How to Get Spain Citizenship in 2026: Naturalisation After 10 Years (2 for Ibero-Americans)

Spanish nationality is governed by articles 17 to 26 of the Civil Code. The procedure for acquiring it by residence is set out in Royal Decree 1004/2015^[1][2]. The Ministry of Justice grants it. Under article 21.2, the minister may refuse it on reasoned grounds of public order or national interest. Applications go online to the Directorate-General for Legal Certainty and Public Faith (formerly the DGRN). The Ministry of the Interior always reports on the applicant, and the intelligence service can be consulted^[1][2].

For an investor, the practical sequence is:

1. Obtain a Spanish residence permit that suits your profile, such as the non-lucrative visa, the digital nomad visa, the entrepreneur permit or a work permit.
2. Actually live in Spain on that permit, renewing it and usually switching to long-term residence after five years.
3. Pass the DELE A2 Spanish exam (unless exempt) and the CCSE civics test.
4. Apply once you have the required years of legal, continuous residence.
5. After approval, swear allegiance within 180 days, register the acquisition and get your DNI and passport^[1][2][3].

For most non-Latin American applicants, that adds up to roughly 11 to 13 years from first permit to passport. For a Mexican, Colombian, Argentine or Brazilian national by origin it can be as little as 3 to 4 years.

No. Spain has never had a citizenship-by-investment programme. Buying property, funding a company or making a donation does not shorten the 10-year period in article 22. The only discretionary route is carta de naturaleza under article 21.1, which the government grants by royal decree “when exceptional circumstances concur”^[1]. It is used for cases such as elite athletes or people with distinguished links to Spain, and it cannot be bought. Anyone offering a paid Spanish passport is misrepresenting the law.

The former investor visa only ever gave residence. It was abolished by the twenty-first final provision of Organic Law 1/2025, with effect from 3 April 2025^[11]. Existing holders keep their permits and can renew under the old rules. As explained on our page on the closed Spanish investor residence scheme, though, a permit holder who did not actually live in Spain has not built up the continuous residence that naturalisation requires.

Article 22 of the Civil Code sets four tiers^[1]. In every case the residence must be legal, continuous and immediately before the application (article 22.3). An application filed after your permit has lapsed, or after a gap in status, will fail even if you lived in Spain for longer.

Two points matter for investors. First, the 2-year rule covers nationals by origin of the listed countries. A Paraguayan or Panamanian passport acquired by naturalisation does not, on the wording of article 22.1, unlock the shortcut. So stacking a fast Latin American citizenship (see our guides to acquiring Paraguayan nationality and naturalising in Panama) and then claiming the Spanish 2-year rule is not a reliable plan. Second, only time spent under a residence authorisation counts. Student status in Spain is a “stay” (estancia), not residence. That is precisely why Sumar's 2025 bill proposed counting it^[10]. Time as a tourist, or under a pending application, does not count either.

In practice Brazil is treated as an Ibero-American country, so Brazilians by origin qualify for the 2-year period. They still have to sit the DELE A2, because Brazil is not on the Spanish-speaking exemption list^[2].

Beyond the residence period, article 22.4 requires good civic conduct and a sufficient degree of integration into Spanish society^[1]. Royal Decree 1004/2015 turns these into concrete evidence^[2]:

• Language: a DELE certificate at A2 level or higher, issued by the Instituto Cervantes. Nationals of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Equatorial Guinea, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela are exempt (RD 1004/2015, art. 6.5)^[2]. The DELE A2 costs €138 at Spanish exam centres in 2026, according to practitioners quoting the Cervantes price list^[8].
• Civics (CCSE): 25 multiple-choice questions on the Constitution, government and Spanish society and culture. You pass with 15 correct (60%). The fee is €85 worldwide and includes two attempts. A pass is valid for 4 years. Exams are held on the last Thursday of every month except August and December. Minors are exempt, and holders of the Spanish ESO school certificate can ask for a waiver^[5].
• Clean record: a criminal-record certificate from your country of origin, legalised or apostilled and translated. EU nationals can rely on the Spanish central register if it confirms that the home country was consulted^[2]. The Ministry of the Interior also reports on your conduct and on your compliance with immigration obligations (art. 8.2)^[2].
• Identity and civil status: a valid passport and a legalised, translated birth certificate (RD 1004/2015, art. 5)^[2].
• Fee: €104.05, paid with form 790 code 026. The amount can be revised in the annual budget law^[3][4].

