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SPANISH CITIZENSHIP

When can I start counting my residency in Spain towards citizenship?

Applicants for Spanish citizenship need to have been living in Spain for a certain amount of time in order to qualify. At what point does your time spent in Spain start to count towards citizenship?

Published: 10 November 2023 09:57 CET
When can I start counting my residency in Spain towards citizenship?
At what point does your time spent in Spain start to count towards citizenship? Photo: Daniel Prado / Unsplash

How long do I have to have lived in Spain to qualify for citizenship?

As a general rule, you need to have lived in Spain for 10 years with a valid residence permit (TIE card) or EU right of residency (EU green residence card or certificate – Certificado de Registro de Ciudadano de la Unión).

Those from Ibero-American countries where Spanish or Portuguese is spoken (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Paraguay, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela), only have to wait two years before being eligible for citizenship.

The same applies to those from Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea, Portugal or Sephardic Jews. 

Those with official refugee status have to have lived in Spain for five years before they can apply.

READ ALSO: How foreigners can get fast-track citizenship in Spain 

If one of the following situations applies to you, you only have to have legally lived in Spain for one year until you can get Spanish citizenship:

– You were born in Spain

– You have been married to a Spaniard for a period of one year and are not legally separated

– You are the widow or widower of a Spanish citizen and, if upon their death you were not legally separated

– You were born outside of Spain to a Spanish parent or grandparent who originally had Spanish citizenship

– Anyone born outside of Spain to a father or mother, grandfather or grandmother, who originally would have been Spanish

READ ALSO: How do rules on getting Spanish citizenship compare to rest of Europe? 

When can I start counting from?

This will typically depend on what type of residency you have.

For non-EU citizens, the following rules apply:

According to the Ministry of Justice, the time starts counting for citizenship from the date you apply for your TIE residency card.

You must apply for your TIE within three months of arriving in Spain.

READ ALSO – EX-11: How to get your long-term residency card in Spain

You will initially be issued with a five-year temporary TIE card, which must be renewed after this time and exchanged for a permanent TIE card. Remember, you will lose your right to permanent residence if you live outside of the EU for more than one year. 

READ ALSO: Spain scraps six-month absence rule for losing temporary residency

Your time to Spanish citizenship starts counting from when you receive your residency card. Photo: Photo by Mikhail Nilov / Pexels
 
 

British citizens who moved to Spain before Brexit

Brits who gained residency under the Withdrawal Agreement before December 31st 2020 may have exchanged their green residency card for a TIE, although this isn’t a legal requirement.

If you had an EU green residency certificate for less than five years, you will have been given a temporary TIE card and if it was for longer than five years, you will have been issued with a permanent residence card.

Citizenship may count from the date you applied for your new TIE or the date on your green residency card, if you still hold one. To be sure which date the authorities will take into account, you can apply for a Residence Certificate – see below. 

For EU citizens

Your period of residency starts from the date you receive your EU green residency card and are officially recognised as living in Spain, rather than an EU tourist.

Like the TIE, you need to apply for this within the first three months of living in Spain.

Unlike the TIE, however, there is no expiration date on the card. The number of years towards citizenship will count from the date of issuance on the card.

READ ALSO – Step by step: How to apply for Spanish nationality

A family member of EU citizen

If you are not an EU citizen but are the spouse or child of one, you are eligible for an EU family residence card that gives you the right to live and work in Spain for five years, after which you can apply for permanent residency.

Your residency can start counting towards citizenship from the day you receive your initial EU family member residence card.

READ ALSO – Q&A: Can EU nationals bring non-EU family members over to Spain?

What time will not count towards citizenship?

Any time spent living in Spain as a student will not count towards your citizenship.

This is the same case for any time you spent living in Spain as a tourist – ie the three months before you applied for your residency card.

What if I’m unsure how many years, months and days I’ve lived in Spain?

If you are not exactly sure how long you have been a legal resident in Spain or if your residence has been interrupted at any time, you can apply for a Residence Certificate.

This residence certificate is a document that contains all the authorisations and cards that you have had since your arrival in Spain, so you can verify if you meet the required number of years or not.

You can apply for it online from the Spanish government website or from your local police station or immigration office. It will be valid for a total of three months from when it’s issued.

