News - Labour and Social Security Department
Draft law granting spanish nationality to sephardi jews approved
- Objective criteria are laid down for the granting of Spanish nationality to those who are able to prove they are Sephardi Jews and article 23 of the Civil Code is amended to permit double nationality by retaining that of country of origin.
- Status as a Sephardi Jew may be proved in various ways, and the special link to Spain makes it necessary to pass a test on Spanish language and culture set by the Cervantes Institute.
The Council of Ministers has approved the submission to Parliament of a draft law amending articles 21 and 23 of the Civil Code in order to facilitate and lay down objective criteria for the granting of nationality by naturalisation to Sephardi Jews who wish it. The amendment will allow double nationality, i.e. those who become Spanish citizens also preserve their previous nationality, which is already the case with some other countries such as those of Latin America.
Sephardi Jews can currently acquire Spanish nationality in two ways: by residing in Spain for two years, like the nationals of Latin American countries, Portugal and the Philippines, or by naturalisation. The second method however, involving as it does a decision by the Council of Ministers based on exceptional links with Spain, is at the discretion of the government of the day.
The draft law lays down objective criteria for demonstrating these exceptional links which exist in the case of all Sephardi Jews even if they do not legally reside in Spain. It also lays down a fee for various procedures of acquisition of Spanish nationality.
PROOF OF STATUS
A notary will issue a certificate of fact of the person's status as a Sephardi Jew and the special link with Spain, and this finding will then be referred to the General Directorate of Registrars and Notaries which will issue a reasoned decision on whether nationality should be granted. If the decision is to grant nationality this will be recorded in the Civil Register for the applicant's place of residence (a Spanish Consulate if the applicant lives outside Spain) once the requirement of swearing or promising to be faithful to the King and obedient to the Constitution and the law has been complied with.
The evidence which can be presented to prove status as a Sephardi Jew includes the presentation of a certificate issued by the Secretary of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Spain stating that the applicant belongs to the Sephardi Jewish community. The following evidence can also be used to prove status as a Sephardi Jew: a certificate issued by the president or analogous office holder of the Jewish community where the applicant lives or by a rabbinical authority; or the language spoken by the applicant's family, a birth certificate or a marriage certificate drawn up in accordance with Castillian tradition.
The draft law also cites the inclusion of the applicant or his or her relatives in the ascending line in the lists of Sephardi families protected by Spain referred to in the Decree Law of 29 December 1948 or those who obtained nationality by way of the Royal Decree of 20 December 1924, or the applicant's links of consanguinity with any of these. The studying of Spanish history and culture and charity work for Spanish persons or institutions is taken into account, and any other evidence of Spanish Sephardi status may also be presented. Family names belonging to Sephardic lineage are also taken into account.
ASSESSMENT TEST
A test on Spain and Spanish culture to be organised by the Cervantes Institute must also be taken in order to prove special links with Spain. Applicants from countries where Spanish is the official language are exempted from this.
The objective of this measure announced by the Minister of Justice in the Senate on 22 April for all applicants for nationality is to lay down objective criteria for the integration tests necessary to obtain Spanish nationality. This will eliminate the element of discretion on the part of the Civil Registry which exists in the tests as currently carried out, as some merely test knowledge of the language while others ask questions on culture or current affairs.
ELECTRONIC PLATFORM
Applications will be presented in Spanish in the electronic platform which will be set up for these purposes and through which the applicant must pay the fee which has been set after studying the costs involved in the procedure for acquiring Spanish nationality. The sum of 75 euros is much lower than that of neighbouring countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany or the Netherlands.
The electronic platform will also in the coming weeks be equipped to house the other procedures for acquiring Spanish nationality, which will help to shorten the time currently taken to process applications and increase the security of the procedure. Thanks to this tool, which will comply with the strictest security requirements, situations such as the backlog of four hundred thousand nationality applications at the end of 2011 will be avoided in the future, this situation having been combated with the Intensive Processing Plan implemented in November 2012 and which achieved the processing of 450,964 files in just nineteen months, a number very similar to those processed between 2007 and 2011 (468,365).
The draft now approved on the granting of nationality to Sephardi Jews provides that the General Directorate of Registrars and Notaries will inform the General Council of Notaries of the applications it receives in order for the applicant to be able to arrange an appointment with a notary to whom they will present all of the documentation they consider establishes their status as a Sephardi Jew, and the official list of any criminal offences they have committed.
The notary will send an electronic copy of the certificate issued to the General Directorate of Registrars which will decide whether or not to grant Spanish nationality. If the application is granted applicants will have one year to inform the Civil Registry of their place of residence and request registration.
Persons who wish to apply for Spanish nationality on the basis of their being Sephardi Jews must make their application within three years of the law coming into force. This period can be extended for up to a further year if this is decided by the Council of Ministers.
The text indicates that Sephardi Jews who have applied for Spanish nationality prior to this new law and whose application has not yet been dealt with must continue with it using the new procedure.
HISTORICAL TIES
The draft law now passed emphasises the special ties of the Sephardi community with Spain since its expulsion in 1492 and which are symbolised by the keys which many of them have kept of their homes in Sepharad (the Hebrew word for Spain). They have kept their culture, customs and language intact despite the passage of time.
The memory and the faithfulness of these "Spaniards without a homeland" led to them being presented with the Prince of Asturias Award for Concord. Although this is not the first example of the existence in Spain of a current of opinion favourable to Sephardi Jews: in the time of Isabel II they were allowed their own cemeteries and to open synagogues.
The question of granting nationality to the Sephardi Jews of Morocco was raised when Fernando de los Ríos was a minister of state although the plan was subsequently dropped. Moves to accommodate Sephardi Jews began in 1886 at the instigation of Práxedes Mateo Sagasta and in 1900 after moves by the senator Ángel Púlido, which culminated in the granting of permission to open synagogues, the founding of the Spanish-Hebrew Alliance in Madrid (1910) and the opening of the House of the Sephardi in 1920.
In 1924 a Royal Decree was issued designed to grant nationality to "formerly protected Spaniards or their descendants, and in general persons belonging to families of Spanish origin", which did not specifically name Sephardi Jews but which in the Second World War made it possible to save many from the gas chambers thanks to the humanitarian efforts of Spanish diplomats such as Ángel Sanz Briz in Budapest, Sebastián de Romero Radigales in Athens, Bernardo Rolland de Miotta in Paris, Julio Palencia in Sophia, Javier Martínez de Bedoya in Lisbon, José Rojas in Bucharest or Eduardo Propper de Callejón in Bordeaux.
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