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

Spanish citizenship by marriage turns on a date: if, on the day of the application, you have been married to a Spaniard for a year and are not separated, the Civil Code asks for 1 year of legal residence in Spain rather than 10. Article 22 sets other short periods. Nationals of origin of the Ibero-American countries, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea and Portugal, and Sephardim, need 2 years; people born in Spain, widows and widowers of Spaniards and a few others need 1. 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 an application for Spanish citizenship by marriage?

Spanish citizenship by marriage is out of reach without 1 year of marriage and 1 year of legal, continuous residence in Spain immediately before the application, or with a legal or de facto separation on that date, under article 22 of the Civil Code.

• Living abroad. The year of residence has to be spent in Spain: the Code deems only a spouse living with a Spanish diplomatic or consular officer posted abroad to reside legally in Spain, and the Washington consulate states that Spanish consulates do not process nationality by residence.
• Study time. Students hold a stay authorization rather than residence under Royal Decree 1155/2024, and no nationality text says whether a stay counts; the cautious plan appears in the guide to Spanish citizenship by residence.
• An unregistered marriage. What the ministry’s order asks for is a certificación literal (full-text certificate) of the marriage from the Spanish Civil Registry.
• A separation. For a widow or widower, the 1-year route closes on a separation existing at the time of the death.
• Conduct until the oath. Every route requires good civic conduct and integration into Spanish society, and the order and other articles of the regulation still describe a check of good civic conduct running until registration, so a clean record matters to the end. On July 15, 2024, the Supreme Court annulled the phrase of the regulation that made a grant’s effect depend on that conduct.

Which short routes give Spanish nationality in 1 or 2 years?

Spain’s Civil Code cuts the 10 years of residence to 1 for a Spaniard’s spouse, a widow or widower, people born in Spain and three other groups, and to 2 for nationals of origin of Ibero-American and four other countries, and Sephardim.

The order’s annex adds the extra proof and the regulation the exams: the DELE A2 Spanish diploma and the CCSE civics test, both run by the Instituto Cervantes. The file common to every route is described in the guide to Spanish citizenship by residence.

The descendant row is worded more narrowly on the ministry’s application page than in the Code, since the page requires a parent also born outside Spain, and its option page states that the filing window of the Democratic Memory Law closed in October 2025. That route, the article 20 option and the window are covered in the guide to Spanish citizenship by descent.

How do you get Spanish citizenship by marriage?

Spanish citizenship by marriage requires 1 year of marriage to a Spaniard without separation and 1 year of legal, continuous residence in Spain immediately before applying. Register a U.S. marriage in Spain, pass the DELE A2 and CCSE, pay the 104.05 euro fee, then apply.

For the year of residence itself, the immigration administration offers the American spouse of a Spaniard a permit for relatives of Spanish citizens, covered in the guide to family reunification in Spain. Its information sheet, updated in April 2026, applies to a spouse over 18 whose marriage was not annulled, dissolved or entered into in fraud of law. The procedure costs nothing, silence after 2 months means refusal, and the permit runs for up to 5 years.

For immigration, a 2025 criterion of the Directorate General for Migration Management treats the Spanish registration of a foreign marriage as declarative only, so a translated, apostilled U.S. certificate is proof enough. 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; unlike the annex, the form’s instructions require that last certificate to show 1 year of living together before the application. No page states outright that registration must come first, yet no U.S. certificate can meet that requirement. Every married applicant also files the certificate from the country of the wedding, translated and legalized where needed.

On the age of the certificate, the texts differ. The annex asks only a widow or widower for a recent Spanish marriage certificate, the form’s instructions ask married applicants as well, and the ministry’s FAQ allows only the applicant’s own birth certificate to be over 6 months old. The safe course is a Spanish marriage certificate issued within 6 months of filing. Under article 44 of the Civil Code, a same-sex marriage carries the same requirements and effects.

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

Registration is governed by 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, provided it is effective under that same Spanish law. Either spouse may make the request, and the Houston consulate states that registration is free.

Which office takes the request is less settled, because official pages disagree, so the local Civil Registry is the first place to ask, with the Central form as the fallback. The form of the Registro Civil Central (Central Civil Registry), 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 either the registry of the domicile or the Central one. According to the Washington and Houston consulates, a couple domiciled in Spain may file at the Civil Registry of their domicile. No current Justice page describes the practice since the 2011 law came into force on April 30, 2021, and a 2022 instruction describes offices still applying the 1957 law.

For marriages in its consular district, the Houston consulate accepts U.S. certificates without apostille or translation. A couple filing from Spain is in a different position: the Central form asks for the full-text original, apostilled and translated where needed, so an apostille and a sworn translation should be expected, as the guide to apostilles and sworn translations explains.

A 2006 instruction on marriages of convenience identifies fast Spanish nationality as their first aim. Under that instruction, the registrar interviews each spouse privately and separately (audiencia reservada), even when registration rests on the foreign certificate, and opens a registry file when the registrar doubts the marriage’s reality or legality.

Partners, separation and a newly Spanish spouse

On three questions, Spain’s official guidance says nothing definite.

• Registered partners. The residence sheet grants registered and stable partners the same permit while keeping marriage and each kind of partnership as separate categories, and the Code’s 1-year route names only a person married to a Spaniard.
• Separation after filing. The order requires any change affecting the file to be reported, and the immigration sheet Hoja 19 preserves your residence right after a divorce in some cases, such as 3 years of marriage with 1 in Spain. What this does to a pending nationality file is not stated.
• A recently naturalized spouse. Whether your spouse must have been Spanish for the whole year of marriage is not addressed on any page.

