As dual citizenship has become increasingly popular as a hedge against political and economic instability, many Americans are turning to Europe for their possible “Plan Bs.”
Spain does not offer citizenship to Puerto Ricans, nor does it appear prepared to start. In fact, Spain did not even offer citizenship to Puerto Ricans when they were subjects of the Spanish Crown from 1493 to 1898.
Today Spain often requires new citizens to renounce their previous nationality, and, after a brief period of some flexibility, the nation appears to be turning off the spigot for foreigners interested in attaining citizenship, even if they are descendants of Spanish citizens.
Citizenship by Descent
According to Acción Cultural Española (AC/E), “South America was one of the main destinations for the flow of Spanish exiles who left the country because of the Civil War. Despite its size, Puerto Rico and its capital, San Juan, were the destination of a group of very prominent figures, and their presence on the island had an intense impact on cultural and intellectual life.”
Prominent among these immigrants were Juan Ramón Jiménez and Zenobia Camprubí, Pau Casals, Pedro Salinas, María Zambrano, Jorge Guillén, Francisco Ayala, Federico de Onís or Aurora de Albornoz.
Their arrival in Puerto Rico extended over many years, generally between 1930 and 1950. This means that some people who live in Puerto Rico today could be of relatively recent Spanish ancestry, which had been a basis of Spanish citizenship. The law providing this path, however, expired in October of 2025.
A 2015 Spanish law granted citizenship to descendants of Jews expelled from Spain in 1492, a period of history known as the Spanish Inquisition. Many Jews who fled from Spain, who are commonly called Sephardic Jews after the Hebrew word for Spain (“Sefarad”), found refuge at the time throughout the Ottoman Empire (today Turkey, northern Africa, the Middle East), Italy, the Caribbean island of Curaçao, and throughout South America. They safely remained there for generations.
In 2015, Spain passed a law allowing proven descendants of people expelled five centuries previously in the Spanish Inquisition to apply for citizenship under specific conditions. The opportunity to apply lasted until 2019, and many people who applied in time and were waiting for decisions were rejected once the law expired.
The Rules Today
According to the Spanish government website, acquiring nationality by residency is “without doubt the naturalization procedure used by most foreign nations.” This route generally requires a ten-year continuous legal residency in Spain and is described by the Spanish government at “regulated and subject to a specific and very detailed administrative procedure.”
The Spanish government website also notes the extension only to 2025 of the law that “recognizes the right to claim nationality for people born outside Spain to a father, mother, grandfather or grandmother, originally Spanish and who, having suffered exile for political or ideological reasons, beliefs or sexual orientation and identity, lost or renounced their Spanish nationality.”
