Neither you nor your partner is Spanish, but your child was born here, and sooner or later you have to decide: should your child have their own application, or reach Spanish citizenship through yours? We compare the two routes by what really sets them apart: when each one can be filed, which requirements weigh most and what changes with age.

First things first: check whether your baby is already Spanish under Article 17.

In one case, there is nothing to choose. Article 17.1.c of the Civil Code treats a child born in Spain to foreign parents as Spanish by origin when the law of neither parent gives the child a nationality. The law presumes it, and no residency-based application is needed.

Whether your country passes its nationality on to children born abroad depends on its own law, so the first step is to ask at your consulate. If your child already has the nationality of either of you, the comparison begins.

Route A: the child’s own year of residence

For a child born on Spanish soil, the Civil Code requires one year of residence (Article 22.2.a) that is legal, continuous and immediately prior to the application (Article 22.3). When the child was born in Spain, the year of residence required for what Spanish law calls nacionalidad española por residencia, Spanish citizenship by residency, is the child’s own, under their own residence permit, and not the time their parents have lived here.

So the clock runs from the moment your baby has their residence permit, and it is checked on the day the application is filed. The fact that you have lived here for eight years adds nothing to your child’s count.

The advantage is that it does not depend on your own application: with the general ten-year period, your child can meet their requirement long before you meet yours. And a Spanish child can open another route to the parents, the residence permit for family members of a Spanish citizen, which is a separate procedure.

Route B: wait for your own citizenship and opt under Article 20

The alternative is for one of you to become Spanish first and for your child to follow through that parent. First, a common misunderstanding: Article 17.1.a makes children born to a Spanish father or mother Spanish by origin, and that is assessed at birth. If you become Spanish after your child is born, your child does not become Spanish by origin.

What your child will have is a right of option: Article 20.1.a grants it to anyone who is or has been subject to the parental authority (patria potestad) of a Spanish national. As a general rule, it expires at age twenty or, if the child was not emancipated at eighteen, two years after emancipation; once that period has passed, the one-year residence route of Article 22.2.b remains. And that right arises from your registration in the Civil Registry, not from your DNI (the Spanish national identity card).

The weak point is the calendar: your own residence period (ten years in the general case, two for nationals by origin of Ibero-American countries), the CCSE (the test of constitutional and sociocultural knowledge of Spain) and, unless your nationality exempts you, the DELE A2 Spanish-language diploma, both passed before you file, and a decision with no set date, because the rules allow one year to decide and silence means a deemed refusal (administrative silence).

What changes on each route: age, who signs and who takes the oath

When the child applies on their own residence, which is Route A, their age on the day of filing changes almost everything. Under fourteen, you first need an authorization from the officer in charge of the Civil Registry (the Encargado) where you live, after a report from the public prosecutor and always in the child’s interest (Article 21.3 of the Civil Code and Article 4.3 of Royal Decree 1004/2015). It is a separate prior procedure, with its own appointment and a length nobody can predict, and the authorization is then attached to the application: plan backward, because without it you cannot file even if the year of residence is complete.

Also under fourteen, the legal representatives sign: on the online portal (sede electrónica) one of them signs and a standard form signed by both is attached. Between fourteen and eighteen, if the child is not emancipated, the child files the application, assisted jointly by those who hold parental authority, and if the parents disagree, the matter goes to court through non-contentious proceedings (jurisdicción voluntaria). Only a child over fourteen takes the oath or pledge of allegiance (Article 23.a of the Civil Code); for a child under fourteen, the legal representatives appear within the 180 days following notification of the grant (Article 12.1 of Royal Decree 1004/2015).

What does not change while the child is under eighteen is that there are no exams: minors are exempt from the CCSE and the DELE under Article 10.6 of Order JUS/1625/2016. Instead, they provide a certificate from the school where they are enrolled, even if it is a preschool, which is mandatory at compulsory school age and states the enrollment date, regular attendance, knowledge of Spanish appropriate to their age and the parents’ involvement. The 790-026 fee of €104.05 is paid for each application, the baby’s included, and is not refunded even if the application fails; in addition to the birth certificate from the country of origin, you provide the birth certificate from the Spanish Civil Registry.

In Route B, the first application is yours: you sign, you pay your own fee and, as an adult, you take the oath or pledge of allegiance yourself. Your child’s option comes later and, if your child is still a minor, it has its own formal rules: it is not a shortcut without paperwork either.

Neither route is automatic. Route A depends on the child’s own year of residence; Route B, on your application and on an option that expires, and both involve their own procedures when the child is a minor. With those dates on the table, the decision stops being a gut feeling and becomes a family calendar.