Spanish Citizenship in 1 or 2 Years: Marriage and the Short Routes

Spanish citizenship by marriage takes 1 year of legal residence in Spain, not 10, if on the day you apply you have been married to a Spaniard for a year and are not separated. Article 22 of the Civil Code also gives 2 years to nationals of origin of the Ibero-American countries, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea and Portugal, and to Sephardim. It gives 1 year to people born in Spain, widows and widowers of Spaniards and a few others. Refugees need 5 years, and everyone else follows the 10-year route. 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 sink a short-route nationality application?

For every route, the Civil Code requires residence that is legal, continuous and immediately before the application, good civic conduct and a sufficient degree of integration into Spanish society.

• Marriage without residence. Marriage does not replace the year of legal residence, but the Code deems a spouse living with a Spanish diplomatic or consular officer posted abroad to reside legally in Spain.
• Study time. Royal Decree 1155/2024 gives students a stay authorization, not residence, and no nationality text says whether a stay counts; the 10-year guide sets out the cautious plan.
• An unregistered marriage. The ministry’s order asks for a certificación literal (full-text certificate) of the marriage from the Spanish Civil Registry.
• A separation. A legal or de facto separation on the application date, or at the death for a widow or widower, closes the 1-year route.
• Conduct until the oath. The order and other articles of the regulation still describe a check of good civic conduct until registration, so keep a clean record. On July 15, 2024, the Supreme Court annulled the phrase of the regulation that made a grant’s effect depend on that conduct.

The short routes side by side

Periods and the renunciation rule come from the Civil Code, extra proof from the order’s annex and exams from the regulation: the DELE A2 Spanish diploma and the CCSE civics test, both run by the Instituto Cervantes. The common file is in the 10-year guide.

The ministry’s application page words the descendant row more narrowly than the Code, with a parent also born outside Spain, and its option page says the filing window of the Democratic Memory Law closed in October 2025; the descent guide covers this route, the article 20 option and that window.

Married to a Spaniard: register the marriage before you file

The American spouse of a Spaniard can get the year of residence on a permit for relatives of Spanish citizens, covered in the family reunification guide. Its information sheet, updated in April 2026, covers a spouse over 18 whose marriage was not annulled, dissolved or entered into in fraud of law. The procedure is free, silence after 2 months means refusal, and the permit lasts up to 5 years.

For immigration, a 2025 criterion of the Directorate General for Migration Management calls the Spanish registration of a foreign marriage declarative only: a translated, apostilled U.S. certificate proves it. For nationality, the annex of Order JUS/1625/2016 and the ministry’s application form ask for a full-text marriage certificate from the Spanish Civil Registry, the Spanish spouse’s full-text birth certificate and a cohabitation or joint padrón certificate, which, unlike the annex, the form’s instructions say must show 1 year of living together before the application. No page says outright that registration must come first, but no U.S. certificate meets that line. Every married applicant also files the certificate from the country of the wedding, translated and legalized where needed.

The annex asks for a recent Spanish marriage certificate only from a widow or widower, but the form’s instructions ask it of married applicants too, and the ministry’s FAQ lets only the applicant’s own birth certificate be over 6 months old. Get a Spanish marriage certificate issued within 6 months of filing. Under article 44 of the Civil Code, a same-sex marriage has the same requirements and effects.

How a couple living in Spain registers a U.S. marriage

Under article 59.2 of Law 20/2011 on the Civil Registry, a marriage celebrated before a foreign authority enters the Spanish registry through the foreign certificate if it is effective under that same Spanish law. Either spouse can ask, and the Houston consulate says registration is free.

Ask your local Civil Registry first, with the Central form as the fallback, because official pages disagree on the office. The Registro Civil Central (Central Civil Registry) form, dated 2020 and citing the 1957 registry law, makes the Central Registry competent when the applicant lives in Spain. A Justice brochure of 2010 names the registry of the domicile or the Central one. The Washington and Houston consulates say a couple domiciled in Spain may file at the Civil Registry of their domicile. No current Justice page explains the practice since the 2011 law entered into force on April 30, 2021, and a 2022 instruction describes offices still applying the 1957 law.

The Houston consulate takes U.S. certificates without apostille or translation for marriages in its consular district. From Spain, the Central form asks for the full-text original, apostilled and translated where needed, so plan on an apostille and a sworn translation, as the apostille guide explains.

A 2006 instruction on marriages of convenience names fast Spanish nationality as their first aim. It has the registrar interview each spouse privately and separately (audiencia reservada) even when registering from the foreign certificate, and open a registry file when doubting the marriage’s reality or legality.

Partners, separation and a newly Spanish spouse

Spain’s official guidance leaves three questions open.

• Registered partners. The residence sheet gives registered and stable partners the same permit but treats marriage and each partnership as separate categories, and the Code’s 1-year route names only a person married to a Spaniard.
• Separation after filing. The order obliges you to report any change affecting the file, and the immigration sheet Hoja 19 keeps your residence right after a divorce in some cases, such as 3 years of marriage with 1 in Spain. The effect on a pending nationality file is not stated.
• A recently naturalized spouse. No page says whether your spouse must have been Spanish for the whole year of marriage.

Puerto Rico, second passports and the 2-year period

Article 22.1 gives 2 years to nacionales de origen (nationals by origin). A U.S. citizen who has been Mexican or Colombian since birth may qualify. The order counts a second nationality only for the DELE, though: every other requirement is judged on the nationality declared for your residence permit. No official page says whether that nationality can be changed on a TIE, the foreigner identity card. On the Code’s wording, a nationality acquired later does not count.

