Madrid/Around 2.3 million people have requested Spanish nationality in accordance with the Democratic Memory Law (LMD), of which approximately one million have started the process and 1.3 only have an appointment but have not been able to deliver their documentation due to the consular traffic jam generated. The saturation is such that it could take “decades” to complete the process and the oldest have little chance of achieving their goal, according to published this Monday the Madrid newspaper The Country.
The statement, attributed to sources close to the process, was already feared by the General Council of Spanish Citizenship Abroad (Cgcee) – an official body consulted for the note – almost a month ago, when its president, Violeta Alonso, at a conference held in Asturias warned of the overflow that has been generated. “There are some demarcations with such volume that the resolution could take many years, not two or three, but many years,” he admitted.
This is the case of Argentina, which accumulates almost one million applicants (40%), of which 650,000 are in the Buenos Aires headquarters, joined by 125,000 in Córdoba. Next is the consulate in Havana, where there are 350,000, a figure provided by the Cgcee, which is an official organization. Mexico City (165,000), Sao Paulo (150,000), Miami (120,000) and Caracas (40,000 provisionally) are next.
To manage all this, capabilities are needed that the Administration does not have, denounces Violeta Alonso, who asks the Government to provide means
To manage all this, capabilities are needed that the Administration does not have, denounces Violeta Alonso, who asks the Government to provide means to resolve this collapse, which is also blocking the provision of other consular services. The network includes 178 offices, 86 consulates general and two consulates, but it is insufficient for an amount that has exceeded forecasts. With current accounts, the number of applicants has multiplied by 4.5 the number of those who achieved nationality with the Historical Memory Law of 2007, known in Cuba as the Nietos Law, and which totaled 503,439 Spaniards.
According to the numbers released today by The Countryhalf of the cases initiated have already been resolved with the granting of nationality and the denials are below 2%. Alonso considers that the Government has done its part in different aspects, among them allowing all those who made an appointment within the deadline and could not begin the process due to the delay to process the application.
However, he believes that more needs to be done. Among them, it proposes that the 7,000 civil registries in Spain join the task of registering new Spaniards, in addition to hiring reinforcement personnel or outsourcing tasks that are less complex or more technological, such as uploading data or digitizing documentation.
But the work is permanent and will not be resolved with temporary contracts, since there will be countless new Spaniards who will need to carry out all kinds of procedures forever. “A redeployment of the consular network is needed,” Alonso asks, since these new citizens will need passports, birth certificates, marriage or death certificates. “It’s not just about expanding the workforce, but in many cases more physical space is needed,” he emphasizes.
From three million Spaniards abroad it will increase to about five, with some demarcations – and this is the case of Havana – multiplying the people to be served by two or three. At the end of 2023, some 167,000 Spaniards were residing in Cuba, to which must be added the 350,000 pending approval, a total of more than half a million to whom assistance must be provided – even if there are casualties due to death. According to the note of The Countrythere is a modernization plan endowed with 115 million euros and a Consular Identity Number (NIC) will be implemented to streamline procedures. The staff of the most affected consulates has also been reinforced with 150 positions and the post of deputy consul has been created in Buenos Aires, Havana and Mexico. However, the Foreign Action Strategy, approved in April, recognized that, “despite the growth of Spanish citizenship abroad, the resources of our consular offices have barely changed in the last twenty years.”
Alonso has a meeting scheduled in the coming days with the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, in which he will demand the personnel and resources he deems necessary. Among the ideas that he wants to convey to you is also to eliminate procedures that he considers unnecessary, such as that of preserving nationality, which the children of Spaniards must complete when they turn 18.
Among the ideas that he wants to convey to you is also to eliminate procedures that he considers unnecessary, such as that of preserving nationality, which the children of Spaniards must complete when they turn 18.
He also plans to ask that the facilities be improved, which according to the note have countless problems – including the example of a roof collapse that left people injured at the Sao Paulo consulate. According to a study by the Association of Spanish Diplomats (ADE), 28 facilities were at the limit of their capacity, 68 had accessibility problems at the entrance, 14 lacked fire protection systems and at least 17 were not in a good state of conservation. “Many consular offices fail to comply with Spanish regulations on safety and hygiene at work,” the report says.
The LMD was approved in October 2022 and included an additional provision that allowed descendants of Spaniards exiled by the Civil War and Franco to obtain Spanish nationality, those born to Spanish women who had lost their nationality by marrying foreigners before the entry into force of the 1978 Constitution, and the adult children of those who acquired it with the previous law on grandchildren – the Historical Memory Law of 2007 – and who had been excluded. of her precisely because she is over 18 years old.
A ministerial instruction later determined that all those “born outside Spain to parents or grandparents originally Spanish” could also benefit from this rule, which expanded the universe of applicants. On October 22, the deadline closed – after the two years and the extension of one year provided for in the regulation – which in Cuba has caused all kinds of incidents, from irregularities or scams in the request of documents to inconveniences due to the poor connectivity of the Island and poor transportation, all of this leaving endless constant queues in front of the consulate located in Havana.
