Spanish citizenship by residence is granted to people who have lived in Spain legally, continuously and immediately before applying for the period set by the Civil Code: ten years as a general rule, five for refugees, two for nationals by origin of Ibero-American countries, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea or Portugal, and one year in cases such as marriage to a Spanish national. You must also prove good civic conduct and a sufficient degree of integration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under Article 22 of the Civil Code<\/a> , the periods are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n In all cases, residence must be legal, continuous and immediately before the application (Article 22.3). In other words, time with a residence permit or card counts, but a simple stay does not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Applicants must prove \u201cgood civic conduct and a sufficient degree of integration into Spanish society\u201d (Article 22.4 of the Civil Code). For integration, Article 6 of the Regulations (Royal Decree 1004\/2015)<\/a> requires passing two tests designed and run by the Instituto Cervantes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Exempt from the DELE are those who already hold a DELE A2 or higher and nationals of the countries where Spanish is an official language listed in the Regulations (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). Minors under eighteen and people whose legal capacity has been modified by a court are exempt from both tests (seventh final provision of Law 19\/2015<\/a>) and prove integration with certificates from their school or training centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Under Article 5 of the Regulations<\/a>, the application includes, among others:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The application can be submitted online through the Ministry of Justice e-office<\/a>. The fee is paid with form 790, code 026; it currently amounts to 104.05 euros according to the Ministry<\/a> (checked on 8 November 2026), and may be revised in the State Budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The procedure must be decided and notified within a maximum of one year from when the application reaches the competent authority. If that period passes without an express decision, the application is deemed refused (Article 11.3 of the Regulations<\/a>). Both a grant and a refusal can be challenged before the administrative courts (Article 22.5 of the Civil Code).<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the application is incomplete, the Ministry asks for the missing documents. If they are not provided within three months of the request being notified, the application is deemed withdrawn (Article 10<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The grant lapses if, within the 180 days following its notification, you do not appear to meet the requirements of Article 23 of the Civil Code<\/a> (Article 21.4<\/a>):<\/p>\n\n\n\n These declarations can be made before the Civil Registry officer, before a notary or before the diplomatic or consular official in charge of the Civil Registry (Article 68.3 of Law 20\/2011, on the Civil Registry<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n We check that your residence counts towards the period that applies to you, prepare and review the application, submit it online and support you with any requests for documents and, if needed, an appeal. We see you at our Barcelona office or by video call, wherever you live. You can book your first consultation<\/a> or learn about our service for Spanish citizenship<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cu\u00e1ntos a\u00f1os de residencia legal necesita, qu\u00e9 ex\u00e1menes del Instituto Cervantes debe aprobar, qu\u00e9 documentos presentar y cu\u00e1nto tarda el Ministerio en resolver.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":667,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rs_autora":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-extranjeria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ruizsogueroabogadas.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ruizsogueroabogadas.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ruizsogueroabogadas.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ruizsogueroabogadas.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ruizsogueroabogadas.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ruizsogueroabogadas.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":668,"href":"https:\/\/ruizsogueroabogadas.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652\/revisions\/668"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ruizsogueroabogadas.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ruizsogueroabogadas.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ruizsogueroabogadas.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ruizsogueroabogadas.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n\n
Good civic conduct and integration<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Documents to submit<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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How long it takes and what happens if there is no reply<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
After the grant: oath and registration<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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How we help you<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Legislation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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