Spanish Citizenship by Descent for Americans: Parents and Grandparents

Spanish citizenship by descent remains open to many Americans with a Spanish parent or grandparent, but new applicants now depend on the Civil Code alone. The Democratic Memory Law of 2022, Ley de Memoria Democrática, closed to new appointment requests on October 22, 2025. What the Code offers depends on the generation: a child of a Spanish parent is Spanish from birth and needs the birth recorded, a child of a Spain-born, originally Spanish parent can opt at any age, and a grandchild can apply after 1 year of legal residence in Spain. This article is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice; verify current requirements with the relevant Spanish authority or a licensed professional.

What can cost you Spanish citizenship by descent?

Two family dates can cost Spanish citizenship by descent: a parent’s naturalization before your birth, and the end of the 3 years after 18 in which a dual national abroad must declare the wish to stay Spanish or act as a Spaniard, under article 24.

• A parent who naturalized first. The status of Spaniard of origin, español de origen, which the Constitution protects from deprivation, depends on your parent still being Spanish on the day you were born; otherwise the remaining paths are the option, when that parent was born in Spain, and the 1-year route.
• The renunciation. Under the option and the residence route, anyone 14 or older must declare the renunciation of their previous nationality, and the United States is not among the exempt countries (Civil Code, article 23, Washington).
• A Spanish mother before August 19, 1982. Until Law 51/1982, a child born to a Spanish mother and a foreign father was Spanish only in certain cases, set out below.
• A student year. Study gives a stay, estancia, which is not the legal residence that the grandchild’s 1-year route requires.

How do you apply for Spanish citizenship by descent?

Spanish citizenship by descent runs through five Civil Code routes open in 2026: birth to a Spanish parent, two options, recovery and 1 year of residence; consulates take all but residence and recovery by anyone other than emigrants and their children, both filed in Spain.

How do you get Spanish citizenship through a Spanish parent?

A child of a parent who was Spanish at the birth is Spanish of origin under article 17.1.a and claims that citizenship by having the consulate covering the birthplace enter the birth in the Spanish Civil Registry, which Washington does free of charge.

Washington lets an adult register their own birth by signing the declaration before a U.S. notary, and accepts these files by mail, with the state’s long-form birth certificate rather than the hospital’s, and the Spanish parent’s literal birth certificate, the certificado literal or full copy of the Spanish birth entry. Practice varies from one consulate to another:

• New York requires the parent to appear in its Registro de Matrícula, the register of resident Spaniards, and indicates about 10 to 12 weeks, as a guide only.
• Boston likewise requires the parent to be registered.
• Chicago handles these files by mail only.
• San Francisco requires no appointment.

No official page read sets a deadline for recording the birth. The constraint that actually binds is the declaration due by 21.

A parent who became a U.S. citizen before your birth

When the Spanish parent naturalized in the United States, Washington asks for the parent’s Spanish birth certificate bearing a note that Spanish nationality was kept, or for the U.S. naturalization certificate. The rules on loss have shifted over the decades:

• From August 5, 1954: nationality was lost by voluntarily acquiring another one, at 21, or at 18 if emancipated, after 3 years abroad (1954 law).
• From August 19, 1982: the same loss applied, except to someone who showed the registry that the new nationality resulted from emigration (Law 51/1982).
• From January 7, 1991: loss occurred 3 years after voluntarily acquiring another nationality while living abroad (Law 18/1990).
• Since January 9, 2003: the same 3 years apply, unless the person declares within that period the wish to remain Spanish (article 24.1).

Born before August 19, 1982 to a Spanish mother

Under the 1954 wording, a child of a Spanish mother and a foreign father was Spanish only if the child did not take the father’s nationality, and the 1983 instruction states that the 1982 reform does not apply retroactively. No official page applies that test to a child born a U.S. citizen. What remains open today is the 1-year route through any originally Spanish mother, together with the article 20.1.b option when she was born in Spain.

Dual since childhood: the declaration by 21

For a Spaniard living abroad who has held U.S. nationality since childhood, two rules of article 24 start a clock at 18.

• Article 24.3: when the Spanish parent was also born abroad and the country of residence grants its nationality, the person must declare before the Civil Registry, within 3 years of turning 18 or of emancipation, the wish to keep Spanish nationality. The rule reaches those who came of age after January 9, 2003 (Law 36/2002).
• Article 24.1: even with a parent born in Spain, Spanish nationality is lost by using only the foreign one during the 3 years after 18 or emancipation. This loss dates from 1991, and the declaration that prevents it from January 9, 2003.

Washington lists both cases and takes the declaration in person, free of charge, by appointment requested by email. Like Chicago, it also accepts tacit conservation, meaning an act as a Spaniard within the period, which the consulate assesses case by case.

