Spain: citizenship for the descendants of exiles and Sephardic Jews

A passport is a right, not a favour. If you receive one through your ancestry, you are not buying anything and not asking for anything: you are having it confirmed that it belongs to your family. Which countries open this route and how far back they reach is set out in the overview of citizenship by descent. Spain is a special case there, because alongside the ordinary right of descent it passed two laws of redress, both with an expiry date.

Spanish citizenship by descent: which routes are open today

Before you order a single certificate, match your family history to one of the routes. The question is always the same: who in your line was originally Spanish, where were they born, and did they later lose Spanish nationality?

Two of the five routes run through residence in Spain: you must have lived there legally, without interruption and immediately before your application. The option under Article 20 and the exception for Sephardic Jews work without residence. If you have none of these roots, you are left with the standard route described in naturalisation in Spain for Germans.

Grandchildren of exiles: the Democratic Memory Law

When the Civil War ended, many Spaniards went into exile. Many never came back, took on a new nationality and lost their Spanish one. Their children and grandchildren grew up in France, Mexico, Argentina or Germany, often without a Spanish passport and sometimes without knowing they had any claim at all.

Ley 20/2022 on democratic memory came into force on 21 October 2022. Its eighth additional provision (disposición adicional octava) gave a right of option to three groups:

1. Children and grandchildren of exiles: people born outside Spain whose father, mother, grandfather or grandmother was originally Spanish and had lost or given up Spanish nationality as a result of exile for political, ideological or religious reasons or because of their sexual orientation or identity.
2. Children of Spanish women who lost their nationality through marriage: the children, born abroad, of Spanish women who had lost their Spanish nationality by marrying a foreigner before the 1978 Constitution came into force.
3. Adult children of new Spaniards: the grown-up children of those who were granted Spanish nationality of origin by option under this law or under the seventh additional provision (disposición adicional séptima) of Ley 52/2007.

The deadline has passed

The declaration had to be made within two years of the law coming into force, and the Council of Ministers could extend that period by one year. The extension came. Spain's embassies and consulates accepted the last declarations on 22 October 2025; the embassy in Budapest, for example, opened specially on the afternoon of the final day, appointment or not.

What this means for you: if you filed your declaration in time, your case is under way, and what counts now is answering any requests for further documents quickly and in full. If you missed the deadline, the route under this provision is closed. Your claim through your grandparents is not necessarily closed with it, because the Código Civil has its own routes for the same family.

Sephardic Jews: what remains of the 2015 law

The Sephardim are the descendants of the Jews who lived on the Iberian Peninsula until 1492. The edicts of expulsion left them a choice between baptism and exile, and many left. Their communities were rebuilt in North Africa, in the Balkans and across the rest of the Ottoman Empire. Many kept Ladino or Haketia, the language of their ancestors, alive for centuries.

Ley 12/2015 recognised this history as an exceptional circumstance within the meaning of the Código Civil and opened naturalisation by carta de naturaleza to Sephardic Jews of Spanish origin, without residence in Spain. Two things had to be proven:

• Sephardic origin, for example through a certificate from the Federación de Comunidades Judías de España, from a Jewish community or from a recognised rabbinical authority, through Ladino or Haketia as a family language, through a ketubah in the Castilian tradition or through an expert report on the family names.
• A special connection to Spain, among other things through knowledge of Spanish history and culture, families on Spain's protection lists or involvement with Spanish or Sephardic institutions. Adults also had to pass DELE A2 and the exam on the constitution and society.

The application went through a notary, and the decision lay with the Dirección General de los Registros y del Notariado. The fee was €100 per application.

The deadline and the exception

The law came into force on 1 October 2015 and allowed three years for applications, extendable by one year. By 1 October 2019 at the latest, the window had therefore closed. The law deliberately left one door open, though: if you can show exceptional circumstances or humanitarian grounds and meet the other requirements, you can still apply under the same procedure after the deadline. These applications are decided by the Council of Ministers. This is not a route for the many but an individual case that has to be well argued.

For all other Sephardic Jews, the route runs through residence in Spain, and for them it is especially short.

Child of a Spanish-born parent: the option with no age limit

For many families in Germany this is the most important route, and it has no deadline. Think of the families who came to Germany from Spain in the 1960s and 1970s. Some fathers and mothers later became German and lost their Spanish nationality in the process, and their German-born children grew up with only a German passport.

Article 20(1)(b) of the Código Civil gives a right of option to anyone whose father or mother was originally Spanish and born in Spain. Normally a right of option lapses at the age of 20. For exactly this case, however, Article 20(3) expressly provides: no age limit. Whether you are 25 or 60 makes no difference.

First check whether you are already Spanish

Before you exercise the option, ask a simpler question: was your father or mother still Spanish on the day you were born? If so, you have been Spanish from birth under Article 17(1)(a) of the Código Civil and need no option, only an entry in the Spanish civil registry.

Two rules may, however, have ended that nationality again:

• Article 24(1): an adult who lives abroad and voluntarily acquires another nationality, or uses only the foreign nationality they already held as a child, loses Spanish nationality after three years unless they declare within that period that they wish to keep it.
• Article 24(3): someone born and living abroad, as the child of Spanish parents who were themselves born abroad, who also holds the nationality of their country of residence loses Spanish nationality unless they declare within three years of coming of age that they wish to keep it.

