Spain allows dual citizenship, but only with a specific list of countries. If you’re a national of most Latin American countries, Portugal, Andorra, France, the Philippines, or Equatorial Guinea, you can become Spanish without giving up your original passport. Everyone else must formally renounce their previous nationality to naturalize, though whether that renunciation actually strips your original citizenship depends on your home country’s laws, not Spain’s.
Which Countries Qualify for Dual Nationality With Spain
Article 11, Section 3 of the Spanish Constitution authorizes dual nationality agreements with Latin American countries and any nation that has “special links” with Spain.1Constitute. Spain 1978 (rev. 2011) Constitution The full list of countries whose citizens can hold both passports:
- Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela
- Andorra, Portugal, and France
- The Philippines and Equatorial Guinea
France is the newest addition. The bilateral agreement was signed in March 2021 and entered into force on April 1, 2022, making France the first country outside the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking world to secure this arrangement.2Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation. Spain and France Welcome the Entry Into Force of the Agreement on Spanish-French Nationality
People of Sephardic Jewish descent are also exempted from the renunciation requirement under the Civil Code, though the 2015 special pathway that let them naturalize without residing in Spain closed around 2019. The Democratic Memory Law, which offered nationality to descendants of Spaniards exiled during the Civil War and Franco regime, closed on October 22, 2025.
The exemption works in both directions. Citizens of these countries can naturalize in Spain without renouncing, and Spanish-born citizens who take up nationality in one of them don’t automatically lose their Spanish status.
What Happens If Your Country Isn’t on the List
If your nationality isn’t covered by a treaty, Spanish law requires you to renounce it. Article 23 of the Civil Code obliges every applicant over fourteen to swear allegiance to the King, promise obedience to the Constitution, and make a declaration renouncing their prior citizenship before the Civil Registry.3Ministerio de Justicia. Spanish Civil Code The renunciation happens at the same ceremony as the oath, and skipping it means your naturalization cannot be completed. From Spain’s perspective, once your declaration is on file, you are exclusively Spanish.
Why Renunciation Often Doesn’t Actually End Your Original Citizenship
The renunciation you make before a Spanish official satisfies Spanish law. Whether it has any effect on your original citizenship is a separate question governed entirely by your home country’s rules. Many countries, including the United States, do not recognize a citizenship renunciation made before a foreign government. Under U.S. law, citizenship can only be lost through a voluntary act performed with the specific intent to relinquish it, and a declaration before a Spanish registrar doesn’t meet that standard. The State Department requires its own formal process at a U.S. embassy or consulate.
The practical result is that many naturalized Spanish citizens from non-treaty countries keep their original passport and nationality in real terms, even though Spain considers them to have renounced. Spain doesn’t investigate or enforce what other countries do on their end. This creates an unofficial dual citizenship that exists in the world even where Spanish law says it shouldn’t. Just know that within Spain, you will be treated as exclusively Spanish for every legal and administrative purpose.
If You’re Already Spanish and Take Another Citizenship
The rules flip when you already hold Spanish nationality by birth and then acquire another. Article 24 of the Civil Code says that emancipated Spanish citizens habitually living outside Spain who voluntarily take another country’s citizenship will lose their Spanish nationality after three years, unless the new citizenship is from one of the treaty countries.4GlobalCit. Spanish Civil Code
The three-year clock starts either from the date you acquire the foreign nationality or from emancipation for those who received foreign citizenship as minors. You can stop the loss by visiting a Spanish consulate within that window and filing a formal declaration of your intent to retain Spanish nationality. The declaration is recorded in the Civil Registry.4GlobalCit. Spanish Civil Code
This is the step people most commonly miss. Holding a valid Spanish passport or visiting Spain on vacation does not count. You need the specific written declaration on file. If the three years lapse without it, the loss happens automatically by operation of law.
The exception matters: if the citizenship you took is from a Latin American country, Andorra, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea, or Portugal, you cannot lose your Spanish birth nationality under this rule, whether or not you file anything. That protection covers only people who are Spanish by birth, not those who acquired Spanish nationality through naturalization.
Naturalized Spanish Citizens Face an Extra Risk
People who became Spanish through naturalization rather than birth carry a vulnerability that birth citizens don’t. Article 25 of the Civil Code provides that naturalized citizens lose Spanish nationality if they exclusively use the nationality they renounced during naturalization for a period of three years.5GlobalCit. Spanish Civil Code Book One Title I They also lose it by voluntarily serving in a foreign military or holding political office in another country against an express government prohibition.
What “exclusively use” means is somewhat ambiguous in practice, but indicators include failing to renew your Spanish passport, doing no administrative business through Spanish consulates, and having no engagement with the Spanish state. If you naturalized from a non-treaty country and then live as though you’re only a citizen of your original country, Spain can strip the nationality it granted you. The protections that shield Spanish-born citizens from losing nationality when they pick up treaty-country citizenship do not extend to naturalized citizens under Article 25.
So the short version, whichever side of the process you’re on: dual citizenship with Spain is straightforward if a treaty covers your country, workable but legally one-sided if it doesn’t, and something you have to actively maintain if you’re Spanish by birth and living abroad.