Spain · Código Civil, article 22

Spanish nationality requirements

The general route asks for 10 years of legal, continuous residence, and residence is the first of 4 requirements. Below is each one as the law states it, dated, with the three shorter routes and what Spanish law does and does not say about time abroad.

General route

10 yrs

of legal, continuous residence

Ibero-American

2 yrs

Ibero-American two year route

Spouse of a Spaniard

1 yr

and other one-year cases

7 days free, then 34,99 € a year.

The rules are one part. See the whole journey on belongspain.app

Requirements

Everything Spanish nationality asks for

Legal, continuous residence: Legal, continuous residence immediately prior to the application, under Civil Code article 22. Courts judge continuity on effective residence, your real home and life staying in Spain, not on a fixed day count.
Spanish, level A2 (DELE): Spanish at level A2 of the Common European Framework or higher, shown by a DELE diploma. If you are a national of a country where Spanish is an official language, you are exempt from the language proof, not from the CCSE.
CCSE test: The CCSE, the test of constitutional and sociocultural knowledge of Spain, 25 questions drawn from the official manual, passed at 15 correct. Minors and people who completed compulsory secondary education in Spain are exempt.
Good civic conduct: Good civic conduct under Civil Code article 22.4, assessed as a whole. You submit criminal record certificates from Spain and from your countries of prior residence, and the DGSJFP weighs any offence case by case.

Routes

Four routes, and the years each one asks for

Article 22.1 of the Código Civil sets ten years as the rule, five for a recognised refugee and two for nationals of Ibero-American countries, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea or Portugal and for people of Sephardic origin. Article 22.2 sets one year for several cases, the spouse of a Spanish citizen among them. Everything else in the list above applies in full on every route.

General residence route10 yrs
Ibero-American two year route2 yrs
Refugee five year route5 yrs
Spouse of a Spanish citizen and other one-year cases1 yr

General residence route: The path under Civil Code article 22 for nationals outside the two year list. It asks for ten years of legal, continuous residence immediately before the application, a DELE A2 or exemption, a pass in the CCSE and good civic conduct shown by criminal record certificates. You apply electronically, pay the 104.05 euro fee with form 790-026 and the DGSJFP decides administratively. The legal deadline is one year; past it, silence counts as refusal and can be appealed. After approval you swear or promise loyalty and, unless you are from an Ibero-American country, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea, Portugal or France, formally renounce your previous nationality.
Ibero-American two year route: Civil Code article 22.1 cuts the residence period to two years for nationals of Ibero-American countries, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea or Portugal and for people of Sephardic origin. Every other condition applies in full: the residence must be legal, continuous and immediately prior to the application, and you sit the CCSE and show good civic conduct. Nationals of Spanish-speaking countries are exempt from the DELE. On this route you also keep your original nationality: the Civil Code's renunciation requirement does not apply to these nationalities.
Refugee five year route: Civil Code article 22.1 sets five years for recognised refugees. The residence must be legal, continuous and immediately prior to the application, and the CCSE, the language proof or exemption and good civic conduct apply as on the general route. Your refugee documentation stands in for some certificates your country of origin would normally issue; the DGSJFP confirms which ones in your case.
Spouse of a Spanish citizen and other one-year cases: Under Civil Code article 22.2, the spouse of a Spanish citizen can apply after one year of legal residence, provided the marriage has lasted a year and you are living together and are not separated. The other conditions still apply in full: the DELE A2 or exemption, the CCSE and good civic conduct. The one year figure also covers, among others, people born in Spain, widowed spouses who were living together when the Spanish spouse died, and people born abroad to a parent or grandparent who was originally Spanish. The decision runs through the same administrative process as the general route.

Two lists of countries, and they are not the same list

The two years and the DELE exemption are separate things

Article 22.1 of the Código Civil cuts the residence period to two years for nationals of Ibero-American countries, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea or Portugal and for people of Sephardic origin. Article 6.5 of Real Decreto 1004/2015 exempts nationals of twenty named Spanish-speaking countries from the DELE A2. Those are two different lists, written for two different reasons.

A Brazilian national gets the two years and still has to pass the DELE A2, because Brazil is Ibero-American and Portuguese-speaking. Portugal and Andorra are in the same position. And neither list touches the CCSE: every applicant over eighteen who did not complete compulsory secondary education in Spain sits it, whatever their nationality.

Both lists are set out in full on the exemptions page in the CCSE cluster.

