Spanish citizenship by descent: what closed in October 2025, and the routes that still work

Spanish descent citizenship spent the last three years being defined by the Democratic Memory Law of 2022, and now that its application window has closed, most of the descent conversation for HNWI files has shifted to what remains. What remains is actually reasonably strong: a fully intact standard jus sanguinis route with no generation limit, an accelerated two-year residency-to-citizenship route for a broad class of former-colony and heritage-nation applicants, and a specialised route for Sephardic-descent applicants that closed to new files in 2019 but whose approved-then-delayed backlog still generates ongoing grants. This piece is the current operating brief on the file.

Standard jus sanguinis, without the generation limit

Article 17 of the Spanish Civil Code makes a person Spanish by origin if born to a Spanish parent, without generation limit and regardless of place of birth. Chain of transmission is required in the sense that each intervening generation had to be Spanish at the birth of the next, but Spain historically did not have the aggressive dual-citizenship stripping rules of Germany or Japan, so chains hold across generations more often than for German or Polish files.

For an HNWI client whose grandparent or great-grandparent was Spanish, the file is either open (chain holds) or closed (chain broken by a specific historical event). The most common chain break was voluntary acquisition of Latin American citizenship in the mid-20th century, though Spain's treaties with several Latin American countries preserve Spanish citizenship in specific cases (the "double nationality treaties"), so this needs to be checked country by country.

The Democratic Memory Law, closed to new files

Law 20/2022 (Ley de Memoria Democrática), enacted 20 October 2022 and effective 21 October 2022, opened a two-year window (extended once to 22 October 2025) for three categories of applicants:

1. Persons born abroad to fathers, mothers, grandfathers, or grandmothers originally Spanish who lost or renounced Spanish nationality due to exile between 1936 and 1975.
2. Persons whose mother or father lost Spanish nationality by marriage under pre-democratic rules.
3. Adult children of persons who acquired Spanish nationality under the 2007 Law of Historical Memory but whose recognition was subject to the child being underage at that time.

The window closed for new files on 22 October 2025. Files submitted by that date are being processed under the law and grants continue to be issued. If your file was in on time, it stays alive under its own regime.

For clients whose Spanish ancestry fits the profile the Democratic Memory Law was written for but who did not file by October 2025, the direct route is closed. What remains is the two-year residency path or the standard jus sanguinis case where the chain actually holds without needing the special law.

The two-year residency route

Article 22 of the Civil Code establishes a shortened residency-to-naturalisation path of two years (rather than the standard ten) for applicants from Ibero-American countries, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea, Andorra, Portugal, and applicants of Sephardic-Jewish origin (this last category still open, unlike the 2015-2019 fast-track Sephardic law which closed).

For an HNWI client holding a passport from any of these jurisdictions, the calculation is direct: two years of legal residence in Spain (with the usual physical presence and non-criminal-record requirements) followed by naturalisation on application. The A2 language exam and the CCSE cultural exam are required. Dual citizenship with the source country is permitted under the double-nationality treaties that Spain has with most of these countries, though the specific treaty text matters.

This route is significantly under-used by HNWI files. A Mexican, Argentinian, Chilean, or Brazilian passport-holder who is already contemplating Spanish or European residency for tax or lifestyle reasons is essentially two years plus paperwork from a full EU passport. Golden Visa and other longer routes are frequently sold as the primary path when the two-year route would deliver the same outcome for less capital commitment.

The 2015-2019 Sephardic law and its backlog

Law 12/2015 opened a route for descendants of Sephardic Jews expelled in 1492, requiring evidence of Sephardic origin and a Spanish cultural or linguistic connection. Applications closed on 30 September 2019 after multiple extensions. Grants under this law continue to be issued to applicants who filed by the deadline, and the backlog is expected to run into 2027-2028 given the volume of applications received.

For clients who filed under this law and are still waiting, the process runs. For clients who did not file by 2019, this specific route is closed, and the alternative is the two-year residency route (which still recognises Sephardic origin for the reduced timeline, per Article 22).

What a Spanish descent file actually looks like

The documentation load for a standard jus sanguinis file is substantial. The Spanish authorities require original or certified-copy birth certificates for each generation in the chain, marriage certificates for each intervening generation, death certificates where applicable, and apostilled and Spanish-translated versions of all foreign documents. Files filed at Spanish consulates abroad process through the consular Civil Registry (Registro Civil Consular), which is generally slower than the Central Registry in Madrid.

Processing time for a jus sanguinis file is currently running twelve to thirty months from filing to inscription. Fee is administrative (around EUR 100 in registry charges). Professional fees to assemble the file cleanly run USD 2,500 to 6,000 depending on how many countries of documentation the chain crosses.

When Spanish descent is the right answer

For a client with an unbroken Spanish jus sanguinis chain to a Spanish-born ancestor, the descent route is direct and delivers a full EU passport. For a client from an Ibero-American country contemplating European residency, the two-year residency route is materially faster than most other EU options and should be modelled against Portugal Golden Visa, Greece Golden Visa, and Italy elective residence.

For a client whose Spanish ancestry ran through the exile categories the Democratic Memory Law was written for but who did not file by October 2025, the direct descent route is closed, and the file needs to be re-modelled around the residency path or an alternative EU descent option (Ireland if grandparent-line applies, Germany if Article 116(2) applies).

If you have a Spanish-ancestry file and want a written read on whether the chain holds under standard jus sanguinis, whether the two-year residency route pencils for your source passport, or whether an entirely different EU route is a better rebuild, send the basics through our contact form. We'll come back the same week with the working position.