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SPANISH CITIZENSHIP

How to apply for Spanish citizenship for a baby born in Spain to foreign parents

Here’s everything foreign parents need to know about the process to apply for Spanish citizenship for their child born in Spain, from the requirements to the documents they'll need.

Published: 10 November 2022 10:45 CET
Updated: 19 January 2024 14:09 CET
how to apply for spanish nationality for foreign baby
Foreign parents can apply for a Spanish passport for their baby born in Spain after the child has spent a year continuously living in Spain. Here's how to do it. (Photo by Alexander KHUDOTEPLY / AFP)

One of the first questions foreign parents ask themselves when they’re about to have a baby in Spain is what nationality the child will have. 

Foreign parents from most countries who have legal Spanish residency and have a baby in Spain will not be able to get Spanish citizenship for their new-born right away.

By law, they will first inherit the citizenship of their parents unless they are from Argentina, Cape Verde, Costa Rica, Cuba, Guinea Bissau, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, San Tome and Principe, Uruguay or are stateless, in which case their child can get Spanish citizenship straight after birth. You can read about it in more detail here. 

Parents from all other countries may only apply for Spanish citizenship for their child after he or she has continuously lived in Spain for a period of one year, usually from the date that their birth in Spain was registered.

This is covered in Spain’s Organic Law 4/2000, of January 11th, on the Rights and Freedoms of Foreigners in Spain and their Social Integration (articles 16 to 19 and 31) and the Regulation of Organic Law 4/2000, approved by Royal Decree 557/2011, of April 20th (article 186).

Keep in mind that this right to Spanish nationality after one year of residency continues throughout their life if they were born in Spain, so if you would rather wait for your son or daughter to decide later on in life if they want to be Spanish, they hold on to that right.

If your intention is for your child born in Spain to acquire Spanish citizenship as soon as possible, here’s what you have to do.

The first step is to register your baby’s birth at the Civil Registry, which can be done at the hospital or a few days later at the Registry Office.

READ ALSO: How to register your new baby in Spain and apply for a passport

Next, you will register your baby’s birth with the embassy or government of your home country and apply for a passport for them.

Most countries will grant this automatically for babies born abroad, although you will need to find out the specific process for your country. 

READ ALSO: Does having a baby in Spain mean I can become Spanish?

Apply for residency first

Once you have all the paperwork pertaining to your baby’s nationality, you will need to apply for a residency card for them, in a similar process to the one that you applied for when you moved to Spain.

This is referred to as the Autorización de Residencia para menor nacido en España (Residency Authorisation for a minor who was born in Spain).

You will need to book a prior appointment at the police station to apply for a foreign identity card such as a TIE.

According to the Spanish government website, the prerequisites for this are that:

  • The baby must not be an EU citizen or family member of an EU citizen
  • They must have been born in Spain
  • At least one of the parents must also have residency

For this, you will need:

  • their birth certificate
  • documents showing that the birth is registered in your home country such as a passport
  • your residency documents
  • padrón certificate from your town hall
  • possibly extras such as your marriage certificate and your passports
  • Anything not in Spanish or a co-official language in Spain such as Catalan must be fully translated by a sworn translator.

You will also need to fill out the form EX–01 for temporary residence or EX-11 for long-term residency.  

If you are a European citizen, you can apply for a special permit for children born in Spain to Spanish residents, which can also be applied for at the police station by taking your child’s birth certificate, their nationality documents, and your green residency card. 

The processing time should take around one month, after which you must take your child along with you when you go to collect their residency card.  

How to apply for Spanish citizenship for your baby born in Spain after one year 

After one year of legal residence in Spain, you can start the application of applying for Spanish citizenship by getting a Judicial Order from the Judge of the Civil Registry so that you can make this decision for a minor.  

In order to complete the process you will need: 

  • Your child’s birth certificate
  • Their residency card
  • Their passport from your home country
  • Residency certificates of the parents
  • Passports and birth certificates of the parents
  • Padrón certificate from your town hall
  • Pay a fee of €102

Extras that may be requested are your marriage certificate if you have one. 

Your child will not have to take the language or citizenship exam that adult applicants are required to as they are under 18 years old.  

Keep in mind, foreigners who are in Spain on a student visa will not be able to apply for Spanish citizenship for their baby born here.

One of the parents must first modify their residence permit before they can move forward.

Be aware that not all countries recognise dual citizenship, including Spain (except with only a handful of countries), so your child may be forced to give up the nationality they acquired from you when they were born.