“Good civic conduct” is broader than a clean criminal record. In practice, refusals cite police records, unpaid fines, tax or social-security debts, and inconsistencies in the immigration file. Spanish law sets no fixed maximum number of days abroad for naturalisation. Long or frequent absences, though, can lead the Ministry to find that residence was not “continuous”. This matters for investors who split their time between countries. Treat any rule of thumb from agents (for example “no more than three months a year”) as guidance, not statute.

With the investor visa closed, the clock towards Spanish nationality now starts with a permit based on income or activity. Figures below match our verified page on Spain's former investor residence route and its replacements.

Non-lucrative residence visa

This is the usual choice for retirees and financially independent families. It requires passive means of 400% of IPREM, which is €28,800 a year, plus €7,200 for each dependant, together with private health insurance^[12]. No work is allowed. The first permit lasts one year and renewals two years. To renew you must actually have lived in Spain for more than 183 days a year^[12][14]. This lines up neatly with the continuity requirement for naturalisation, but it also makes you Spanish tax resident.

Digital nomad (international telework) visa

This visa is for employees and freelancers working for non-Spanish companies. Income must reach 200% of the minimum wage, about €2,849 a month on the prorated 2026 SMI (some consulates quote €2,442, i.e. 200% of the 14-payment monthly figure), plus 75% for the first family member and 25% for each additional one^[13][24]. The authorisation lasts up to three years and is renewable.

Entrepreneur and highly qualified permits

Founders of innovative businesses with a favourable ENISA report can obtain a three-year permit. So can employees sponsored as highly qualified professionals. Time on these permits counts towards both long-term residence and nationality, provided you live in Spain^[14].

Long-term residence

After five years of continuous legal residence you can switch to long-term (permanent) residence. Absences of up to six months at a time are allowed, within a total of ten months over the five years^[14]. Long-term status is not required for naturalisation. It does remove renewal risk for the second half of the 10-year count, so most applicants take it.

Nationality is personal. Each adult family member must meet the residence period, pass the exams and file a separate application with its own fee^[1][2]. Some family rules help a great deal, though:

• Spouses of a new Spaniard need only one year of legal residence once they have been married to a Spanish national for a year and are not separated (art. 22.2.d)^[1]. In practice, a spouse who arrived at the same time often waits for the principal to naturalise and then applies after one more year.
• Minor children under the parental authority of a Spaniard have a right of option to Spanish nationality (art. 20.1.a)^[1]. That is a separate procedure with no residence period. For children under 14 the declaration is made by their legal representative; if the parents disagree, a voluntary-jurisdiction court procedure decides (art. 20.2.a). Minors who instead apply by residence do not sit the DELE or CCSE; they provide school certificates instead^[2][5].
• Children born in Spain to foreign parents need one year of residence (art. 22.2.a)^[1].
• Adult children who were not under parental authority when their parent acquired nationality must qualify on their own residence^[1].

The whole procedure is electronic. You can file yourself with a digital certificate, or through a lawyer, gestor or other registered professional.

Demand has hit records. The Ministry received 246,667 applications in 2024 and 296,923 in 2025 (June 2026 data). Grants ran at about 221,000 a year in both years, and refusals rose to 24,910 in 2025^[6][7]. At 31 March 2026, 281,099 files were pending, of which 189,208 had been filed in 2025^[6]. By 30 June 2026 the total had fallen to 251,223, with 143,655 of those filed in 2026 and 90,120 in 2025. About 17,400 files from 2024 or earlier were still open, including 8,970 from 2024^[7]. Press reports put the files pending at the end of 2025 at 256,393 and describe a €1.7 million, two-year IT development and support contract for the nationality systems^[21].

The practical reading is that a complete, well-documented 2026 application is likely to be decided in roughly one to two years. Incomplete files, files needing requests for further documents and files with any police or tax issue take longer. The official statistics do not publish an average processing time, so treat any precise figure quoted by agents with caution.

Spain is one of the few EU states that still asks most new citizens to give up their previous nationality. Article 23.b of the Civil Code requires the applicant to declare that they renounce their prior nationality at the oath. Natives of Ibero-American countries, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea and Portugal are exempt, as are Sephardic Jews of Spanish origin^[1]. Since 1 April 2022, French nationals are also covered, under the Spain–France nationality convention signed at Montauban on 15 March 2021^[9].

For everyone else (Americans, Britons, Canadians, Chinese, Indians, Russians, Germans and Italians, among others), the declaration is mandatory. Whether it actually ends your original citizenship depends on your home country's law, not Spain's. Many countries do not treat a declaration made to a foreign official as a valid renunciation. Spain does not require proof that the other nationality was lost. Article 25.1.a has teeth, though: a naturalised Spaniard who uses only the renounced nationality for three years loses Spanish nationality^[1]. In practice, enter and leave Spain and the Schengen area on your Spanish passport and keep using Spanish documents.

