Spanish nationality by residence in 2026: years, exams, absences and how long it really takes

Three neighbours in the same street of Los Cristianos could ask for a Spanish passport on three different calendars. The British couple who retired here need ten years of residence. The Colombian nurse who arrived two years ago can apply now. The German married to a woman from La Laguna needs one. The Civil Code sets those clocks, and it also says what kind of residence fills them: legal, continuous and immediately before the application. The rest is procedure: two exams, an online file, a fee, a Ministry that has a year to answer and a last step that expires after 180 days. This note goes through each of them as they stand in October 2026, with the Ministry of Justice's own figures on how long the answer takes.

Ten years, five, two or one

The general rule is one sentence: Para la concesión de la nacionalidad por residencia se requiere que ésta haya durado diez años, for nationality to be granted by residence, the residence must have lasted ten years (Civil Code, article 22). The same article shortens the period for some applicants.

Two of those lines catch people out. The two-year route belongs to nacionales de origen de países iberoamericanos, Andorra, Filipinas, Guinea Ecuatorial o Portugal o de sefardíes, nationals by origin of those countries: a nationality acquired later does not shorten the period, and the Order adds that the file is assessed on the nationality with which you obtained your residence permit. The one-year route for couples is for El que al tiempo de la solicitud llevare un año casado con español o española y no estuviere separado legalmente o de hecho, whoever at the time of the application has been married for a year to a Spaniard and is not separated in law or in fact. The Code says married. It does not mention the registered partnership that our note on unmarried couples in the Canaries describes.

What counts as residence

All of those periods share one condition: la residencia habrá de ser legal, continuada e inmediatamente anterior a la petición, the residence must be legal, continuous and immediately prior to the application (article 22).

Legal means covered by a residence card or authorisation or, for European Union citizens, by registration. The Ministry does not take your word for it: it consults the immigration records and asks the Interior Ministry for a report on your conduct and your situation as a resident (Real Decreto 1004/2015, article 8; Orden JUS/1625/2016, article 7). The years spent under the permit described in our note on the non-lucrative visa count, because it is a residence authorisation, and our note on EES, ETIAS and the routes for staying longer lists the other routes.

Immediately prior means that the period is counted backwards from the day you apply. A person on the two-year route who applies on 13 July must show the two years that end on that 13 July.

Continuous is where files fail, and a gap between two cards is not always a break. In 2011 the Supreme Court confirmed the nationality of an applicant whose renewal, requested before his card expired, was refused more than a year later, and who then obtained a permanent permit. The Administration could not deny his continuous residence con base en consideraciones puramente formalistas, on purely formalistic grounds, when it had itself recognised that residence by granting the permit (judgment of 27 June 2011, appeal 4486/2008).

Absences: the law gives no number

How long can you be out of Spain? The Code does not say, and the Supreme Court has said so itself: la falta de fijación por ley de un límite a la duración y frecuencia de los desplazamientos fuera del territorio nacional, the absence of a legal limit on the length and frequency of trips outside the national territory, calls for a strict reading, which weighs whether the trips are occasional, brief and justified (judgment of 13 February 2008, appeal 118/2004). The same judgment repeats the test: la no presencia física ocasional y por razones justificadas del territorio español no presupone el incumplimiento del requisito de residencia continuada siempre que no se traslade la residencia habitual y por ende el domicilio fuera del territorio español, an occasional physical absence from Spanish territory, for justified reasons, does not mean that the requirement of continuous residence is unmet, provided the habitual residence, and with it the domicile, is not moved outside Spain. The applicant in that case travelled for his work and to visit his parents, and won because his home, his wife and his children were in Spain.

What the Ministry does with that test can be seen in two judgments of the National Court of May 2026, which we have read in full.

• Four months in Venezuela. A young applicant on the two-year route was refused for an absence between 27 November 2020 and 31 March 2021, found in her passport stamps. The court recalled that En principio las salidas de España no interrumpen automáticamente la residencia continuada, siempre que no sean prolongadas, reiteradas o incompatibles con la residencia efectiva, in principle trips out of Spain do not automatically interrupt continuous residence, provided they are not prolonged, repeated or incompatible with effective residence. She proved the reason with a certificate from the Spanish consul in Caracas, and the court ordered the nationality to be granted (judgment 335/2026, of 19 May 2026).
• Ninety-eight border crossings. A Moroccan applicant married to a Spaniard and living in Ceuta was refused for ausencias prolongadas superiores a tres meses, prolonged absences of more than three months. The border records showed 98 entries and exits in the period, and the longest stay outside Spain was 24 days. The court called the refusal vague and granted the nationality (judgment 330/2026, of 18 May 2026).

