Spain Relaxes Minimum Stay for Citizenship

The Spanish Golden Visa programme has long been a popular choice amongst Ibero-American and Filipino applicants due to the shortened route to Citizenship that it offers. For the majority of applicants, Spain’s Golden Visa legislation states that one must reside for at least nine months each year for ten years in order to gain Spanish Citizenship. However, applicants from ex-Spanish colonies can fast track to citizenship in just two years, providing they meet the minimum stay requirement.

Recently, the Spanish Government have relaxed the continuous residency requirements for citizenship so multiple exits are now possible, as long as none of the trips last longer than three consecutive months. In other words, this means Latin American applicants will only need to travel every 2.5 – 3.0 months, or eight times in total, to Spain, within the two year period.

Nationals from the following countries could qualify for Spain’s two-year fast track Citizenship route: Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Philippines, Cuba, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Venezuela, Panama, Paraguay.

For all other nationalities, the time required to obtain Spanish citizenship will remain at 10 years, however, it is no longer necessary to reside full time in Spain to meet the citizenship requirement. Revised legislation states that citizenship applicants must not spend more than six consecutive months outside of Spain. In short, this means that the applicants will need to travel just twice per year to Spain, leaving no more than 5.5 – 6.0 months between visits. This is great news for applicants whose long term goal is to gain a Spanish passport but do not wish to reside full time in Spain.

The Spanish Golden Visa programme requires a real estate investment of €500,000. Following the investment, the initial residency application takes approximately 2-3 months. For those who wish to remain on a residency visa and do not intend to apply for Citizenship, there is just a 1-day minimum stay requirement per year. For more details on the Spanish Golden Visa programme, please contact our experts.