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 I have just become a Spanish citizen via one of these avenues myself, without the assistance of an immigration lawyer and I'm excited to share the exact steps I took to successfully complete the process.

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.

Although my Spanish citizenship was not granted via this avenue, my father's was and is the sole reason I was even eligible to apply.

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 (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 (in legal terms)

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 reclaim their 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 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.

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 who is already 2 years old and she was not Spanish at the time of his birth.

However, because she is now recognised as a Spanish citizen and my nephew is still a minor in her parental care, this qualifies him for Spanish citizenship under Article 20.1.a. Once his citizenship is granted, he will also then be recognised as a Spanish citizen by option.

My niece on the other hand, who is not yet born at the time of writing this, will qualify as a Spaniard of Origin provided my sister registers her with our local Consulate shortly after the birth, which grants her Spanish citizenship under Article 17.1.c.

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 covers children in different circumstances who were born in Spain to foreign parents and at least 1 of those foreign parents was also born in Spain. For example, let's say your grandparents were Italian and moved to Spain in their youth for work reasons. If during that time they decided to have a child and not naturalize in Spain, their child, your future parent, would also be Italian.

However, if that Italian child then also has a child in Spain (you),  your birth in Spain on top of your parents birth in Spain qualifies you for Spanish Citizenship under Article 20.1.c.

Coming from a country like Australia, this specific section took me a second to get my head around actually because we don't share boarders with anyone so the idea of 2 generations of people being allowed to just give birth without naturalising seems like a crazy scenario at first but considering how freedom of movement works within the European Union, it makes total sense as to how this sort of situation could arise.

Article 20.1.c also has time sensitivity  allowing qualifying applicants a 2 year window to claim Spanish citizenship from the time they have sufficient information to pursue the claim. How anybody can determine precisely when another person "has enough information to begin pursuit" is a bit ambiguous but I guess as a rule of thumb if you think you may fall into this category, writing it down or initiating some correspondence about it to a relevant party the first time you realised you were eligible can help you provide evidence if questioned by the Consulate.

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

The first thing to note here is being born outside Spain with a Spanish born grandparent does not instantly 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 permitted to apply under certain conditions.

The law that contains these provisions I'm referring to is called Ley de Memoria Democrática (English: Democratic Memory Law).

While the statute itself serves to promote knowledge and maintain memory of the victims of the Franco dictatorship, this law was written with special provisions opening a temporary window of opportunity for individuals, including the grandchildren of Spaniards of Origin (Ley de Nietos), to apply for Spanish citizenship under certain criteria.

It was leveraging these temporary provisions that enabled my sister & I to acquire our Spanish citizenship through our Spanish grandmother. In saying that though, we weren't just allowed to apply on her being our grandmother alone, we too had to ensure other criteria was met before we could apply.

In the next segment, I'm going to cover the criteria covered in Ley Memoria Democratica to help cut through the noise of what it actually means...

Stay tuned.