Update 14/02/20
Camilla has kindly updated the information about what to do when you are notified that you have been granted Spanish nationality. After the experience with her daughter, she has added important information about Britons born in Spain (whose births are thus registered here). She has also included more on UK birth certificates if people want to keep the original, giving advice to provide a duplicate.
This information has been drawn up based on the
website of the Ministerio de Justicia
and given out by Registros Civiles,
as well as on the experiences of members of EuroCitizens who have completed the
process. Since some details vary according to the Registro, we strongly recommend that you contact your local Registro (the town hall can give you the
number if you don’t have it) to confirm what they require you to take along and
the exact steps.
The four main steps are the following:
11 Notification
22 “Pre-jura”: preparation for the “jura”
33 “Jura” ceremony
44 Final
notification and appointment for DNI, followed by updating all documents with
your old NIE
Note: “Jura” and “prejura”. At the Registro Civil
Central c/ Pradillo 66, they do prejura
and jura, but in other registros civiles
outside Madrid, they may do it in one go, depending on the registro.
We cannot give exact timeframes since timings have
varied significantly between individual cases and do not appear to be directly
related to whether the applicant lives in a big city or small town. Expect the
process to take several months.
1.
Notification.
You receive an
email telling you that you have a communication from the Ministerio de Justicia, or a letter at your address (if you did not
do the electronic application).
It informs you
that you have been given Spanish nationality and gives you 180 days to get it. It
is essential that you keep this notification.
Ask for the
appointment as soon as possible, since you may well have to wait several
months.
2. Appointment for the “prejura” preparation of the “jura”.
a. This appointment is to prepare for the jura,
though you do not actually swear or receive nationality yet, this is about paperwork.
It is extremely important that you take the correct documents on the day,
otherwise you may have to wait longer.
b. First, find out which is your “registro civil”, where you need to make
the appointment; this depends on where you are “empadronad@”.
·
If you
/ your child were born in Spain and the birth was duly registered in Spain, you
should check if this is the same Registro
Civil where you/ your child are now empadronad@
and in which Registro Civil you need
to do the whole procedure.
·
Since
the procedure seems to vary from one place to another, check with your registro civil what you need to take;
this information is also online (see 2g ).
c. You can make the appointment online or in some
cases on the phone, calling your registro civil to make an appointment; at some registros they
will just ask you to turn up. The website for online appointments is www.comunidad.madrid/servicios/justicia/cita-previa-registro-civil-unico-madrid. For other autonomous communities / provinces,
enter in your search engine “Cita previa
registro civil + name of the province”.
d. You need to fill in a form “hoja de datos” /”hoja
declaratoria de nacimiento” which you can download from www.exteriores.gob.es/Documents/Hoja
declaratoria nacimientos It is classified under the “Sección de nacimientos” , presumably because you are “born again”! It is
best if you fill out as much as possible before the appointment, and check with your registro civil that not 100 % of
the information is essential to processing your nationality. Even if you/ your
child were born in Spain and are already registered, it is best to fill out
this form as it is specifically used for nationality applications.
The
form asks for information that you may not have e.g. the date and place of your
parents' wedding, your grandparents’ given names, etc., as well as the
inscription of your parents’ wedding and your birth. This is not essential, but
again, it’s worth confirming this with your registro civil.
·
If you
complete the form online, print out a copy and take it with you.
·
When
you are told about a Certificado de
Nacimiento, it means that you are going to be registered at the Registro Civil Español, every Spaniard
has to be in the Registro Civil, they
open a page, and record your name, where and when you were born, and the name
and surname of your parents. Without
this Certificado de nacimiento en el
Registro Español, you can't get a DNI or a Spanish passport.
e) Remember that as a Spanish citizen:
·
Everyone
needs a second surname, and this should be your mother’s maiden name.
·
If you
have 3 given names, you have to choose 2 for the Spanish Registro
·
For
married women who took on their husband’s surname, they will now have two new
surnames (father’s and mother’s), following the Spanish system.
f) They will give you a typed version of all the
information and you need to carefully check the spelling of names and places.
g) Documentation required: This may vary depending on whether your
application was online or you already handed over the physical documentation.
On the Ministry’s website it specifies that you need to show the following
documents
·
Letter
of notification of nationality being granted from Ministerio de Justicia, the “Resolución”
·
The original of your green certificate
or the card with your NIE Certificado de
Registro de Ciudadano de la Unión
·
Your passport
(original). You show this but they return it to you.