Recovering nationality you lost

Under article 26, anyone who lost Spanish nationality can recover it through legal residence in Spain, a declaration before the Civil Registry and registration; emigrants and their children are exempt from the residence condition and may apply from abroad (Washington). The Justice Ministry requires Government authorization only for Spaniards not of origin who lost it under article 25. No official page read settles whether a person who lost nationality under article 24.3 counts as a child of emigrants.

Can you opt for Spanish citizenship if your parent was born in Spain?

A child of a Spain-born, originally Spanish parent may opt for Spanish nationality at any age under article 20.1.b, but it is not of origin and, from age 14, consulates ask for a renunciation that a 2022 instruction says adults need not make.

The right of option, opción, a declaration through which a person becomes Spanish, covers two groups:

• those who are or were under the patria potestad, the parental authority, of a Spaniard, such as the minor child of a parent who became Spanish, until age 20 or 2 years after a late emancipation, as Washington also states, though another of its lines counts 2 years from majority or emancipation;
• those whose father or mother was originally Spanish and born in Spain, at any age since Law 36/2002.

Who signs depends on age: a legal representative declares for a child under 14, a child from 14 declares with that assistance, and an adult declares alone. Washington records the option without charge.

The DGSJFP, the Justice Ministry’s directorate for legal certainty and public faith, classifies the option as a derivative acquisition in its instruction of October 25, 2022, and under article 25 a Spaniard not of origin loses the nationality after 3 years of using only the renounced one.

The renunciation: plan on declaring it

Article 23.b requires anyone 14 or older who opts to declare the renunciation of their previous nationality, with exemptions for natives of Ibero-American countries, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea and Portugal, and for Sephardim; Washington and Chicago add France and do not list the United States. The 2022 instruction is ambiguous: its list of differences treats the absence of renunciation as specific to the Democratic Memory option, yet a later passage on rules common to that option and article 20.1.b says adults satisfy articles 20 and 23 “salvo la renuncia”, save the renunciation.

Keeping U.S. citizenship next to Spanish nationality

A Spaniard of origin makes no renunciation declaration and cannot be deprived of nationality, although the loss rules of article 24 still apply. On the U.S. side, the State Department’s legal page on dual nationality states that U.S. law does not require a citizen to choose, and that a U.S. citizen may naturalize in a foreign state without any risk to that citizenship. Under 7 FAM 1211, loss requires an act done voluntarily and with intent to give up U.S. citizenship, and 7 FAM 080 presumes that a citizen who naturalizes abroad or takes a routine oath intends to keep it. No State Department page read addresses the Spanish declaration, a point taken further under dual citizenship in Spain for Americans.

Is the Democratic Memory Law still open for grandchildren?

The Democratic Memory option, open to children as well as grandchildren of originally Spanish people, closed to new applications on October 22, 2025, whatever the applicant’s case; timely applicants still file, and Washington says it validated every credential request on October 29, 2025.

Additional provision 8 of Law 20/2022 allowed people born abroad to an originally Spanish parent or grandparent who lost or renounced Spanish nationality through exile to opt for it. The DGSJFP interpreted it as covering such descendants whether or not exile was involved. It also extended to children of Spanish women who lost their nationality by marrying a foreigner before the 1978 Constitution, and to adult children of people recognized as Spaniards of origin. The window opened on October 21, 2022 for 2 years, and the Council of Ministers extended it by 1 year on July 9, 2024, according to the summary from La Moncloa, the prime minister’s office.

• Filing after the close: the November 5, 2024 instruction lets someone who requested an appointment online in time file in person later, with the receipt; New York accepts only the CSV, the verification code emailed before 23:59 local time on October 22, 2025.
• Credentials: Washington says timely applicants should already hold credentials and need only book the appointment; New York cautions that credentials can take several months, and Los Angeles turns away CSV holders whose credentials were rejected.
• Missing proof: the 2022 instruction allows 30 calendar days from the registrar’s request.
• Decisions: no official page gives a time; Los Angeles warns of delays. By May 31, 2026, Spain’s consulates worldwide had received 1,225,188 applications, approved 571,761 files and made 333,696 registrations, according to the Foreign Ministry.
• Voting: a Supreme Court order of October 12, 2026, linked from the Washington and New York pages, keeps, as an interim measure, the census office from adding to the CERA, the roll of Spanish voters abroad, people who became Spanish of origin through this option’s parent or grandparent clause, and suspends the electoral effects for those already on it in the general election called by Royal Decree 806/2026, unless a consular registrar certifies that the ancestor’s exile was shown without the 2022 instruction’s presumption; no page read withdraws nationality or halts files.
• Children: Miami’s FAQ of March 21, 2024 had parents opt for minor children under article 20.1.a once their own nationality was granted, and accepted an adult child’s Anexo III form with the parent’s receipt, a practice it said Chicago refused; no page read since the close addresses adult children who did not file.