You will need to complete form EX15 and to pay the relevant fee.

Be aware that applying for Spanish citizenship is a lengthy process and can take anywhere from one to three years. This means that by the time you receive an answer, you will most likely have been living in Spain for more than 10 years in standard cases (less for the specific ones mentioned above).

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SPANISH TRADITIONS

Everything you need to know about Mother’s Day in Spain

Here's how and when in May Mother's Day is celebrated in Spain, and why it owes its roots to religion and a Valencian poet.

Published: 3 May 2024 13:37 CEST
Everything you need to know about Mother's Day in Spain

This year, Mother’s Day (El Día de la Madre) is celebrated in Spain on Sunday May 5th. It’s always celebrated on the first Sunday of the month of May.

On this day, young children in Spain give their mothers manualidades (crafts) they’ve made at school as a token of their love.

Husbands and older sons and daughters may buy their wives/mothers a present to say thanks for all that they do as matriarchs, which usually takes the form of a detalle (smaller present than for a birthday or Christmas), and will come accompanied by a message such as te quiero, mamá (I love you, mum).

According to experiences website Aladinia, the average Spaniards spends €65 on gifts on Mother’s Day. 

Other mums may send out text messages to wish each other ¡Feliz Día de la Madre! (Happy Mother’s Day!).

As it’s always celebrated on a Sunday, many shops will be closed but you can expect plenty of restaurants to be open for lunch and perhaps dinner. 

Depending where you’re from, the first Sunday of May may or may not be when you’re used to celebrating Mother’s Day in your home country.

Around the world over 100 countries celebrate Mother’s Day (or Mothering Sunday, more on the difference below) – 77 in May, 13 in March, and 14 at other times during the year.

Some countries, like the UK, celebrate Mothering Sunday on the fourth Sunday during Lent, meaning that the date changes each year. This is because Mothering Sunday was originally a Christian holiday in some European countries.

READ ALSO: How a female teacher campaigned for Spain to have a Father’s Day

Spain, however, celebrates Mother’s Day on the first Sunday in May each year, meaning that it doesn’t have a fixed date either. But it wasn’t always like that.

The history of Mother’s Day in Spain

The first Mother’s Day in Spain was celebrated in Madrid all the way back on October 4th, 1926. Much of the impetus for establishing a day to celebrate mothers came, rather fittingly, from a poet.

Julio Menéndez García, a Valencian poet and public servant, pushed for a special day to celebrate mothers. Spanish newspaper La Libertad published a short section on Garcìa’s efforts in October 1925:

“A Levantine poet, Julio Menéndez García, has had the happy initiative that in Spain and in the Spanish-speaking nations a day should be consecrated to extol the love of mothers. The establishment of Mother’s Day is something tender and sympathetic, which deserves to be welcomed by governments, the press and public opinion, as it involves the highest tribute to women in their most august representation.”

After the Civil War, the church moved the date to December 8th to coincide with the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a key holiday among Catholics. 

Civil War-era poster urging Madrid mothers to leave the Spanish capital with their children before the arrival of Franco’s troops. (Photo by AFP)

But it wasn’t until 1965 that Mother’s Day was celebrated in May in Spain. The reason for this change of date was to separate the celebrations (both were considered important enough to have their own day) but also the influence of other countries, namely the United States.

The campaign for a Mother’s Day was originally started by Anna Jarvis, an American wanting to honour her mother, in 1908. By 1914, US President Woodrow Wilson officially signed it into law, establishing a May date. 

However, for many years in Spain department store El Corte Inglés maintained the date of 8th December, meaning that Spain Mother’s Day was celebrated twice a year for a while, commercially speaking at least.

In 1936 a local council in Breña Baja, on the Canary island of La Palma, became the first in Spain to move Mother’s Day to May.

However, in 1965 the church authorities officially decided to move Mother’s Day to May, a month consecrated to the Virgin Mary. May is also the month of female gods in the classical world, and in Catholicism is dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

Interestingly, Jarvis herself later campaigned against the day, arguing it had become overly commercialised, something Spaniards often bemoan about other imported American customs like Halloween and Valentine’s Day. 

READ ALSO: How a female teacher campaigned for Spain to have a Father’s Day

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