Three lessons follow. The Ministry reads the passport, stamp by stamp. Three months is a figure that appears in its refusals, not in the Code. And the burden of proof is the applicant's: keep the tickets, the medical reports and the letters that explain every long trip, because the Ministry may ask for them years later.

The two exams

The Code asks the applicant to show buena conducta cívica y suficiente grado de integración en la sociedad española, good civic conduct and a sufficient degree of integration in Spanish society (article 22). Since 2015 integration is measured by two tests of the Instituto Cervantes.

• CCSE. A test on the Constitution and on Spanish society and culture: twenty-five closed questions in 45 minutes, and 15 correct answers to pass. It is held in Spain on the last Thursday of every month except August and December. The registration costs 85 euros and gives two attempts, and the certificate is valid for four years.
• DELE A2. A basic Spanish diploma. In Spain the 2026 price is 138 euros. An official A2, B1 or B2 certificate from a Spanish official language school does the same job.

Who is spared them is a longer list than most applicants expect.

• Minors. Applicants under 18, and persons whose capacity has been modified by a court, take no test at all.
• Nationals of a Spanish-speaking country. No DELE. The regulation names twenty countries and territories, from Argentina to Venezuela.
• Schooled in Spain. The Order allows a dispensation from both tests for los solicitantes que hayan estado escolarizados en España y superado la educación secundaria obligatoria, applicants who went to school in Spain and passed compulsory secondary education. The Ministry adds that a Spanish Bachillerato, vocational diploma or university degree spares the DELE only.
• Unable to read or write, or with learning difficulties. A dispensation can be requested from the Ministry, but before the nationality application, and it has six months to answer.

The file, and what it costs

The application is filed online at the Ministry of Justice's electronic office, by the applicant or by a representative; a paper route through the public registries also exists. The Order's annex lists the papers: the full passport, in force; the birth certificate from the country of origin, legalised and translated; a criminal record certificate from that country, also legalised and translated, which a European Union citizen can replace with the Spanish register's certificate; the marriage certificate, for those who are married; and the receipt of the fee. Whoever applies as the spouse of a Spaniard adds the spouse's birth certificate, the marriage certificate from the Spanish Civil Registry and proof of living together. Everything must be in force on the day of filing, and the Ministry treats a criminal record certificate with no date of expiry as valid for six months.

The fee is the Ministry's: El importe actual es de 104,05 eur., the current amount is 104.05 euros, as its website says. With the two tests an adult pays 327.05 euros, before translations and legalisations.

How long it really takes

The regulation gives the Ministry one year from the day the application reaches it, and then turns its silence into a no: Transcurrido el plazo aludido sin que haya recaído resolución expresa, se entenderán desestimadas las solicitudes formuladas por los interesados, once that period has passed without an express decision, the applications are deemed dismissed (Real Decreto 1004/2015, article 11). A request to complete the file stops that clock for up to three months, and an applicant who does not answer it is taken to have withdrawn.

What happens in practice is in the figures the Ministry publishes every quarter, with the warning that they are not official statistics. On 30 June 2026 there were 251,223 files pending. In 2025 it received 296,923 applications and decided 256,219 files: 221,284 grants and 24,910 refusals, the rest closed. By our arithmetic on those tables, about 96 per cent of the applications of 2024 had an answer by that date, and about 70 per cent of those of 2025. Most files, then, are decided within the year or a few months after it. A minority wait much longer: 17,448 of the pending files had been opened before 2025.

When the year passes without an answer, the applicant can keep waiting, since the Ministry goes on deciding after the year is up, or go to court. The Order allows an optional request for reconsideration to the Ministry or a direct appeal to the National Court in Madrid; the court appeal must be filed within two months of a notified refusal and, on its wording, within six months of a silent one (Orden JUS/1625/2016, article 13). The court route is slow as well: the applicant of the Venezuelan case applied in July 2021 and had her judgment in May 2026.

