On October 15, 2015, the new procedure to apply for Spanish nationality by residence came into force. The way of submitting applications has changed, the access and application requirements remain the same.
In the previous procedure, the applicant had to prove the length of residence prior to the application as well as his relations with Spain and his economic capacity or means to live in Spain and also had to attach the criminal record document, which had to be legalized and translated.
One of the advantages of the new procedure is being able to submit the application and supporting documents electronically. This implies a considerable saving of time both on the part of the applicant at the time of presentation, who saves making an appointment, traveling and waiting for an appointment, and on the part of the administration in the registration and processing of data.
One of the novelties of the new procedure is the carrying out of knowledge verification tests, a test of sociocultural knowledge about Spain for all applicants and another test of minimum knowledge of the Spanish language for all those applicants who have nationality of a State in which the Spanish language is not official.
With the entry into force of the new procedure, it is no longer free. Now you have to pay a fee of 100 euros to submit the application and about 80 euros for the sociocultural knowledge test and about 125 euros for the Spanish language knowledge test.