If that has happened, Article 26 provides for recovery. It normally requires legal residence in Spain, but that requirement expressly does not apply to emigrants and the children of emigrants. You declare before the competent Registro Civil that you wish to recover your nationality and have the recovery registered.

One year in Spain: the short route for children and grandchildren

If none of these routes is open to you, you can still get there quickly. Article 22(2)(f) of the Código Civil makes one year of residence enough for anyone born outside Spain whose father, mother, grandfather or grandmother was originally Spanish. The reason for the loss plays no part here; you do not have to prove any exile.

This is the answer for everyone who missed the deadline of the Democratic Memory Law: the grandfather who would have given you the passport by declaration now cuts your naturalisation from ten years to one.

The conditions are clearly set out:

1. Legal, uninterrupted residence in Spain, immediately before the application. A year in which you genuinely live there, not a year with a holiday flat.
2. Good civic conduct and sufficient integration, shown in the procedure.
3. DELE A2 and CCSE: the regulation on naturalisation through residence requires both Instituto Cervantes exams; 60 per cent of the CCSE covers the constitution and the structure of the state, 40 per cent culture, history and society.
4. The decision is made by the Ministry of Justice; the regulation allows one year from receipt of the application.

How to register in Spain as a German citizen and which papers you need for it is explained in entry, visas and residence in Spain. Plan the year with tax in mind too, because a year of residence is more than a long holiday. The overview is in living and paying tax in Spain.

Two years of residence for Sephardic Jews

For Sephardic Jews, naturalisation through residence is not tied to any deadline. Article 22(1) of the Código Civil names them expressly alongside nationals by origin of Ibero-American countries, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea and Portugal: for them, two years of legal, uninterrupted residence are enough instead of ten.

The other conditions match the one-year route: good conduct, integration, DELE A2 and CCSE. Here too you show that you are Sephardic; the means of proof listed in the 2015 law show what the Spanish authorities look for. And under Article 23 of the Código Civil, Sephardic Jews of Spanish origin do not have to renounce their previous nationality, an advantage the standard route does not offer.

Can you keep your German passport?

On the German side, the position has never been better. Since 27 June 2024, acquiring a foreign nationality on application no longer costs you your German citizenship. You no longer need a retention permit (Beibehaltungsgenehmigung). The details are in the article on dual citizenship for Germans.

On the Spanish side, there is one point you should know before you apply. For acquisition by option, carta de naturaleza or residence, Article 23 of the Código Civil requires three things: an oath or promise of allegiance to the King and obedience to the Constitution and the laws, a declaration renouncing your previous nationality, and registration in the Registro Civil. Exempt from the renunciation are the citizens of the countries named in Article 24 and Sephardic Jews of Spanish origin. Germany is not on that list.

What that declaration means for your German passport is governed by German law itself. Under section 26 of the Nationality Act (StAG), a German renounces citizenship by a written declaration that the competent German nationality authority must approve, and the loss only takes effect when the certificate of renunciation is handed over. Have this point clarified for your own case before you sign.

Two routes are not touched by Article 23 at all: if you are already Spanish from birth under Article 17, you acquire nothing and are simply registered. And recovery under Article 26 does not appear in the list in Article 23.

Which certificates you need for the Spanish route

Every one of these routes stands or falls on proof: that your ancestor was originally Spanish and, for the option under Article 20(1)(b), also that they were born in Spain. On top of that comes the unbroken chain from them to you.

• Your ancestor: Spanish birth certificate from the Registro Civil or, for older generations, the parish baptismal record. Plus every document that shows their nationality: an old Spanish passport, consular registration, military papers.
• The loss: the other country's naturalisation certificate, the marriage certificate for women who married a foreigner before 1978, or evidence of exile.
• The chain: birth certificates for every generation down to you, and marriage certificates wherever a name changed.
• For Sephardic Jews: certificates from the community or rabbinical authority, evidence of Ladino or Haketia, family names and family history.

For foreign birth certificates, Ley 12/2015 expressly required legalisation or an apostille and, where necessary, a sworn translation into Spanish. Expect the same standard on every route. Where to find your ancestors' German, French or Latin American records and what archives will release is covered in the article on genealogy for your passport.

Spain, Austria and the question of a plan B

Spain and Austria have both passed laws for the descendants of the persecuted, but with one big difference: for the notification under section 58c, the route for descendants of victims of National Socialism, Austria sets no deadline and does not require you to give up your previous nationality; Spain has closed both of its windows of redress again. If you have Jewish or politically persecuted ancestors in several countries, first check which country still keeps its door open today. More on this in Austrian citizenship for descendants of the persecuted.

A Spanish passport is a passport of the European Union, and it does not end with you. Under Article 17 of the Código Civil, your children are Spanish from birth if you are Spanish when they are born. For the chain to hold, every generation living abroad has to keep an eye on the declaration deadlines in Article 24; how to pass on citizenship properly is shown in passing citizenship on to your children. What a second passport gives your children is set out on the family page.

And what if the Spanish route asks for a year in Spain that you cannot live right away, or a certificate is missing that an archive first has to find? Then the rule for every naturalisation applies: the free route is the better one in the end, but it takes time. Citizenship by investment buys you that time. You can pursue both in parallel, as the article on CBI and naturalisation shows. Which programmes can give you a second passport within a few months today is shown in the overview of programmes and in the comparison.

Frequently asked questions