Spain dual citizenship: who keeps the old passport and who has to renounce

Spain makes new citizens declare at the oath that they renounce their old nationality unless they belong to an exempt group. The real risk is a three-year rule in article 25.

In detail

Spain allows dual citizenship for a short list of groups and requires everyone else who naturalizes at 14 or older to renounce their old nationality in a sentence at the oath. Article 23 of the Civil Code spares nationals of Ibero-American countries (the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries of Latin America, Puerto Rico included), Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea and Portugal, along with Sephardic Jews originating from Spain. A treaty in force since April 1, 2022 adds French citizens. A British spouse, an American retiree and an Indian engineer all make the declaration.

That declaration does not settle the fate of your first passport. Spain's registry authority treats it as a formal requirement, valid whether or not it ends the foreign nationality, and the issuing country decides that under its own law. Spain's own consequence comes later: under article 25, three years of using only the old nationality ends the Spanish one.

The words that go on your record

Article 23 sets three conditions for anyone who becomes Spanish by residence, by royal grant or by option, a right to choose Spanish nationality that usually runs through a parent. A person aged 14 or older swears or promises loyalty to the King and obedience to the Constitution and the laws, declares that they renounce their previous nationality unless exempt, and has the acquisition entered in the Spanish Civil Registry. Under article 68 of the Civil Registry Law, that entry is what makes you Spanish.

A real registry entry quoted in the official gazette in May 2026 says the applicant took the oath "renunciando a su nacionalidad anterior", renouncing their previous nationality. In a 2007 decision, a man from Italy who told the registrar he was not renouncing was refused his registry entry and won it only by declaring the renunciation on appeal. The authority called the requirement merely formal, because anything more would tie Spanish nationality to foreign law, but the words must be clear and are never presumed.

Under article 21 a residence or royal grant lapses unless you appear within 180 days, counted from the day after notification, and meet these conditions. Applicants by residence go to the civil registrar or a notary for their address in Spain, and asking a notary pauses the count while that request is decided.

A child under 14 neither swears nor renounces; the parents or legal representatives simply accept the nationality. From 14 to 17 the child makes the statements in person and signs alongside the representatives.

Two lists people confuse: who waits less and who keeps the old passport

Article 22 sets the wait and article 23 the words at the oath. The lists do not match: marriage to a Spaniard cuts the wait to one year and leaves the renunciation in place, while a French passport survives the oath and the wait stays at ten years.

On the first row, article 22 gives two years to "nationals by origin" of those countries, while article 23 exempts "natives". Spain's registry authority reads "natives" as nationals: in another 2007 decision, a man born in New York and adopted as a baby by a Puerto Rican couple won the right to become Spanish without renouncing his American citizenship, because nationality decides, not birthplace. Someone born elsewhere who naturalized in, say, Brazil fails the plain words of article 22 and counts ten years unless another ground applies. The 2007 reading favors them on the exemption but did not rule on a naturalized passport, so have a professional read the file first.

France: the newest exception comes without a shortcut

The Civil Code does not mention France, so any list built on article 23 alone leaves French citizens out. The treaty, signed on March 15, 2021, took effect on April 1, 2022. Citizens of each country can take the other's nationality and keep their own, as long as they meet the rules of the country they join.

Spain's registry instruction of March 31, 2022 says the treaty creates no privileged route and no shorter residence, so a French citizen with no other ground still counts ten years.

French citizens who became Spanish before the treaty can ask to cancel the note on their Spanish birth record that shows their commitment to renounce. Spaniards who lost their nationality by taking French citizenship can recover it without living in Spain. Anyone heading the other way needs our guide to French citizenship by naturalization.

Where the declaration bites: the three-year rule

Under article 25, a Spaniard who is not Spanish by origin loses the nationality after using, for three years, exclusively the nationality they declared they were renouncing. Consular guidance counts any uninterrupted three-year period. The rule reaches only people who actually renounced, so the exempt groups and children who became Spanish under 14 stay outside it. So does anyone Spanish by origin, including a child born to you after you become Spanish: the Constitution says no Spaniard by origin can be deprived of nationality.

The word that carries the rule is "exclusively". The Code defines neither it nor what counts as using a nationality. The closest official reading comes from an extradition case, not an article 25 file: in 2012 the Constitutional Court looked at a man who had renounced Egyptian nationality and used his Spanish passport repeatedly and an Egyptian one occasionally. Under Spanish law, it held, he had only Spanish nationality, and holding a second one in fact did not undo that. Before a loss goes on the record, the registrar opens a file and you can submit arguments and evidence.

Under article 26, a person caught by article 25 recovers Spanish nationality only with prior permission from the Government, granted at its discretion. Article 25 adds two grounds: foreign military service or political office against an express government ban, and a final court ruling of forgery, concealment or fraud in the acquisition, which the public prosecutor can seek within 15 years.

Your first country answers separately

Whether you stop being British, American or Indian is for London, Washington or New Delhi, and they answer differently.

Britain allows dual citizenship and has its own procedure for giving up British nationality: a person who renounces receives a signed and stamped declaration showing the date citizenship stops. The United States treats naturalizing abroad and swearing an oath to another state as acts that end citizenship only when done voluntarily and with the intention of giving it up, so the wording of a renunciation deserves advice before the appointment. India sits at the other end: section 9 of its Citizenship Act ends Indian citizenship once you voluntarily take another, whatever you say in Spain. Our guide to India's rules and the Overseas Citizen card covers what remains after that.

Check this before you file: our dual citizenship rules by country and the full list for 2026 are a starting point.

Descendants: the special route with no declaration has closed

The Democratic Memory Law, Law 20/2022, let certain descendants of Spaniards take nationality by origin with no renunciation. New filings closed in October 2025. Files lodged in time are still being decided while the Supreme Court examines how the 2022 instruction applied the law; our page on Spain's grandchildren law covers both.

Anyone whose parent was Spanish when they were born needs none of this: article 17 makes them Spanish by origin from birth. A former Spaniard recovering the nationality under article 26 makes no renunciation either. The option and residence routes keep the declaration. A person whose father or mother was originally Spanish and born in Spain can still opt for nationality at any age under article 20, and consular guidance says they renounce unless exempt. A person born abroad to a parent or grandparent Spanish by origin gets the one-year wait under article 22, with the same declaration.

If you are already Spanish and want a second passport

Article 24 punishes silence. An adult Spaniard living abroad, by origin or not, who voluntarily takes another nationality loses the Spanish one after three years unless they tell the civil registrar within that time that they want to keep it. Taking the nationality of a country on the article 23 list does not trigger that loss for a Spaniard by origin, and the treaty does the same for France. Someone born and living abroad to a Spanish parent also born abroad, whose country of residence gives them its nationality, has three years from adulthood or emancipation to make the same statement.

Before the oath: what Murblz checks

You can try to manage this on your own. It is safer with professionals, because the mistakes that cost years happen before anyone at the registry sees you. Our process is clear and transparent: we read your first country's law, choose the ground that applies, prepare and translate the file and stay with you through the oath and the registry entry. The cost is available on request from a manager.

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