Spanish Citizenship by Residence for Britons: The 10-Year File

Spanish citizenship by residence is the long route to a Spanish passport, and for a Briton it is a 10-year route. The United Kingdom is not one of the countries that get two years, so the clock only starts to matter after a decade of legal, unbroken residence in Spain. Along the way you need two exams, an online file with the Ministry of Justice and an oath that touches your British nationality. This guide follows the steps in order and shows where the official pages stop short. Rules change. This article is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice; verify current requirements with the relevant Spanish authority or a licensed professional.

Can you keep your British passport if you become Spanish?

The two governments give answers that do not line up, and no page read says which one matters in practice.

• Spain asks for a renunciation. Article 23 of the Civil Code requires the person to declare that they renounce their previous nationality. The exemption covers natives of the countries named in article 24 (the Ibero-American countries, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea and Portugal) and Sephardim originally from Spain. Britons are not on that list.
• The UK does not take your citizenship away. GOV.UK says dual citizenship is allowed in the UK, that you do not need to apply for it, and that you can apply for foreign citizenship and keep your British citizenship. It adds that many countries do not accept dual citizenship, and it tells you to check that country’s rules with its consulate or embassy.
• What Spain does with the declaration is not stated. The Spanish pages read set the requirement but do not say whether Spain checks or enforces the renunciation of British nationality afterward. Nothing official read here says either way, so this guide does not either.

If keeping the British passport matters to you, put that question to the Registro Civil or an immigration lawyer before you sign anything. The oath itself is covered below. The guide for Americans explains the same Spanish procedure, but its renunciation and document rules are written for a different nationality.

From residence to oath: the order of the file

The timeline below follows the Civil Code, the Ministry of Justice’s procedure page and the Order JUS/1625/2016 that governs the file.

1. Years 1 to 10: live in Spain legally. Article 22 of the Civil Code says residence must be legal, continuous and immediately before the application.
2. Before filing: pass the DELE A2 and the CCSE. Both are in person, set by the Instituto Cervantes.
3. Before filing: gather and legalize your documents. Foreign papers must be apostilled or legalized, then translated.
4. Filing: submit online and pay the fee. The Ministry of Justice’s electronic office takes the application, with a fee of 104.05 euros.
5. Waiting: up to one year. If no decision is notified in that time, the application is refused by silence.
6. After a grant: swear the oath within 180 days. It happens before the Registro Civil or a notary.
7. After the oath: registration. The Registro Civil entry must follow within five days.

The years of residence

Article 22 sets the rule: 10 years by default, 5 for refugees, and 2 for nationals of Ibero-American countries, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea and Portugal, and for Sephardim. A Briton has no shortcut in that list. Residence has to be legal, continuous and immediately before the petition, so an old stay that ended years ago does not help.

The same article gives one-year cases, including someone born in Spain, someone married to a Spaniard for one year and not legally or de facto separated, a widow or widower of a Spaniard, and someone born abroad to a Spanish parent or grandparent who was originally Spanish. Whether these apply to you depends on documents the official pages do not review here.

Britons who arrived before 2021 may hold a Withdrawal Agreement residence card; the guide to that card explains it. The pages read for this guide do not say whether those years count as legal residence for the 10, so confirm that with the Ministry before relying on them. Applicants who arrive now start with a long-stay visa and then an ordinary TIE card.

Article 22 also requires good civic conduct and enough integration into Spanish society, which the file proves. The Minister of Justice grants nationality by residence and, under article 21, may refuse it on reasoned grounds of public order or national interest.

The two exams: DELE A2 and CCSE

The Order JUS/1625/2016 requires every adult applicant to pass two exams run in person by the Instituto Cervantes: the DELE (the Spanish-as-a-foreign-language diploma) at level A2 or higher, and the CCSE (the test of constitutional and sociocultural knowledge of Spain). The DELE exemption list names 20 nationalities, from Argentina to Venezuela, and the United Kingdom is not one of them; no nationality is exempt from the CCSE. Preparation courses are never mandatory.

