This article will discuss how to get Spanish citizenship and permanent residency.
Whilst some things might have changed, or at least have slowed down due to coronavirus, we have done our best to give an accurate picture.
If you are looking for second residency/passport services, or expat-specific financial advice, you can contact me here.
Through our partners we have options for 350,000 Euros, which is lower than the 500,000 Euro typical threshold.
As the economy is becoming more and more globalized, at least before coronavirus, we are experiencing a growth in interests for the exotic, especially among youngsters and adults or retirees.
Many of these people prefer to change their residence and live in countries that offer much more, at much more affordable prices, have friendlier taxation, or maybe you just do not like the mentality of the people of the country you are currently living in.
It is quite easy to fall in love with a specific country, you book a flight, you step on its soil, and everything else will just leave you speechless.
For some rather personal or emotional structures, it always happens, at least during the first weeks, that your brain will start comparing your original country with the new one finding all the surprising good qualities that you realised you cannot live without from now on.
Therefore, on the basis of your analysis you would wish to prolong your pleasure and step here, again and again, buy your house, find a spouse, invest, go bowling, learn the language of the locals, play with them, laugh together, go partying, starting a new life.
Spain in recent years has been welcoming millions and millions of tourists. If you look at statistics it is impressive to see how France, Italy and Spain fight so much in Europe to get the best chunk of the market with appealing tourist attractions, tourist advertisements that promise you a piece of heaven at a reasonable price.
Though Italy and France surely are respectable with all their food culture, history, art and science, the newer generations may tend to look after cheaper and funnier options such ‘’bailar en la playa con los amigos’’ (dancing on the beach with friends) and Spain is literally top leader in Europe with extremely charming, active, vibrant people that will make you move even if you do not want to.
After some research, it seems that Spain was, among all the other 194 countries, to be the option you are seeking to find your meaning in.
And therefore, this article will cover in detail, step by step how to get a residence permit in Spain and how to get the Spanish citizenship as a foreigner.
There are several ways in which you can obtain the Spanish Permanent Residency card, arguing to the Spanish laws and here we will be analysing 8:
Recently a law was made official to support entrepreneurs. Foreign investors had the opportunity not only to invest in Spain but also at the same time to live and work in the country.
It is surely a limited condition as many of you reading this article do not have that much money in their wallet, but here how much you have to invest if you have the money:
The Golden visa through investments will grant you living in Spain for 2 years. At the end of this period, the residence can be further extended.
An advantage you can consider is that with this visa you can include part of your relatives to the residence permit too, such as wife/husband, children, parents and grandchildren.
Generally, you can apply for a Spanish golden visa both in Spain or in your original country provided that you have all the documents that state your investments in Spain.
The documents you will have to provide to apply for an investor golden visa in your country in a consulate will be:
The same rule that deals with investments offers foreigners the opportunity to open a business on their own or to participate in an entrepreneurial project involved in growing the Spanish economy. The main requirements to be granted this kind of residence permit for entrepreneurs are:
And therefore, if you want to be granted a PRC this way, consider that the Spanish Minister of the Economy will have to approve your project. So it is not straightforward and not sure.
By purchasing a property such as a house or an apartment you have the right to have a PRC but not to work with it, just for tourist purposes.
Generally, this rule should apply to renting too. It lasts one year and it can be prolonged 2 times more of 2 years and 2.5 years respectively.
After these two prolongings, it becomes permanent. A requirement you will have to prove, giving that you will not work during this period is that you have sufficient money with you and confirm of the solvency of the house, flat or renting, some of the documents necessary may include:
The foreigners who have been granted a PRC have the right to add relatives to their residence. This could be the case of the spouse and kids or older parents, but in any case, these people are not allowed to work and have to depend fully on the PRC owner. Moreover, the validity of this PRC and the required documents depend on the type of PRC contracted.
If you want to study at a University in Spain, these are the documents you have to bring with you:
In order to obtain the Long term PRC in Spain you will have to:
If you want to be granted the long term PRC, you have to keep in mind the 183 days rule. If you travel outside of Spain for more than 6 months and a day and want to be granted that PRC, you just lost it.
