The Government grants Spanish nationality to almost 240,000 descendants of Republican exiles.

The Spanish government has so far granted a total of 237,145 nationalities to descendants of Republican exiles. The country with the highest number of requests is Argentina, with 40% in 2024 and 42% in 2025.

Since the Historical Memory Law was passed in October 2022, a total of 876,321 applications have been submitted to consular offices. A two-year deadline was set for formalizing applications from the law's entry into force, although a one-year extension was established, which expires on October 24 .

"So far, since the law was passed, 876,321 applications have been submitted and nearly 240,000 nationalities have been approved. These are the grandchildren and children of people who had to leave Spain for other countries, mainly Latin America, during the years of the War and the dictatorship ," explained this weekend the Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres , during a visit to the Immigration Office of the Government Subdelegation in Las Palmas (Gran Canaria).

These applications are processed at Spanish consular offices in the various countries . By the end of November 2024, a total of 351,266 applications had been received, almost 125,000 more than since the application came into force at the end of 2023.

More than 95% of these applications were received at Spanish consular offices in Latin America and at the Spanish Consulate General in Miami . The five consulates in Argentina account for 40% of the total applications, and together with the one in Havana (Cuba) , they exceed 53% of the total.

In 2025, with data up to the first half of the year, a total of 298,701 applications were received. The five consulates in Argentina received 366,579, representing 42% of the applications.

For its part, the Spanish Consulate General in Cuba received 107,338 requests, representing 12.24%. The next country with the most requests was Brazil , with 10.97%; Mexico , with 9.71%; Chile , with 5.04%; and Venezuela , with 2.45% of the total.

The Eighth Additional Provision of the Law on Democratic Memory establishes that "those born outside of Spain to a father or mother, grandfather or grandmother, who were originally Spanish, and who, as a result of having suffered exile for political, ideological or belief reasons or sexual orientation and identity , have lost or renounced Spanish nationality, may opt for Spanish nationality, for the purposes of article 20 of the Civil Code."

Furthermore, it points out other cases, such as, for example, for children born abroad to Spanish women who lost their nationality by marrying foreigners , before the entry into force of the 1978 Constitution.