate abroad?

It depends on the route. An Article 22.2(f) residence application and a Ley de Nietos option use different filing channels.

An application for nationality by residence, which is what an Article 22.2(f) filing is, runs through the Ministerio de Justicia. Its sede electronica page for nacionalidad espanola por residencia carries the online form and states that the AutoFirma application has to be installed to complete the procedure. Article 21.2 of the Codigo Civil grants nationality by residence through the Minister of Justice, and Real Decreto 1004/2015 has the Direccion General de los Registros y del Notariado draft the proposed decision. The applicant then makes the Article 23 declarations before the Civil Registry official with jurisdiction over their domicile in Spain, and that official registers the acquisition.

Ley de Nietos applications were filed at consular offices, according to the Ministerio de Politica Territorial y Memoria Democratica. Confirm the filing office for an Article 17.1(a) claim based on the applicant’s circumstances.

How long does a Spanish citizenship by descent application take?

It takes up to one year for a nationality-by-residence application to be resolved and notified, counted from the day the file reaches the Direccion General de los Registros y del Notariado. Real Decreto 1004/2015, Article 11.3, sets that maximum and deems the application denied if the year passes with no express resolution.

That figure is a legal ceiling. The Ministerio de Justicia’s own procedure page publishes no average, median or typical resolution time.

The caseload the Ley de Nietos generated is published. 876,321 applications had been filed at consular offices between the law’s approval and September 19, 2025, and 237,145 nationalities had been granted, according to a Ministerio de Politica Territorial y Memoria Democratica press release. Those are volumes, and they say nothing about how long any single file took.

What does it cost to get help with a citizenship by descent application?

One government fee is fixed by statute. Ley 19/2015, in the fourth paragraph of its seventh final provision, sets a 100 euro tasa, a government filing fee, on the application that opens the nationality-by-residence procedure. A grandchild filing under Article 22.2(f) opens that procedure, so the tasa applies to that route.

Professional service terms depend on the route and work required.

Talk to a lawyer for your Spanish citizenship by descent case

The Advisors in Spain team assists with Spanish nationality work. A lawyer can review the family history and identify the relevant provision.

Tell us who the Spanish ancestor is, when they left Spain and where you live now. That is what a Spain-qualified attorney needs to name the provision your case runs under.