The DELE A2

The Instituto Cervantes says a DELE diploma never expires, and that holders of a DELE A2 or higher, or an Escuelas Oficiales de Idiomas certificate at A2, B1 or B2, need not sit it again. The A2 exam has four tests: reading in 60 minutes, listening in 40, writing in 45 and speaking in 12, with 12 more minutes to prepare. The Cervantes price page says the fee depends on the level and the country where you register, and the table is in a PDF that was not read, so this guide gives no DELE price. The dates page lists A2 general sittings on October 17 and November 13, 2026, but registration for both closed on September 2 and September 30, 2026. Registration for 2027 opens on November 18, 2026; the first 2027 A2 sitting is February 12, 2027, with registration closing January 7, 2027.

The CCSE

The CCSE has 25 questions and a pass mark of 15 correct answers, which is 60 percent. The certificate is valid for 4 years. The Instituto Cervantes counts them from the date the grades are approved; the Order JUS/1625/2016 counts them from the date of the certificate. Either way, a long wait between the exam and your filing can cost you the result. The Cervantes fee page sets the price at 85 euros since 2023, and that entry covers up to two attempts if you fail or miss the first. The dates page lists sittings in Spain on October 29, 2026 (registration closes October 8) and November 26, 2026 (closes November 5). Registration for 2027 opens on November 23, 2026.

Exam centers check your passport together with your TIE or other residence card, so sit the exams with your Spanish card, not with only the passport.

Dispensation from the exams

A request to be excused from the Cervantes exams, for example for illiteracy or learning difficulties, must be made before the nationality application, and the Ministry’s notice says it must be resolved within 6 months.

Filing with the Ministry of Justice

The procedure is electronic. The application goes to the Ministry’s electronic office and needs your identification and electronic signature. The sede page says the form needs AutoFirma (the government’s signing program), that you log in with Cl@ve or a digital certificate, and that an unsigned draft is deleted automatically after two months. The filing receipt gives a date, a time and a file number, which you use to track the file.

Fee

The Ministry of Justice’s page gives the fee as 104.05 euros and says it can change with the state budget laws. The Order JUS/1625/2016 says the application is not processed without it and that it is separate from the DELE and CCSE fees. Paying online with a certificate is the normal path; without a certificate, the sede page points to a bank payment with form 790 026.

Documents for an adult

The annex to the Order lists the application form, your birth certificate, your full valid passport, a criminal record certificate from your country of origin, proof of the fee and, if you are married, the marriage certificate. Foreign documents must be legalized or apostilled and translated where needed. The Ministry’s legalization notice calls legalization essential and warns that a missing one causes a requerimiento, which is a formal request to fix the file.

The pages read do not name the UK body that issues the criminal record certificate, or say how to get one. Ask the Ministry, or a lawyer, which UK certificate it accepts before you order anything. The annex lets EU nationals use the Spanish criminal record certificate instead, and Britons are not EU nationals.

After filing: the decision, the oath and the registration

The Order gives the Ministry one year from the day the application reaches the Dirección General to resolve and notify. If no express decision arrives, the application is treated as refused. The sede page lets you check the stage of your file, but says what it shows is not a notification. No official page read gives real processing times, only the legal limit.

A grant lapses after 180 days if you do not appear before an official to meet the requirements of article 23. Those are the oath or promise of loyalty to the King and obedience to the Constitution and the laws, the declaration of renunciation of your previous nationality, and registration in the Civil Registry. The Ministry of Justice says that since Ley 6/2021 you may take the oath before the Registro Civil or before a notary. The Order JUS/1625/2016 ties the grant’s effect to meeting these requirements within the 180 days before the Registro Civil of your last Spanish address in the file. The Ministry adds that since Ley 6/2021 you may instead do it before a notary, who sends the deed to the Registro Civil for the entry. The Order sets the entry within five days of the oath.

Your first step toward the file, and when to ask for help

Anyone can start without a professional by counting the years from the date on the card or visa that made your stay legal, then checking each year for gaps in residence. Then book the CCSE, register early because the October 8 and November 5 deadlines come quickly, and pick a 2027 DELE A2 date once registration opens on November 18, 2026. Order the birth certificate and the criminal record certificate only once you know which version the Ministry accepts, because the apostille and the translation cost time.

Get help from an immigration lawyer if your years include a stay under the Withdrawal Agreement, if you want certainty on the renunciation question, if you think a one-year case applies, or if the Ministry sends a requerimiento you do not understand. The empadronamiento guide explains the town hall registration that backs up your address history.

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