The long term PRC will grant you similar rights to those of a Spanish citizen except:
For those who live in the EU, having a European passport means already having a PRC. Hence, unless you want to be 100% Spanish or 100% the citizen of another country, join its military or police force, it is almost irrelevant to have the citizenship of another European country, but maybe we are wrong and it could bring you some advantages.
Lately, the UK abandoned the EU and for those that come outside of the EU, this part of our article will focus to solve your problems if you want Spain to become your new, definitive home, also because, if you are granted the Spanish citizenship, you also have free travel and PRC in European countries, therefore it could be an extremely important change for you.
We will be examining this in two parts, the theory and the process of obtaining citizenship, step by step. Citizenship is a bond between the citizen and a country, generally, all of us have citizenship except the stateless people who have no documents.
There are two types of citizenship: the original and derived citizenship. The original citizenship is almost ‘’by birth’’ (not location) in fact, you can acquire citizenship even if you were to be born outside the country where your parents live/lived, given that you have both parents or one parent which is Spanish, in this case.
You do not need any form of declaration or will to it to be granted and no requirements involved. The ‘’original’’ Spanish citizenship cannot be lost in any case, but the derived one yes, if we do not use it for more than 3 years. This means that if you live outside of Spain without informing your embassy prior to your departure, the countdown could cancel your citizenship if you live, i.e in Italy.
The original citizenship can be further divided by its acquisition in two, Ius Soli and Ius Sanguinis.
Some foreigners wrongly believe that if their son is born in Spain, but generally almost everywhere in the world except North and South America, Pakistan in Asia, Chad, Lesotho and Tanzania, they will be granted sudden citizenship, but that is not how it works. Citizenship by birth is rare and it is called Ius Soli and there is no Ius Soli in Spain. If a child is born from both parents born outside the EU, the child will be granted the citizenship of the parents.
The Ius Sanguinis, on the contrary, it’s the citizenship by blood when you transfer ‘’philosophically’’ from you as a parent to your children and there’s no way to be granted an Ius Sanguinis citizenship except if you were born by a Spanish father, mother or couple.
There are exceptions in which the Ius Soli can be granted:
There are several ways in which you can obtain it but let us focus on the first three more common:
If you are Italian or Romanian you can apply for citizenship only after 10 years, but if you come from South America from a Spanish speaking country, from an ex-colony of Spain such as the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea or closely related such as Andorra, Portugal or Sephardic countries.
If you are married to a Spanish citizen, you have the right to gain citizenship after 1 year of marriage and given you have PRC already. It is not the marriage in itself that enables you to have it but an ‘’award’’ for having lived a year in Spain.
Generally, the economical spectrum is not considered, if you hold a PRC means that you are, generally, already independent with money or work.
Generally, it is really difficult as there is a generational gap between you and your grandparent, meaning your father that did not apply for it or lost it in the process, being an emigrant or similarly. If you want to try, you will need your grandparent to be with you in the process.
The most complicated thing when it comes to processing the citizenship is precisely coordinating all the documents so that they are up to date since sometimes expire before you can have all of them together. Therefore, it is very important to know what documents matter and where they should be requested. The process is really simple but quite complex:
If we have some kind of Spanish of origin, the birth certificate of our ancestors. All this makes it often easier with the support of a lawyer who can process the papers and tell us what we have to provide depending on our specific situation.
To request the second, it is enough to buy an official criminal certificate form in a tobacconist and send it by mail to the Registro Central de Penados y Rebeldes together with a photocopy of your documents.
When you want to apply for citizenship of any country, it is necessary to pass a test about language, history, culture and constitution.
Some of the questions you would expect to face, I found on an online test are:
As we see half of the questions above mentioned, obviously in Spanish, are half general and/or obvious and half quite detailed and you have to have some background having studied the history, language and cultural identity of the country.
Therefore, after you managed to collect all the documents you need, do not forget to study, after all the work you have done, you must pass it, generally, it is not difficult and most people pass it.
Further Reading