Bills in Congress are not law

SUMAR’s bill 122/000230 would remove the renunciation of article 23.b and count study stays (text), and it has been awaiting a plenary vote since December 23, 2025. VOX’s 122/000054 was rejected on October 15, 2024. The only change to Law 20/2022, in March 2026, added a provision on compensation for victims.

Can you get Spanish citizenship through a grandparent?

Through a grandparent alone, Spanish citizenship now requires living in Spain: article 22.2.f cuts the legal residence needed for nationality from 10 years to 1 for anyone born abroad to an originally Spanish parent or grandparent.

The Justice Ministry’s application page reads the rule more narrowly, with a parent also born abroad and all of them originally Spanish, so a question to the ministry comes first if your parent was born in Spain or was never Spanish. The year has to be legal, continuous and immediately before the application, which means a residence permit such as Spain’s non-lucrative visa must come first. Students hold a stay, estancia under article 33 of the immigration law rather than residence under article 30 bis, and a 2025 bill’s preamble states that their time does not count, whereas international telework is residence under article 74 bis of Law 14/2013. Relatives of Spanish citizens have a permit of their own, covered under family reunification in Spain.

The file follows the rules of Spanish citizenship by residence:

• the DELE A2, the Instituto Cervantes Spanish exam, from which the regulation gives U.S. nationals no exemption, and the CCSE, its civics test;
• proof of descent from a Spaniard;
• the fee on form 790 code 026, 104.05 euros, up from the 100 euros set by Law 19/2015, since budget laws can revise it;
• a decision within 1 year, with silence counting as refusal;
• the renunciation, made at the oath.

One question here remains unresolved. The 2022 instruction cites a July 2022 ruling of the Audiencia Nacional, a national court, holding that a parent who became Spanish of origin under the 2007 Historical Memory Law is not originally Spanish, which is the term this route uses. The same instruction gives Democratic Memory grantees that same later-acquired origin, and no page read says whether they qualify here. Spanish citizenship by marriage and the short routes sets this route alongside the other 1-year cases.

Which documents do you need for Spanish citizenship by descent?

Most files for Spanish citizenship by descent start with the certificado literal, the full birth certificate, of the Spanish parent or grandparent, ordered from the Justice Ministry’s e-office; to record a birth, Washington wants the parent’s certificate issued within the last 6 months.

Democratic Memory grandchildren filed both the grandparent’s certificate and the one of the parent in the line (2022 instruction). The e-office accepts requests online; without Cl@ve, the government login, it always sends the certificate by post and warns of strike delays, while Washington says a digitized entry arrives at once and others later, by email or post. For a birth that was never registered, the 2022 instruction accepted a parish baptism record with a negative registry certificate, or a late-registration file.

• Age of Spanish certificates: each consulate sets its own limit: 6 months at Washington and San Francisco for births and at Chicago for options; 12 months at Chicago for births and recovery; 1 year at New York for births.
• Apostille, the Hague Convention’s one-stamp certification: for Democratic Memory files, the 2022 instruction required foreign registry certificates to be legalized or apostilled, and officially translated when not in Spanish. New York exempted U.S. civil registry documents and Washington births in its area, whereas Miami required U.S. certificates to be apostilled. Chicago exempts the states it serves for options and recovery. For recording a birth, Boston, Chicago and San Francisco require foreign documents to be apostilled, unlike Washington and New York.

According to the Hague Conference, states apostille their records, generally through the Secretary of State, for $3 to $20, and the State Department apostilles federal documents for $20 each. Official translations are made by translators appointed by the Foreign Ministry; both steps are set out under apostille and sworn translation for Spain. The Chicago consulate’s map shows which office serves each state.

Your next step: the birth certificate, then the consulate

The first document to order for Spanish citizenship by descent is the literal birth certificate of the Spanish parent, or of the grandparent and the parent in that line, from the Justice Ministry’s e-office, since consulates expect it issued within 6 or 12 months.

With a Spanish parent, the next step is your consulate’s page for the route concerned, followed by the appointment request. With only a Spanish grandparent, a residence permit in Spain comes first, because the 1-year route is filed there.

An adult with a Spanish parent can register their own birth without help, by mail where the consulate allows it, once satisfied that the 3 years after 18 did not end their nationality; the article 20.1.b option and a recovery can likewise be filed alone. A licensed professional is worth consulting when a grandparent’s records are old or missing, when you were born before August 19, 1982 to a Spanish mother, when your parent naturalized before your birth, or when a Democratic Memory file has gone without news.

The Spain Navigator puts every step of your move to Spain in order, from the visa to settling in.