Spain is considered one of the countries with the most stringent criteria for the period of residence for obtaining citizenship. As a standard procedure, a foreigner is required to live as a resident for 10 years. Usually this is several stages of temporary residence, then, after no less than 5 years, permanent residence, and only after 10 years of legal residence as a resident is it possible to apply for naturalization.
However, Spanish legislation makes a fundamental exception for citizens of countries with historical and cultural ties, primarily Latin American countries. For them, the so-called «shortened residence» («plazo reducido de residencia» or «2 años de residencia»): Just two years of legal residence are enough to qualify for Spanish citizenship.
The list of such countries includes:
- Mexico,
- Andorra,
- Argentina,
- Bolivia,
- Brazil,
- Venezuela,
- Guatemala,
- Guinea-Bissau,
- Honduras,
- Dominican Republic,
- Colombia,
- Costa Rica,
- Cuba,
- Nicaragua,
- Panama,
- Paraguay,
- Peru,
- Portugal,
- Salvador,
- Uruguay,
- Philippines,
- Chile,
- Ecuador.
As you can see, Mexico is also included in this list, and its citizens can obtain Spanish citizenship after 2 years, and not after 10 years. This is objectively one of the shortest terms available to foreigners.
But there is a key point here that is often misunderstood.The shortened period to citizenship applies only to citizens of specified countries of origin.That is, to those who acquired citizenship of their state automatically — by birth, by parents, or in other forms that indicate original nationality.
If a person acquired the citizenship of Mexico or any other power on the list through naturalization, in other words, initially being a foreigner to Mexico, he does not fall into the category for which the reduced two-year period applies.
Why is this so? Spanish law comes fromnot from that, what kind of passport the applicant has at the time of applying for naturalization, and from his historical and cultural connection with a particular country. The list of countries with the right to a two-year term is built precisely on the logic of origin and common identity, and not on formal citizenship. A naturalized citizen of Mexico is not, in the eyes of the law, a native of a Mexican, Latin American, or Ibero-American cultural community, but has only acquired citizenship through a legal process. For this reason, he is treated by Spain as an ordinary foreign citizen and is subject to a general period of residence until naturalization — 10 years.
A Mexican birth certificate must be offered to verify Mexican ancestry. It can be compiled only in two cases:
- born in Mexico
- was born abroad, but one of the parents — citizen of Mexico.
A naturalized Mexican citizen is not allowed to have a Mexican birth certificate.
Even if a naturalized Mexican citizen speaks excellent Spanish and lives with a Mexican family, this does not affect the length of residence before acquiring Spanish citizenship.
However, if a child received Mexican citizenship as a derivative from a parent who was himself naturalized in Mexico (for example, born in Russia to a Russian citizen naturalized in Mexico), he is already considered Mexican by birth (mexicano por nacimiento) and can apply for Spanish citizenship after 2 years.
Expedited process of acquiring citizenship in Spain — the privilege is not of citizenship as a document, but of origin. A naturalized Mexican citizen does not receive the same benefits as a Mexican by birth and must live in Spain for the same period of time as any other foreign resident claiming Spanish citizenship.
Mexico, like Spain, also offers a reduced period before naturalization for citizens of Spain and a number of Latin American countries — 2 years instead of the usual 5 years as a resident. However, in Mexico the same principle applies as in Spain: you must be a citizen of one of these countries by birth, and not by naturalization.