Do you have your Spanish nationality by residence unresolved?

*Informationcompiled by http://www.rtve.es

Now, since the entry into force of Royal Decree 1004/2015, of November 6, which develops the Seventh Final Provision of Law 19 of 2015, of July 13, by which the new procedure for obtaining Spanish nationality by residence is regulated, it is established in its art. 11.3 that: the procedure must be resolved and notified within a maximum period of one year after the application has been received by the Directorate General of Registries and Notaries...., However, unfortunately, the DGRN does not comply with this deadline.

That is why, from Molinares Abogados we recommend that if you are waiting for your file to be resolved, if you still do not have a file number (R) because it has not been recorded by the Ministry of Justice, or if you have submitted it electronically and have not received any notification, use an efficient and agile mechanism that obliges the Ministry of Justice - DGRN to do its homework and proceed to resolve your file by filing a Contentious Administrative Appeal before the Audiencia Nacional - Sala de lo Contencioso Administrativo (National Court - Contentious Administrative Chamber).

Having said this, it is pertinent to mention that not all cases will be able to resort to this instance since it is essential to have the certainty and security that the file was presented in a perfect manner, therefore, it is necessary to study each request prior to making the decision to initiate the judicial process.

In accordance with the above, when we refer to a perfect file, it is one that meets all the legal and formal requirements in terms of time, documentation, and due presentation, if you want to expedite the response to be granted your Spanish nationality we recommend you to come to our office, since the assistance of a lawyer and attorney is required.

We recently had the opportunity to attend to a Colombian citizen, who submitted on May 24, 2016, his Spanish nationality file by residence (general residence budget 2 years) through the Single Civil Registry of Madrid, where he was assigned a procedure number (see image 1), but it did not correspond to the file number assigned by the Ministry of Justice because it had not been digitized or metadata.

Our client told us that he was tired of calling the Ministry of Justice to be "told that they were still resolving files from 2015 and that the 2016 files were not recorded.They told him that they were still resolving files from 2015 and that the files from 2016 were not recorded, therefore, they recommended him to call in 6 months."For this reason, his only desire was to be able to expedite the response to his nationality, which is why we proceeded to review his file and when we confirmed that it had been submitted in a perfect perfectlyWe recommended him to go to the judicial way interposing the Contentious Appeal, being this one presented on March 8, 2019, before the National Audience.

On March 11, 2019, the Audiencia Nacional - Sala de lo Contencioso Administrativa, the corresponding Decree of Admission of the Appeal was received by the Audiencia Nacional - Sala de lo Contencioso Administrativa, and the Ministry of Justice was given transfer to send the file subject to judicial protection within 20 days. At this moment, is when the Ministry of Justice did what it had not done since 2016, which was to review the file and resolve it.

Only six weeks later, on April 23rd, we received the Resolution of Concession of Nationality by Residence, by means of which the General Director of the Registries and Notaries, resolved to GRANT the Spanish nationality by reason of residence to our client. From Molinares Abogados we have requested the appointment in the Civil Registry corresponding to his domicile to carry out the formalities of oath and inscription.

With this, we demonstrate that the filing of the contentious administrative appeal for Spanish nationality DOES WORK!DOES WORK!and it is an excellent way to speed up the process of obtaining Spanish nationality.

Here are the images that speak for themselves.

1. Receipt of presentation of the Spanish nationality file by residence 2016 - Registro Civil Único de Madrid.
2. Decree of Admission of the Contentious-Administrative Appeal of the National Court - Contentious-Administrative Chamber.
3. Consulta expediente de nacionalidad española por residencia - How is my case going?
4. Resolution for the granting of nationality by residence.

If you would like more information on this matter, please do not hesitate to contact us through our website or at the following e-mail [email protected].