Does being unemployed hurt my chances of Spanish citizenship?
You can apply for Spanish citizenship if you've resided legally in Spain for 10 years or two years if you're from a Spanish or Portuguese-speaking Ibero-American country, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea or Portugal, or are of Sephardic Jewish origin.
You can also apply after one year of residency if you are married to a Spaniard or if you were born in Spain. Anyone with Spanish blood ties, such as having one or both Spanish parents can also apply after only one year in the country.
But what happens when you meet one of these requirements and you apply for Spanish citizenship, but you recently lost your job and are now unemployed. Will this affect your application?
There are many different factors which affect your nationality application, from how long you've been in the country to your Spanish language abilities and your knowledge of Spanish culture and history as you'll have to pass two different exams, but is having a job one of them?
The quick and easy answer is no, there are not any financial requirements to become a Spanish citizen.
This means as part of your application you won't have to show an employment contract, employment history, registration as self-employed or pay slips showing how much you earn. You also don't have to show your tax returns, so there's no financial requirement for the application at all.
The main reasons for having your Spanish citizenship application rejected are having a criminal record or not fulfilling residency requirements – ie you haven't legally lived in Spain for the correct number of years. You can also be denied for submitting the wrong documents, not responding in time when authorities ask you for more information or leaving Spain for too long.
As you can see none of these reasons are not having a job, being unemployed for a certain amount of time or not having enough income.
Being unemployed will not even affect your Spanish nationality once it's been granted either if you lose job.
The main way that could lose your Spanish citizenship are if you move and live abroad and take up another nationality or use your old nationality for more than three years, unless within that three-year period you declare to the Civil Registry your will to keep Spanish nationality.
Therefore, if you qualify, have all the right documents and proof to apply for Spanish citizenship and you want to, then there's no reason you shouldn't even if you're currently unemployed. The authorities will not look at this unfavourably.
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