This is not always the case, but you may want to contact a lawyer about the legal ramifications of this if you decide to move forward with Spanish citizenship for your child. 

READ ALSO: Do you really have to give up your nationality to become Spanish?

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For members

VISAS

Does Spain accept savings for the digital nomad visa if earnings aren’t enough?

One of the main questions applicants for Spain's digital nomad visa have is whether they can provide proof of savings if they don't meet the visa's high income requirements. This is what Spanish authorities told The Local Spain.

Published: 19 April 2024 13:18 CEST
Does Spain accept savings for the digital nomad visa if earnings aren't enough?

The Digital Nomad Visa or DNV is often referred to as visado de teletrabajador de carácter internacional on most of the official websites in Spain and became available for the first time at the beginning of 2023. 

There are a long list of requirements you need to meet in order to be eligible for the DNV, including having no more than 20 percent of your income come from Spain and having some type of social security agreement or paying it yourself.

One of the most challenging requirements, however, is the amount of income you need to earn.

The UGE (Unidad de Grandes Empresas y Colectivos Estratégicos), the body that deals with these visas and the one you apply to states that you need to prove you have monthly earnings of at least 200 percent of the minimum interprofessional salary (SMI), or minimum wage.

Currently in 2024, this means that you need to prove you have earnings of €2,646 per month or €31,752 per year. 

READ ALSO: Is the income requirement for Spain’s digital nomad visa a gross or net figure?

If your partner or children are accompanying you to Spain, you will also need to prove you have extra money in order to support them.

If you’re applying for yourself and your partner, you will need to prove you earn an extra 75 percent of the minimum wage. This currently equates to an extra €1,984.50 per month on top of the €2,646 just for you, so a total of €4,630.50 per month. 

For each additional family member after this, such as children, you will have to prove you have an extra 25 percent of the SMI, which is an extra €661.50 per month.

Many applicants don’t quite meet the threshold and often wonder if the authorities will accept savings in order to make up the shortfall.

This is asked time and time again in many social media groups associated with the DNV.

Can you provide savings for Spain’s digital nomad visa application if earnings aren’t enough?

As with many bureaucratic processes in Spain, the answer is not completely straightforward.

Several members of the Spanish Digital Nomad Visa Facebook group have said that they have successfully been granted the DNV by providing evidence of savings in bank accounts, while many others say that they’ve been rejected because they haven’t earned enough and savings were not able to be taken into account.

One member of the group wrote: “It is an income based visa and therefore savings will only be taken into account if there is a small gap between the requirement and the income. But even then, it is still up to UGE to decide whether they want to accept it or not”.

Another member confirmed this by saying that her lawyer told her that if she has a small shortfall in income, the extra can be made up of savings over £20k.

Someone else added: “I applied without the minimum income requirement covered. I complemented it with savings and got approved”.

READ ALSO: Spain clarifies which digital nomads will get lower tax rates

But others have been told something completely different and been told by their lawyers that savings can’t be used to apply for the DNV at all.

With so many different answers it can be tricky to figure out the truth.

The best option is to contact the UGE itself and find out, which is what we did. 

“The requirement is to prove that the income which will be obtained as remuneration meets the minimum requirements,” the UGE told The Local Spain regarding the €2,646 a month threshold.

“However, if the difference is not much (there is no specific amount but rather it depends on the overall analysis of the application), savings that cover the difference for at least the first two years of the (DNV) authorisation can be assessed”.

Therefore, we can conclude that DNV applicants with monthly earnings that are slightly below the digital nomad visa requirement may be able to successfully provide savings to cover the shortfall, but in the end Spanish authorities decide on a case-by-case basis.

One DNV applicant told other digital nomads on a Facebook forum that the UGE replied to them with: “Any means of evidence admitted by law may be used and an individualised analysis will be carried out”.

Again, it’s likely this will depend on the amount of shortfall you have. We don’t know exactly what the threshold is, so it’s really speculation.

Perhaps if you only need a couple of hundred euros more to meet the income requirement, you may be able to make it up with savings, but if it’s a large amount, it’s likely you’ll get denied.

There’s no one-fits-all answer unfortunately. It’s of course more risky to apply if you don’t meet the income requirement, but if you really can’t make it work, your best bet is to try to submit evidence of your savings along with your application to see if you’ll be accepted.

They may ask for extra evidence later on down the line or you may be successful first time. Of course, there’s every possibility you’ll be rejected too.

READ ALSO: What digital nomads in Spain wish they’d known before applying

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