There has also been a considerable number of requests in countries such as France, the United States, Russia or Morocco.
MADRID, 16 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Cuba, Mexico and Argentina are the three countries where more people have obtained Spanish nationality under the new Democratic Memory law, which offers the option of obtaining it to a wide range of Spanish descendants who meet a series of requirements, according to the official data to which Europa Press has had access.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation reported this week on the occasion of the Balance of Consular Activity 2022 that up to January 31, 24,729 applications had been submitted in the 179 consular offices available to Spain throughout the world. Of this total, half, 12,862, have already been approved while 6,653 have been registered in the Civil Registry.
The consulates of the Latin American countries head, as expected, the ranking of those that have received the most nationality applications since the entry into force of the Memory Law on October 19. Cuba, Argentina and Mexico have a total of 14,610 applications received and 4,774 registered nationalities.
The new norm, popularly known as the ‘Grandchildren’s Law’, had generated great expectations in the region, collapsing the system for requesting an appointment to carry out the process in some of the consulates with a greater presence of Spanish descendants, such as Argentina. .
In fact, this country is the one in which the most applications had been submitted until the end of January, a total of 7,119 in the five general consulates that Spain has in the country –Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Mendoza and Rosario–, if Well, only 1,145 new Spanish citizens had been registered.
Cuba is the country in which more new Spaniards have been registered. At the Consulate General in Havana, 4,041 applications for nationality have been received, of which 1,970 had already been registered at the end of January.
The ‘top 3’ on the list is completed by Mexico, with 3,450 applications received at the three existing consulates –Guadalajara, Mexico City and Monterrey– and 1,659 new Spanish citizens registered in the first three months of the law’s validity. Following are Uruguay, with 533 registered; Peru, with 335; Guatemala, with 238, and Venezuela, with 120.
Outside this region, requests have been received mainly in European countries, with France in the lead. In the neighboring country, Spain has eight general consulates that have had to process a total of 566 applications for Spanish nationality in the first few months, of which only 22 completed the entire process.
In the United States, a significant number of applications have also been submitted, 549, at the seven consulates and at the embassy in Washington, while a total of 80 people have already obtained Spanish nationality and are registered as such.
Some requests have also been received in two other countries where there is a historical presence of Spanish descendants or with which there is a historical link: Morocco and Russia. In the Alaouite kingdom, the consulates have processed 64 applications in the aforementioned period and ten nationality registrations have materialized, while in Russia there were 23 applications at the consulate in Moscow in the first three months of which 18 completed the process.
By virtue of the Democratic Memory Law, “those born outside of Spain to a father or mother, grandfather or grandmother, who would originally have been Spanish, and those born outside of Spain to a father or mother, may opt for Spanish nationality in the first place. grandfather or grandmother, who originally had been Spanish and who, as a consequence of having suffered exile for political, ideological or belief reasons or sexual orientation and identity, had lost or renounced their Spanish nationality”.
Likewise, “sons and daughters born abroad to Spanish women who lost their nationality by marrying foreigners before the entry into force of the 1978 Constitution” may also apply for nationality, as well as “sons and daughters of legal age of those Spaniards whose nationality of origin was recognized by virtue of the right of option in accordance with the provisions of the Law of Democratic Memory or the so-called Law of Historical Memory” of 2007.
Those who fit into these cases must submit their application to the corresponding Consular Civil Registry together with a photocopy of the same, which will be stamped to justify their presentation. In the case of being domiciled in Spain, the procedure will be carried out in the corresponding Civil Registry.
The requests will be different depending on the assumption and each of the four models provided must be accompanied by specific documentation. In all cases, an identity document and a literal birth certificate must be presented. To this must be added, depending on the case, literal birth certificates of the father, mother, grandfather or grandmother or literal marriage certificates.
To prove the relative’s condition of exile, there will be different documentary ways to prove it, it being mandatory that these have been legalized and/or apostilled and translated if they are in a language other than Spanish.
