The Diplomat
Cuba, Mexico and Argentina are the three countries where most people have obtained Spanish nationality by virtue of the new Law of Democratic Memory, which offers the option of obtaining it to a wide range of Spanish descendants who meet a series of requirements, according to official data to which Europa Press has had access.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation reported this week on the occasion of the Consular Activity Balance 2022 that up to 31 January, 24,729 applications had been submitted to the 179 consular offices that Spain has around the world. Of this total, half, 12,862, have already been approved, while 6,653 have been registered in the Civil Registry.
As expected, the consulates of Latin American countries top the ranking of those that have received the most applications for nationality since the Law of Memory came into force on 19 October. Cuba, Argentina and Mexico have received a total of 14,610 applications and 4,774 registered nationalities.
The new law, popularly known as the ‘Law of Grandchildren’, had generated great expectation in the region, collapsing the system for requesting appointments to carry out the procedure in some of the consulates with a greater presence of Spanish descendants, such as Argentina.
In fact, Argentina is the country where most applications had been submitted by the end of January, a total of 7,119 in the five consulates general that Spain has in the country -Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Mendoza and Rosario-, although only 1,145 new Spanish citizens had registered.
Cuba is the country where most new Spaniards have been registered. The Consulate General in Havana received 4,041 applications for nationality, of which 1,970 had already been registered by the end of January.
The ‘top 3’ of the list is completed by Mexico, with 3,450 applications received in the three existing consulates – Guadalajara, Mexico City and Monterrey – and 1,659 new Spanish citizens registered in the first three months of the law. This was followed by Uruguay, with 533 registrations; Peru, with 335; Guatemala, with 238, and Venezuela, with 120.
Outside this region, applications have mainly been received in European countries, with France leading the way. In the neighbouring country, Spain has eight consulates general that have had to process a total of 566 applications for Spanish nationality in the first few months, of which only 22 completed the entire process.
In the United States, a significant number of applications have also been submitted, 549, at the seven consulates and the embassy in Washington, while a total of 80 people have already obtained Spanish nationality and are registered as such.
Some applications have also been received in two other countries where there is a historical presence of Spanish descendants or with which there is a historical link: Morocco and Russia. In the Alawi kingdom, the consulates have processed 64 applications in the aforementioned period and ten nationality registrations have materialised, while in Russia there were 23 applications at the consulate in Moscow in the first three months, of which 18 completed the process.
