Spanish Citizenship Through Descent

Spanish Citizenship Through Descent

Thomas In ActionImmigration

Hey there, my name is Thomas and the purpose of this post is to share my full experience with anyone currently looking to acquire Spanish citizenship through descent.

Having Spanish relatives opens up various avenues to obtain Spanish citizenship and understanding the nuances that determine your eligibility, along with the required documents to prove it is without doubt the hardest part.

How do I know?

Because in July of 2025 I become a Spanish citizen via one of these avenues myself, without the assistance of an immigration lawyer and I only wish there was an "easy to understand" resource like this available when I was navigating the process to make things a little less overwhelming for me.

STICKY NOTE:

The term, "descent" when speaking of Spanish citizenship in a legal sense refers to Spanish nationality that is passed to a child from birth via their parents (por origen), not via self initiated claims to Spanish ancestry through parents or grandparents. This is legally considered Spanish citizenship by option (por opción) which I will cover later in this body of work.

Spanish Citizenship Through Spanish Born Parents

Although my Spanish citizenship was not granted via this avenue directly, my father's was and is subsequently how I learned of my eligibility.

When it comes to obtaining Spanish citizenship through parentage, a child's birth can be registered immediately with the Spanish Birth Registry, making the child Originally Spanish from birth under Atricle 17.1.a (por origen). This avenue does not mandate that the child be born in Spain in order to hold such status but at least one parent must hold Spanish citizenship at the time of birth. This avenue is a typical example of an individual obtaining Spanish citizenship through descent.

Should the parents decide not to register the child's birth with the Spanish Birth Registry at the time of birth and instead, register them in a different country due to one of the parents being a citizen of that country, the child will retain the right to claim Spanish citizenship later in life, at any time, at any age by option (por opcion), provided they can submit the required documentation.

This is a typical example of where someone may confuse obtaining Spanish citizenship through descent with option, even though the child is claiming citizenship through direct parentage.

In my Dad's case, he fell into the latter scenario (por opicion) as he was born in England to an English father and a Spanish mother, who was born in Spain and Spanish at the time of his birth.

The exact article that his citizenship was granted is referred to as Article 20.1.b which stipulates:

Artículo 20.
1. Tienen derecho a optar por la nacionalidad española:

a) Las personas que estén o hayan estado sujetas a la patria potestad de un español.

b) Aquellas cuyo padre o madre hubiera sido originariamente español y nacido en España.

c) Las que se hallen comprendidas en el segundo apartado de los artículos 17 y 19.

🔗 [ Source: State Agency Official State Gazette]

English:
Article 20.
1. The following have the right to opt for Spanish nationality:

a) Persons who are or have been subject to the parental authority of a Spaniard.

b) Those whose father or mother was originally Spanish and born in Spain.

c) Those included in the second section of articles 17 and 19.

Articles 20.1.a and 20.1.c also grant Spanish citizenship by option, but both are time-sensitive, unlike Article 20.1.b, which has no age limit or expiration.

Article 20.1.a grants Spanish citizenship to children who are or have been under the parental authority of a Spanish citizen typically up to the age of 20, with some exceptions up to 21 depending on residency or treaties.

This article is the avenue my sister will need to go through in order to pass her Spanish citizenship to my nephew & niece as she was not Spanish at the time of either of their births. My Niece was actually born the day before her Spanish citizenship was granted which is wild haha.

The core rules of Article 20.1.a is that the child must be under the parental authority of a Spanish citizen and must apply before reaching the age limit.

Article 20.1.c is a less common avenue, but it exists to allow those in special cases where the person's Spanish connection officially recognised in adulthood. The law basically says: "if your link to Spain, through birth or parents, wasn’t legally confirmed until after you turned 18, you still have a right to opt for Spanish citizenship but only within two years of that recognition."

Two classic examples of a situation like this include:

  1. Late birth recognition (Article 17.2):
    Let’s say you grow up not knowing your father was Spanish, and then at 25 a court recognises him as your parent. Technically, you were Spanish by origin from birth but because the recognition came after you turned 18, you need to exercise your right within two years to exercise your rights to Article 20.1.c.

  • Adult adoptions (Article 19.2):
    If you’re adopted by a Spanish parent after you’ve already turned 18, you don’t become Spanish automatically. But the law gives you the option to claim Spanish citizenship with two years after the adoption takes place.

In short, 20.1.c is there to stop people missing out on nationality just because the paperwork or recognition happened late in life.

Spanish Citizenship Through Grandparents

From here, we'll be diving into the laws of Spanish citizenship through grandparents and I'll also share more of the details on how I used this avenue to successfully acquire my Spanish citizenship.

