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Spain expat rules
Five-year long-term residence reference and a general ten-year nationality-by-residence period, with shorter exceptions.
Sources checked: 10 September 2026
Long-term residence
Spain's migration portal groups long-term residence under a minimum five-year route. It is intended to let qualifying foreign residents reside and work indefinitely under the applicable conditions.
Nationality by residence
The Ministry of Justice states that the general nationality-by-residence route requires ten years of legal, continuous residence immediately before the application. Spanish law also provides shorter residence periods for specified groups, so nationality is essential to the calculation.
Why the calculator stays conservative: the timeline tool shows the general ten-year milestone and tells users that shorter statutory periods exist rather than guessing which exception applies from nationality alone.