Spain rejected record number of citizenship applications in 2024
New data revealed by the Spanish Ministry of Justice shows that Spain rejected a record number of people for Spanish citizenship in 2024, a total of 20,099.
This is more than double the number of rejections that were issued in 2023, which was a total of 7,399 people.
Legal experts do not know the exact reason why so many have been denied Spanish nationality in 2024, but several theories have been put forward.
Lawyer Vicente Marín and director of the website Parainmigrantes.info believes that many applications were on "stand-by" for a long time and then were subsequently denied.
'We have seen the same thing other years, how many files spent long periods of time in a specific state and then were denied, all at the same time', he explained.
It is likely that many of the solicitudes (applications) that were denied were in the 'in processing' status for longer than usual. Marín also suggests that many did not meet all the requirements or did not provide the correct evidence to show that they did.
It's worth noting that there was a total of 244,464 applications for Spanish citizenship sent in 2024, which was the highest figure since 2019, suggesting that there were many more requests than usual too.
This means that Spain also granted a total of 221,466 applications in 2024, while 10,785 were archived – so neither granted nor denied.
Furthermore, in 2023 the number of foreigners getting Spanish nationality increased by 32.3 percent, to 240,208 in total, the highest figure for a decade.
There are several reasons why the number of applications keep increasing.
The first is that getting a response for your Spanish citizenship application now takes far less time.
New automated technology was launched in August 2024 which reviews submitted files rather than it being done manually by civil servants, speeding up the process considerably.
According to law firm Para Inmigrantes waiting times in 2023 and 2024 have been reduced to six months or less.
Another reason for the jump in applications is that in November 2024, the government simplified the process for children and grandchildren of Spanish emigrants or exiles to apply for Spanish nationality through the Law of Democratic Memory.
Spanish authorities announced that documentation was allowed to be submitted after the deadline if the appointment was requested within the established timeframe when the relevant consulate didn't have any vacancies.
They also extended the deadline to apply for citizenship through the Grandchildren's Law (Ley de Nietos in Spanish) until the end of 2025. It was initially scheduled to be October 2024.
If you are waiting for results on the results from your citizenship application and it has been 'in processing' or 'pending' for a long time, Para Inimigrantes say it's worth checking over everything again and making sure you've sent in everything correctly.
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