·
Certificado de empadronamiento (remember it must be within the last month)
·
Original,
apostille and sworn translation of “antecedentes
penales” in the UK (ACRO document that you had to get for your nationality
application). It should not be necessary to provide your Spanish “certificado de penales” as in your
application, you just tick the box in the application (solicitar penales españoles)
·
Original,
apostille and sworn translation of your birth certificate from the UK.
IMPORTANT: at least in some Registros
Civiles they will keep the original birth certificate “for the archives”
(sic), so if you have an official duplicate, hand that over; make sure you keep
a scanned copy. Otherwise you can write a letter to the Registro Civil asking
for your original birth certificate to be returned, or you can write to the UK
to ask for a duplicate.
·
If you
are told that you need your parents’ birth certificates (there have been
cases), tell the civil servant that you don't need it because in your UK birth
certificate, they can see the name of your mother, father and even the maiden
name of your mother.
You
should also take
· The ”hoja declaratoria de nacimiento” that
you completed with your details for the Registro
Civil (see point 2d).
· The email/
letter giving you the appointment.
· If you/ your
child were born in Spain, you will already be registered in the Registro Civil,
so you should take along the original document of the inscription in the
Registro Civil. In this case you/ your child may not be asked for your UK birth
certificate, but take it along in any case – and you should still fill out the “hoja declaratoria”.
h) You then ask for an appointment for the 'jura'. This may be several months after
the second appointment for the paperwork.
i) For minors (over 14 and under 18)
The minor should be accompanied by both parents.
If the child is under 14, s/he does not need to be present. Both parents should
be present, or in the case of one being absent, the other should have “poder notarial”. They
should complete the same “hoja de datos”.
3.
“Jura”
ceremony
a) Take all your documents along to the “jura”,
which is a very brief ceremony (10 minutes). If you have already presented the
documents at the “prejura”, in theory you only need to take your passport (the
original), the original NIE and the letter granting nationality, as well as the
form with personal details of yourself and your parents, that you were given to
fill in at the “prejura”. If the civil servant at the “prejura” requested any
other document, you should take that along too.
b) You will be asked to jurar or prometer the
Spanish constitution and say that you renounce your British nationality.
Remember that as far as the British
government is concerned, you have not really renounced your British
nationality.
c) You just need to reply “sí“ to both and you are
away!
You will not be requested to hand over your
British passport, either in this ceremony or in the previous paperwork
appointment.
Once the
jura is completed, the 6-month period you are given when nationality is
granted, is cancelled. You can ask for a copy of the “Acta de Juramento” if you
wish (it isn’t necessary).
4.
Final notification and appointment for DNI
a) After the “jura”
you will need to wait until you get a notification via SMS from the Registro
Civil that your certificate is ready; again, waiting time varies, so it is best
to ask. This is the “Certificación
Literal” which is your inscription in the Registro Civil (with your NIE and the rest of information you gave)
and you need to pick this up in person from the Registro Civil; it is
specifically and exclusively for you to get the DNI.
b) You will then need to get an appointment with
the Policía Nacional to get your DNI
and passport. You can ask for an appointment on the phone 060 o online https://www.citapreviadnie.es. At the police appointment you need
to present:
·
The Certificación Literal (the original the Registro Civil gave you)
·
The Certificado de empadronamiento
(the Policía Nacional will accept one within the last 3 months)
·
A
recent photo (“hard copy” in paper)
·
42
euros in cash for the DNI and
passport; they do not accept cards.
If you need more information on this,
look at http://www.interior.gob.es/web/servicios-al-ciudadano/dni/como-obtener-su-dni
c) When you get
your DNI, you should also ask the police for a certificado de concordancia which proves that the person with the
NIE is the same as the person with the DNI.
d) When you have done this, you will need to change
all your documents to include your new name and DNI number. The DNI number has
no relation to the NIE. Examples of documents: driving licence, Hacienda,
health card, registration at the town hall, bank accounts, will, accounts with
Iberia/ other airlines, and all contracts e.g. work, insurance, utilities,
phone, etc.
e) If you want a Spanish passport, you need to
apply for this. When you get it, remember to use your Spanish passport when
travelling, including airline reservations etc, (rather than your British one)
as there have been cases of people being told by the Spanish administration /
police that they will have the Spanish passport taken away if they continue to
use their British one.
