Spanish nationality
Foreigners who have lived in Spain for a long time may have the intention to join Spanish nationality. The common condition to apply for Spanish citizenship is to have 10 years of continuous legal residence in Spain (only 2 years if you are from some Latin America country).
Note: For children born in Spain, or married to a Spanish national, you can apply for citizenship if you have lived in Spain for 1 year.
What is considered a continuous legal residence of 10 years?
The Spanish Civil Code states that in order to apply for citizenship you must have resided in Spain legally for 10 years, and that this period of residence must be continuous. Continuity means that any absence may not exceed 6 months in a period of 1 year.
The 10 years are counted from the date of application for citizenship. For example, if the person has lived in Spain for 15 years, but does not live in Spain in the last years, then the condition is not met. In other words, the person must have lived in Spain for 10 years before applying for citizenship.
Note: A short period of time away from Spain to travel, work, etc. is not considered as a interruption.
In addition, this 10 years of residence must be legal residence. It does not matter what type of residence the person has.
Note: The term “legal residence” in the Civil Code refers to residencia, while the term “estancia” refers to living in Spain as a student, so the period of residence as a student is not counted.