Time abroad

How days outside Spain count, and the number nobody has set

Spanish law sets no fixed day count. Continuity is judged on effective residence, so short, justified absences do not break it, while stays around three months or longer draw scrutiny. Verify with a lawyer or the Registro Civil before a long stay abroad.

Article 22.3 of the Código Civil says the residence must be legal, continuous and immediately prior to the application. It sets no number of days.
There is no statutory figure anywhere for how long an absence may be. This is the opposite of Germany, which writes a six month line into the statute, and it is why no honest Spanish page can give you one.
Continuity is judged on effective residence: whether your habitual home, work and family life stayed in Spain.
Belong Spain measures your longest single stay abroad against a 90 day line. That line is guidance drawn from how the administration and the courts treat long stays, not a limit, and nothing is deducted from it.

The app flags risk rather than producing a verdict, because a verdict would mean inventing a threshold Spanish law has not set. Where the judgement belongs to the Registro Civil or to the DGSJFP, the app says so instead.

What to watch

Three things that decide how this actually goes

Decisions can run past the one year deadline: The DGSJFP must decide within one year of a complete application. In practice many files take between one and two years. If the year passes without a decision, the application is deemed refused by administrative silence, which opens the door to a court appeal rather than ending the process. Meeting every requirement does not set the decision date, the Ministry's own queue does.
Dual nationality is limited: When you acquire Spanish nationality by residence you must declare that you renounce your previous nationality, unless you are a national of an Ibero-American country, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea or Portugal, or of France under the 2021 dual nationality convention. Whether the renunciation has effect in your home country depends on that country's own law, check both sides before you apply.
Continuity is judged on effective residence: Spanish law sets no statutory number of days abroad that breaks continuous residence. The Supreme Court reads the requirement as effective residence: occasional, justified absences do not break it as long as your habitual home, work and family life stay in Spain. In practice the administration takes issue with long stays abroad, so keep absences short, keep proof of your ties and be ready to justify longer trips.

Work out your own date, not the general one.

Belong Spain takes your residence date and every trip you have taken and gives you the distance that is actually yours: what you control, what you do not and what each absence puts at risk.

No invented finish dates. Nationality is decided administratively by the DGSJFP, and where the decision belongs to the authority rather than to you, the app says so instead of producing a date.

7 days free, then 34,99 € a year.

Common questions

Nationality by residence, point by point

How many years of residence does Spanish nationality need?

Ten as the general rule, under article 22.1 of the Código Civil. Five for someone who has been recognised as a refugee, and two for nationals of Ibero-American countries, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea or Portugal and for people of Sephardic origin. Article 22.2 sets one year for several cases, among them the spouse of a Spanish citizen who has been married a year and is not separated, and anyone born in Spanish territory.

How many days can I spend outside Spain without breaking continuity?

Spanish law sets no figure at all. Article 22.3 of the Código Civil asks only that the residence be legal, continuous and immediately prior to the application. Continuity is judged on effective residence, so short, justified absences do not break it as long as your habitual home, work and family life stay in Spain. Any page that gives you an exact number of days is inventing it.

Do I have to give up my current nationality?

Article 23.b of the Código Civil asks you to declare that you renounce your previous nationality. What that declaration actually does depends on the other country. Article 24.1 says that acquiring the nationality of Ibero-American countries, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea or Portugal is not enough to cause the loss of Spanish nationality of origin. Check both countries' law before you apply.

How long does the decision take, and what happens if the deadline passes?

The Reglamento gives the DGSJFP one year from the day a complete application arrives. If that year passes with no express decision, applications are deemed refused: silence is negative. That does not end the matter, it opens the route to an appeal. In practice many files take between one and two years.

Is the CCSE the same thing as the DELE A2?

No. Article 6.1 of Real Decreto 1004/2015 asks you to pass both: the DELE at level A2 or above, which tests Spanish as a language, and the CCSE, which tests knowledge of the Constitution and of Spanish social and cultural life. The Instituto Cervantes runs both, and they are booked, paid for and sat separately.

Preparing for the CCSE

The nationality knowledge test is 25 questions in 45 minutes across five tareas, and you pass at 15 correct. The manual the questions come from is published, for free, by the Instituto Cervantes.

Practice test and sample questions

Esta página en español

Rules as of 1 September 2026, snapshot 2026.2, from the Ministerio de la Presidencia, Justicia y Relaciones con las Cortes. Read the official source. Belong Spain is not a government service, is not affiliated with the Instituto Cervantes or with the Ministry, and gives no legal advice.