Those born abroad who are descendants of Spanish exiles for political, ideological or religious reasons can apply for Spanish nationality, in accordance with the Democratic Memory Act, which has been in effect since last Friday.
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The Official State Gazette (BOE) on Wednesday published the Justice Department’s guidance and the application forms that interested parties must fill out.
They can opt for Spanish nationality “who were born outside of Spain to a father or mother, grandmother or grandfather who would have been originally Spanish, and that, as a result of exile, they had lost or renounced their nationality for political, ideological or religious reasons, or because of their sexual orientation and identity,” the text reads.
Thousands of Spaniards went into exile, mainly to Latin America, at the end of the Civil War (1936-1939) and at the beginning of the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco (died 1975), who had opposed it with other military leaders under the government of the Second Republic.
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The application is submitted to the competent person of the general or consular office of the registry office,
According to the eighth additional provision of the cited law Those “born abroad to Spanish women who have lost their nationality” can also vote for marrying foreigners before the 1978 Constitution came into force”.
In addition, it can be requested by the adult children of Spaniards whose nationality of origin has been recognized by virtue of the option right under the current law that regulates the matter or the previous one (approved in 2007); This set an application deadline that ended in 2011 and will be superseded by the current Democratic Memory legislation.
In all these cases, the interested parties must formulate the option statement within a period of two years, which the government could extend for another year.
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Interested parties must formulate the option statement within two years.
The application is submitted to the competent person of the general or consular office of the registry office according to the templates published by the BOE.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, during the period of the previous regulation, 213,787 people were granted Spanish citizenship and 378,862 applications were made.
The countries of Ibero-America represented 95 percent of the inquiries, in particular Cuba, Argentina, Mexico and Venezuela.
*With information from EFE
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