Spanish nationality by residence
Spanish nationality by residence requires ten years of legal, continuous residence — or two years for nationals of Ibero-American countries, Portugal, the Philippines, Andorra and Equatorial Guinea, and one year for spouses of Spanish citizens and some other cases. The rules on how that time is counted are where most files go wrong.
Requirements
Legal residence for the required period, continuous and immediately before the application; good civic conduct, proved with criminal record certificates from Spain and your country of origin; and integration, proved with the Instituto Cervantes exams (the CCSE test on the Constitution and Spanish society and, unless you are a native Spanish speaker, the DELE A2 language exam). Time with a residence permit counts; time as a student, as an asylum seeker before recognition, or in an irregular situation generally does not.
Real processing times in 2026
The legal deadline is one year. In 2026 many straightforward files are resolved in six to eight months, while others take longer, especially where documents were requested. Once nationality is granted, you have 180 days to swear the oath at the civil registry.
Stalled or archived files
If your application has been pending for more than a year, there are tools to move it: a written request to the Ministry and, if necessary, a court appeal. And a file archived for a missed request for documents does not always mean starting again from zero. We recently obtained the grant of nationality in under six months after taking over a file the client had submitted alone and which had been archived.