For Americans born in Puerto Rico, official texts pull two ways.

• Toward 2 years. A registry directorate resolution of June 25, 2007 held that natives of Puerto Rico are Ibero-American and need not renounce U.S. nationality. It said the same reading governs the 2-year period and treated nationality, not birthplace, as decisive; the file held a birth certificate issued by Puerto Rico and a U.S. passport. The Justice Ministry’s dual nationality page counts Puerto Rico as Ibero-American, and the DELE list names it.
• Toward 10 years. That resolution decided a renunciation question, the Justice page speaks of dual nationality only, and no current Justice or consular page applies Puerto Rico to the 2-year period. Under the order, a Puerto Rican on a U.S. passport has the United States as the nationality of the residence permit.

No Spanish official page names a document proving Puerto Rican nationality. Plan on 10 years unless the Justice Ministry confirms 2 in writing, and get a lawyer’s opinion before filing on 2.

Exams, fee and filing on a short route

Law 19/2015 exempts from the DELE nationals of countries or territories where Spanish is the official language, and the regulation turns that into 20 listed nationalities, Puerto Rico included, plus holders of an earlier DELE A2. The form’s checklist speaks of applicants whose mother tongue is Spanish; the regulation’s list governs. Andorra, the Philippines and Portugal are not on it.

Law 19/2015 also exempts minors and people with judicially modified capacity from both tests, as the Instituto Cervantes confirms for the CCSE. Anyone else sits the CCSE unless waived, as for an ESO (compulsory secondary education) diploma earned in Spain. The CCSE costs 85 euros for up to two sittings; the DELE A2 costs 138 euros in Spain, $130 in the United States and $110 in Puerto Rico on the 2026 price table. Wait for any waiver decision before filing: a ministry notice warns that a file lodged while one is pending is archived, except for ESO waivers. The DELE and CCSE guide covers dates, centers and the Spanish diplomas that replace the tests.

The fee is 104.05 euros on form 790 code 026, paid before filing; the ministry’s residence page says budget laws can revise the amount. The application page limits payment in Spain to holders of an NIE (foreigner identity number) or DNI (Spanish ID card). The FAQ lists a digital certificate, Cl@ve Permanente or Cl@ve PIN for filing online, but the e-office button names a digital certificate and AutoFirma, so plan on a certificate. Paper goes to any public registry office listed in Law 39/2015 (in-person page). Consulates do not handle nationality by residence, the Washington consulate says.

Under the regulation, the ministry then has 1 year to decide, and silence means refusal. At March 31, 2026, 281,099 residence files were pending, 189,208 of them lodged in 2025.

After the grant: oath, renunciation and your children

Under the regulation, a grant lapses unless, within 180 days from the day after notification, you swear or promise, renounce where required and ask for registration. The FAQ accepts an appointment obtained within the 180 days even for a later date, and a circular of March 5, 2021 tells registries to question the deadline only if 190 days from the grant date have passed when you ask for the appointment; plan on 180. Since April 30, 2021, Law 20/2011 allows the declarations before the Civil Registry, a notary or a consular officer in charge of the registry, and asking a notary suspends the lapse, under a Justice instruction of December 22, 2021. No official page states the notary’s fee.

The Civil Code spares from renunciation natives of the 2-year countries and Sephardim, and French citizens have been exempt since April 1, 2022 under the Spain-France nationality convention, applied by an instruction of March 31, 2022. The United States is on no list, so an American declares it, the Puerto Rico reading aside. Under article 25 of the Code, a naturalized Spaniard who uses exclusively the renounced nationality for 3 years loses Spanish nationality; the ministry’s page on loss drops the word exclusively, and the Code governs. The dual citizenship guide covers the U.S. side.

Children under 14 swear no oath and make no renunciation. Once you are Spanish, children under your patria potestad (parental authority) may opt for Spanish nationality, and a notary taking your oath must tell you so. Under article 20 of the Civil Code, the option lapses at age 20, or 2 years after emancipation if the child is not emancipated at 18 under their personal law. The San Juan consulate words that deadline differently, so plan on the Code; it also says registry procedures are free. A child who misses it can later use the 1-year route.

A child can instead apply by residence, on a separate form signed by both parents. When both parents agree, a child under 14 needs no Civil Registry authorization, under the ministry’s note of September 3, 2021, the text to plan on. The regulation, the order and the last sentence of article 21.3 of the Civil Code still mention that authorization, but Law 8/2021 rewrote the article 20 rule it points to, which now sends only a parental disagreement to a voluntary jurisdiction procedure.

Your next step: the marriage entry, then the CCSE

If you married in the United States, register the marriage in Spain first: apostille the certificate, get a sworn translation and ask your local Civil Registry how it takes the file. Then book the CCSE, and the DELE A2 unless you are exempt, and order last the nationwide U.S. criminal record the order’s annex requires, since a certificate with no stated validity counts as valid for 6 months from issue.

You can file alone when:

• you have been married and lived together for at least a year;
• you have a full year of legal residence in Spain;
• the marriage is in the Spanish registry;
• you have passed the CCSE and, unless exempt, the DELE A2.

Get help from a licensed professional if:

• the registrar opens a file on your marriage;
• you plan on 2 years as a Puerto Rican or a dual national;
• you are separated or a registered partner;
• your spouse became Spanish within the last year.

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