After the grant: 180 days, the oath and your other passport

A grant is not yet a nationality. The Code gives it a short life: such grants caducan a los ciento ochenta días siguientes a su notificación, lapse one hundred and eighty days after they are notified, unless within that time the person appears before the competent official to swear or promise loyalty to the King and obedience to the Constitution and the laws, make the declaration on the earlier nationality and ask for registration (articles 21 and 23). Since 2021 the oath can be taken at the Civil Registry or before a notary, and the Ministry treats an appointment obtained within the 180 days as valid even if its date falls later. Only registration makes a Spaniard: Estas inscripciones tendrán carácter constitutivo, these entries are constitutive (Ley 20/2011, article 68).

Until 2024 the regulation added a condition for those months: no conduct at odds with good civic conduct before the oath. The Supreme Court annulled it, because the requirement no está previsto ni en el Código Civil ni en ninguna otra norma con rango legal, is not laid down in the Civil Code or in any other rule with the rank of an Act, and only an Act can regulate nationality (judgment 1264/2024, of 15 July 2024).

Then comes the question most Europeans ask first. The Code requires Que la misma persona declare que renuncia a su anterior nacionalidad, that the person declare that he renounces his previous nationality. Nationals of the Ibero-American countries, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea and Portugal and Sephardic Jews originating from Spain are exempt; the Ministry counts as Ibero-American the countries where Spanish or Portuguese is an official language, Puerto Rico included. French citizens are exempt as well since 1 April 2022, under a convention that lets them become Spanish conservando su anterior nacionalidad, keeping their previous nationality. For everyone else two things are worth knowing. What Spanish law asks for is a declaration made in Spain; whether your own country treats it as the loss of its nationality is a question for that country's law, and the answers differ. And the declaration has a sequel: a naturalised Spaniard loses the nationality Cuando durante un período de tres años utilicen exclusivamente la nacionalidad a la que hubieran declarado renunciar al adquirir la nacionalidad española, when for a period of three years they use exclusively the nationality they declared they were renouncing on acquiring the Spanish one (article 25).

A new Spaniard's children are not carried along automatically. Those under his or her parental authority may opt for the nationality, and the option lapses when they turn twenty (article 20).

What our immigration team does

Our immigration team prepares Spanish nationality applications by residence and handles the appeal when a file is refused. The service is described on our immigration page, and you can write to us with your dates: when your first card began, the gaps between cards and the long trips in your passport.

Common questions

Can I apply after ten years if I spend the winters abroad?

The Code sets no number of days. The Supreme Court asks whether the absences are occasional, brief and justified and whether your home stayed in Spain, and the Ministry asks for an explanation of every long trip it finds in the passport.

Do I have to give up my British or German passport?

Spanish law asks you to declare that you renounce your previous nationality, unless you are a national of one of the exempt countries or French. What that declaration does to your first nationality depends on that country's law. After the oath, using only the old nationality for three years loses the Spanish one.

I am married to a Spaniard. How long do I need?

One year of legal residence, with one year of marriage at the time of the application and no separation. The Code does not mention a registered partnership.

The year has passed and nobody has answered. Is that a refusal?

In law, yes: the application is deemed dismissed, and that opens the way to the National Court. In practice the Ministry goes on deciding late files, as its figures show.

How much does it cost?

The Ministry's fee is 104.05 euros, the CCSE test costs 85 and the DELE A2 costs 138 in Spain in 2026: 327.05 euros for an adult who needs both tests, plus translations and legalisations.

General information on the law as it stands in October 2026 (Civil Code, articles 20 to 25; Real Decreto 1004/2015; Orden JUS/1625/2016; Ley 20/2011, article 68; the nationality convention between Spain and France of 15 March 2021; the Supreme Court's judgments of 13 February 2008, 27 June 2011 and 15 July 2024; the National Court's judgments 330/2026 and 335/2026; the Ministry of Justice's figures at 30 June 2026 and the Instituto Cervantes' prices for 2026). It is not advice on a particular file: the period, the exemptions and the weight of an absence depend on your nationality, your cards and your passport.