Can an American born in Puerto Rico use the 2-year route?

An American born in Puerto Rico has no settled claim to the 2-year route: a 2007 registry ruling counts Puerto Rico as Ibero-American, the 2-year period included, and the Justice Ministry’s dual nationality page does so for dual nationality without mentioning that period.

The official texts point in two directions.

• Toward 2 years. A registry directorate resolution of June 25, 2007 held that natives of Puerto Rico are Ibero-American and do not have to renounce U.S. nationality. It applied the same reading to the 2-year period and treated nationality, not birthplace, as decisive, in a file that held a birth certificate issued by Puerto Rico and a U.S. passport. The DELE list also names Puerto Rico.
• Toward 10 years. The resolution settled a renunciation question, the Justice page speaks only of dual nationality, 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 that establishes Puerto Rican nationality. The prudent plan is 10 years unless the Justice Ministry confirms 2 in writing, with a lawyer’s opinion before any filing on 2.

A second nationality raises a similar question: a U.S. citizen who has been Mexican or Colombian since birth may qualify as a national by origin under article 22.1. For the order, though, a second nationality counts only for the DELE; 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. Read literally, the Code does not count a nationality acquired later.

Which exams and fees apply to Spanish citizenship by marriage?

An American applying for Spanish citizenship by marriage passes the DELE A2 and the CCSE, both run by the Instituto Cervantes, and pays the ministry’s 104.05 euro fee; the regulation waives the DELE for nationals of 20 listed countries, Puerto Rico included.

Law 19/2015 exempts nationals of countries or territories where Spanish is the official language, and the regulation turns that into 20 listed nationalities plus holders of an earlier DELE A2. The form’s checklist refers instead to applicants whose mother tongue is Spanish, but the regulation’s list is the one that governs. Andorra, the Philippines and Portugal do not appear on it.

Law 19/2015 also exempts minors and people with judicially modified capacity from both tests. Everyone else sits the CCSE unless a waiver applies, as it does for an ESO (compulsory secondary education) diploma earned in Spain. The Instituto Cervantes sets the exam fees, and the DELE and CCSE page it posted during maintenance work, where its old fee pages now lead, showed no price list on November 9, 2026; registration for the 2027 CCSE sittings opens on November 23, 2026, according to its CCSE page. Any waiver should be decided before the file goes in: a ministry notice warns that a file lodged while one is pending is archived, ESO waivers excepted. Dates, centers and the Spanish diplomas that replace the tests are in the guide to the DELE and CCSE exams.

Payment comes before filing: 104.05 euros on form 790 code 026, an amount that budget laws can revise, according to the ministry’s residence page. The application page restricts payment in Spain to holders of an NIE (foreigner identity number) or DNI (Spanish ID card). For online filing, the FAQ lists a digital certificate, Cl@ve Permanente or Cl@ve PIN, but the button on the e-office names a digital certificate and AutoFirma, so a certificate is the safer plan. A paper file can go to any public registry office listed in Law 39/2015 (in-person page).

How long does Spanish citizenship by marriage take?

Spanish citizenship by marriage needs 1 year of marriage and 1 year of legal residence in Spain by the filing date; the ministry then has 1 year to decide under Royal Decree 1004/2015, and silence counts as refusal.

At March 31, 2026, 281,099 residence files were pending, 189,208 of them lodged in 2025; the ministry’s statistics count files but give no average processing time.

What happens after the grant, and must Americans renounce U.S. citizenship?

After a grant of Spanish nationality, an American aged 14 or older has 180 days from the day after notification to swear or promise, declare the renunciation of U.S. nationality (natives of Puerto Rico aside) and request registration, or the grant lapses, under the regulation.

The FAQ accepts an appointment obtained within the 180 days even when the date itself falls later, and a circular of March 5, 2021 tells registries to question the deadline only if 190 days from the grant date have passed when the appointment is requested; the figure to plan on remains 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 a request to a notary suspends the lapse, under a Justice instruction of December 22, 2021. No official page states the notary’s fee.

Renunciation is settled by the Civil Code, which spares natives of the 2-year countries and Sephardim; French citizens have also been exempt since April 1, 2022 under the Spain-France nationality convention, applied by an instruction of March 31, 2022. The United States appears on no list, so an American makes the declaration, the Puerto Rico reading aside. Article 25 of the Code withdraws Spanish nationality from a naturalized Spaniard who uses exclusively the renounced nationality for 3 years; the ministry’s page on loss leaves out the word exclusively, and the Code governs. The U.S. side is covered in the guide to dual citizenship for Americans.

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 is required to tell you so. Article 20 of the Civil Code closes the option 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 the Code’s version is the one to plan on; the consulate also says registry procedures are free. A child who misses the deadline can still use the 1-year route later.

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

Your next step: the marriage entry, then the CCSE

For a couple married in the United States, the marriage is registered in Spain first: an apostilled certificate, a sworn translation and a question to the local Civil Registry about how it takes the file.

The CCSE follows, with the DELE A2 unless an exemption applies, and the nationwide U.S. criminal record that the order’s annex requires comes last, since a certificate with no stated validity counts as valid for 6 months from issue.

Filing without help is realistic when:

• the marriage and life together have lasted at least a year;
• a full year of legal residence in Spain is complete;
• the marriage appears in the Spanish registry;
• the CCSE is passed and, unless an exemption applies, the DELE A2.

A licensed professional is worth consulting if:

• the registrar opens a file on the marriage;
• the plan rests 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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