The first thing to note here is being born outside Spain with a Spanish born grandparent does not normally qualify you for Spanish citizenship. There has however been special provisions (or temporary laws if you like) put in place on 2 separate occasions where the grandchildren of Spaniards born in Spain have been permitted to apply under certain conditions.

The laws that contain these provisions I'm referring to are called Ley de Memoria Histórica (English: Historical Memory Law) which was introduced in 2007 and implemented the provision window from 2008 to 2011 and then in 2022 was replaced by Ley de Memoria Democrática (English: Democratic Memory Law), which initially provided a 2 year provision window from October 2022 to October 2024, with the extension of 1 year, making the final deadline for applicants October 2025.

"The Law of Democratic Memory (Spanish: Ley de Memoria Democrática) is a law in Spain which came into effect in October 2022, concerning the legacy of Francoist Spain.[1][2] The Law seeks to promote knowledge of the history of democracy in Spain and to maintain the memory of the victims of the Spanish Civil War and the Francoist Dictatorship through initiatives such as the creation of a Register of Victims, to recognise a right of investigation and to know the truth about the circumstances of a victim's death and the removal of some remaining symbols of the dictatorship."
source: Wikipedia

The Historical Memory Law statute was the first law to extend the eligibility of acquiring Spanish citizenship through grandparents but only under certain criteria. e.g. If your grandparent was exiled during the Francoist dictatorship for inhuman reasons like sexual orientation or marrying a foreigner etc and subsequently losing their Spanish citizenship.

However, the newer provisions of the Democratic Memory Law that were put into effect in 2022 permits anyone with a Grandfather or Grandmother who are or were originally Spanish to apply for nationality provided you can present the required documentation.

There is still other criteria within the provisions that allow individuals in other circumstances to apply, but broadly speaking this section of the law is the part that permits the grandparent rule.

I've pasted below the eligibility criteria and required documentation that was presented to me by the Spanish Consulate of Sydney when I made my initial enquiry.

Spanish Citizenship Through Grandparents: Ley De Memoria Democratica Eligibility Requiredments

English:
"MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, EUROPEAN UNION AND COOPERATION

GENERAL CONSULATE OF SPAIN – SYDNEY

LAW 20/2022, of 19 October, of Democratic Memory
ADDITIONAL PROVISION EIGHT

GENERAL INFORMATION AT THE FOLLOWING LINK:
LAW OF DEMOCRATIC MEMORY

1. WHO CAN BENEFIT?

A. CASE 1A:
Those born outside of Spain whose father, mother, grandfather, or grandmother are or were originally Spanish.

B. CASE 1B:
Those born outside of Spain whose father, mother, grandfather, or grandmother lost or renounced Spanish nationality because of exile.

C. CASE 2:
Those born outside of Spain to Spanish women who lost their nationality for marrying a foreign citizen before the entry into force of the 1978 Constitution.

D. CASE 3:
Sons and daughters who were of legal age when their father or mother opted for Spanish nationality under the Historical Memory Law (52/2007).

E. CASE 4:
Persons who, being children of a father or mother originally Spanish and born in Spain, had opted for Spanish nationality not of origin under Article 20.1.b of the Civil Code, as amended by Law 36/2002, of October 8, and the minor children of those who acquired Spanish nationality by application of Law 52/2007, who, in turn, had obtained nationality not of origin by exercising the right of option provided for in Article 20.1.a of the Civil Code, because they were under the parental authority of a Spaniard."

Case 1a of these temporary provisions are the avenue my sister and I have leveraged to submit our applications and I'm actually so grateful that we became aware of them when we did as the window for eligible applicants at the time of writing this is approaching very fast.

On top of that, the original expiry date of these provisions were originally supposed to expire in 2024, so if the Spanish government never decided to extend the citizenship provision for Ley De Memoria Democratica, I would have missed my chance all together... So I guess every now and then the stars do align.

Spanish Citizenship Application Process

When it came to preparing all the required documentation for my application, I initially thought the process would be fairly straight forward until I started looking at the fine print of what I actually had to do... allow me to explain.

For each literal birth or marriage certificate presented to the consulate must have been issued within the last 6 months and any certificate that has not been issued by a Spanish agency or other European partnering country, must first be legalised with the Hague Apostille and translated into Spanish by a sworn translator.

So basically, there's a time limit on each certificates validity and depending on how many of those certificates are not from Spain or another country within the EU, Apostilles and translations to those recently issued documents must carried out before submission.

In my case, the required documents included:

  • 1 x recently issued copy of my Australian literal birth certificate ($99.00 AUD)
  • 1 x recently issued copy of my mother's Australian literal birth certificate ($99.00 AUD)
  • 1 x recently issued copy of my father's British literal birth certificate (£10.00 GBP)