By Roxana Barbalescu, EUDO CITIZENSHIP expert
Almost a quarter million descendants of Spanish citizens (241.763) have been granted Spanish nationality following the ‘Historical Memory Act’ no 52/2007 from 26 of December – better known as the ‘grandchildren’s law’. The purpose of the law is to ‘recognize and extend rights and to establish measures in favour of those who have been victims of political persecution or violence during the Civil War and the Dictatorship’ (read more).
Those eligible were given a period of two to three years to apply for Spanish citizenship. In January 2011, the Council of Ministers decided to extend the period for one more year until 26 December 2011 to fulfill all the requirements. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently released a report on the outcome of this procedure after the expiration of the final deadline.
According to the Spanish daily newspaper El Pais, 503.439 applications were received in the four years period out of which 48.02% were successfull. Nearly all the requests (477.467, 94 or 84 % of the total) were filed in Spanish consulates in Latin American countries. The applicants are not themselves victims of the Civil War and of the dictatorship but are the children (464.858 or 92,4 %) and grandchildren (32.141 or 6.32%) of Spanish citizens by birth who lost their nationality or had to renounce it when going into exile.
Many of these requests are still waiting for a decision. El Pais notes that in Mexico alone, 46 000 people applied for nationality. Until the end of 2011, less than a half of these requests (16.000) were dealt with and only 1 % of these were rejected. The number of candidates who will be granted Spanish citizenship is expected to increase because of delays in processing the applications in the consulates.
In addition, the Spanish news agency EuropaPress reports that most requests were registered in 2011. Thus, if in 2009, the Spanish consulates received 32.07 % of all the requests; they dropped to 26.23 % in 2010 but reached 41.7 % in the last year 2011.
According to the Spanish daily newspaper El Pais, 503.439 applications were received in the four years period out of which 48.02% were successfull. Nearly all the requests (477.467, 94 or 84 % of the total) were filed in Spanish consulates in Latin American countries. The applicants are not themselves victims of the Civil War and of the dictatorship but are the children (464.858 or 92,4 %) and grandchildren (32.141 or 6.32%) of Spanish citizens by birth who lost their nationality or had to renounce it when going into exile.
Many of these requests are still waiting for a decision. El Pais notes that in Mexico alone, 46 000 people applied for nationality. Until the end of 2011, less than a half of these requests (16.000) were dealt with and only 1 % of these were rejected. The number of candidates who will be granted Spanish citizenship is expected to increase because of delays in processing the applications in the consulates.
In addition, the Spanish news agency EuropaPress reports that most requests were registered in 2011. Thus, if in 2009, the Spanish consulates received 32.07 % of all the requests; they dropped to 26.23 % in 2010 but reached 41.7 % in the last year 2011.
Read the article in El Pais.
Read the article in EuropaPress.