Spanish Nationality Law - Loss and Recovery of Spanish Nationality

Loss and Recovery of Spanish Nationality

Spanish nationality can be lost under the following circumstances:

• Those individuals of 18 years of age or more whose residence is not Spain and who acquire voluntarily another nationality, or who use exclusively another nationality, which was conferred to them prior to their age of emancipation lose Spanish nationality. In this case, loss of nationality occurs three years after the acquisition of the foreign nationality or emancipation only if they individual does not declare their will to retain Spanish nationality. The exception to this are those Spaniards by origin who acquire the nationality of an Iberoamerican country, Andorra, Philippines, Equatorial Guinea or Portugal;
• Those Spanish nationals that expressly renounce Spanish nationality if they also possess another nationality and reside outside Spain will lose Spanish nationality;
• Those minors born outside Spain that have acquired Spanish citizenship being children of Spanish nationals that were also born outside Spain, and if the laws of the country in which they live grant them another nationality, will lose Spanish nationality if they do not declare their will to retain it within three years after their 18th birthday or the date of their emancipation.

Spanish nationality, however, is not lost, as described above, if Spain is at war.

In addition, Spaniards "not by origin", will lose their nationality if:

• they use exclusively for a period of three years their previous nationality—with the exception of the nationality of those countries that Spain has signed an agreement of double nationality with;
• they participate voluntarily in the army of a foreign country, or serve in public office in a foreign government, against the specific prohibition of the Spanish government;
• they had lied or committed fraud when they applied for Spanish nationality.

Those individuals who had lost the Spanish nationality can recover it if they become legal residents in Spain. Nonetheless, emigrants and their children are not required to return to Spain to recover the Spanish nationality. (Since the nationality law automatically grants the Spanish nationality to those individuals born of a Spanish parent, an individual born outside Spain to a Spanish parent born in Spain that uses the citizenship of the other country exclusively since birth is said to "recover" his or her Spanish nationality should he or she apply for it).