Sumar's November 2025 bill would remove the renunciation requirement in article 23.b, making dual nationality available to every naturalised citizen (how it would treat the matching loss rule in article 25.1.a is not confirmed in the summaries we checked). It was admitted for consideration but has not been enacted, so plan on the current rules^[10]. Countries that themselves forbid dual nationality, or that withdraw citizenship on voluntary naturalisation abroad, apply their own rules whatever Spain does. Check your home country's position before you file.

A Spanish passport is an EU passport. It gives the right to live and work in all 27 EU states and the wider EEA and Switzerland, consular protection from any EU state abroad, and visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 186 destinations. That placed Spain joint fourth in the July 2026 Henley Passport Index^[17]. Naturalised Spaniards can vote in all elections and stand for office. Their nationality can only be lost on the grounds in article 25: exclusive use of the renounced nationality for three years, serving a foreign state's army or holding political office there against an express government ban, or a final court ruling that the nationality was obtained by fraud. The state has 15 years to bring that fraud action^[1].

There is no shortcut for foreigners to a Spanish passport outside these rules. The Sephardic procedure under Law 12/2015 closed to new applications in 2019, and the Democratic Memory Law window for descendants of exiles closed on 22 October 2025^[22][23]. For a broader view of where an investor can realistically obtain an EU passport, see our analysis of EU citizenship by investment and the ranking of residence routes with the fastest naturalisation.

Spain taxes by residence, not citizenship. You are tax resident if you spend more than 183 days a year in Spain or have your centre of economic interests there. That will be the case for almost anyone building the continuous residence that naturalisation requires. Residents pay income tax on worldwide income at progressive rates of up to about 47% in most regions. Wealth tax applies above a €700,000 allowance (plus €300,000 for the main home), and the solidarity tax on large fortunes applies to net wealth above €3 million^[16].

Newcomers moving for a job, remote employment covered by the telework visa, or qualifying entrepreneurial activity can elect the article 93 special regime (the “Beckham law”). It taxes the general tax base at a flat 24% up to €600,000 (47% above that), and excludes most foreign-source investment income, for the year of arrival and the five following years. It is open only to people not tax resident in Spain in the previous five years^[15]. Holders of the non-lucrative visa cannot use it. The regime will normally have ended well before you can naturalise.

One citizenship-specific rule is worth knowing. Under article 8.2 of the Personal Income Tax Act, a Spanish national who moves their tax residence to a listed non-cooperative jurisdiction (tax haven) remains taxable in Spain for the year of the move and the following four years^[15]. A naturalised Spaniard planning to retire to such a jurisdiction should take advice before leaving.

Spain suits families who genuinely want to relocate: retirees on the non-lucrative visa, remote workers on the telework visa and founders building a business in Spain. Latin Americans by origin are in a uniquely strong position, with 2 years of residence, no Spanish-language exam and no renunciation. Spouses of Spaniards also do well, needing only one year.

Look elsewhere if you want a passport without moving, or within less than a decade. Portugal now requires 10 years for most nationalities (see our Portuguese naturalisation guide), although its investor residence remains open with low stay requirements. Greece offers an open property-based residence route but requires 7 years of genuine residence; see the guide to Greek naturalisation. Malta's former citizenship-for-investment scheme was struck down by the EU Court in 2025, as our Maltese citizenship page explains. Residence-first alternatives with lighter presence rules include the Greek residence-by-investment programme, the Portuguese investor residence permit and the Malta permanent residence programme.

If the end goal is a second citizenship rather than life in Spain, compare these options:

• Portugal: residence from a €250,000 cultural donation or €500,000 fund, then naturalisation after 10 years (7 for EU and CPLP nationals). See the Portugal citizenship timeline.
• Greece: property-based residence from €250,000, then naturalisation after 7 years of real residence. See how Greek citizenship works for investors.
• Austria: discretionary citizenship for extraordinary contributions, at a very high cost and rarely granted. See Austria's discretionary route.
• Latin America first: Paraguay, Panama and Uruguay offer comparatively quick residence-to-citizenship paths. Remember that a naturalised Latin American passport does not trigger Spain's 2-year rule.

For the wider picture, compare programmes side by side in our European investor residence comparison, see the schemes that have shut in our overview of closed investor visas, and browse every route on the second-citizenship hub.