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Spain’s General Consulate in Buenos Aires, Argentina, is struggling to process on time the applications filed for Spanish citizenship based on the Law of Grandchildren, due to the lack of sufficient staff, which has resulted in long delays for many of the applicants.
In spite of the expanded number of shifts that took place last month in a bid to increase capacity, the embassy is still unable to keep up with the number of applications, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
According to Argentinian newspaper Perfil, applicants are waiting for months for a response from the consulate, for their applications for citizenship under the Grandchildren law, in spite of five offices processing such applications in Córdoba, Bahía Blanca, Rosario, Buenos Aires and Mendoza.
However, applicants for citizenship in Argentina are not the country ones suffering from the processing delays.
“It is happening throughout Latin America, but the consulates of Cuba, Venezuela, Mexico and Argentina are especially saturated. Four months ago, since the Democratic Memory Law came into force, there is a flood of nationality requests and consultations but there are no reinforcements,” the general counselor for Spanish citizenship abroad for the Independent Trade Union and Officials Central, Pablo Puertas, told Perfil.
The Democratic Memory Law of Spain was approved in 2007, and intends to benefit individuals and their families who were victims of the Spanish Civil War and the Franco dictatorship. Th Law of Grandchildren has been contemplated under it on October 5, 2022, in a bid of the Spanish authorities to expand family ties between descendants and residents of both countries.
The applications for Spanish citizenship under this law opened on October 21, 2022 and will remain open until October 21, 2024.
According to this law, eligible for Spanish citizenship are “sons and daughters of legal age whose nationality of origin was recognized by virtue of the right of option in accordance with the provisions of this law or in the seventh additional provision of the Law 52/2007, of December 26.”
There is no age limit for applicants, who, however, must show proof that they are children or grandchildren of people born in Spain and exiled during the Franco regime.
Statistics by the National Directorate of Migrations (DNM) show that in the first six months of 2022, between January and July, more than three thousand people left Argentina for Spain, while in 2021 more than 32,000 Argentinians emigrated to Spain.
It has been estimated that approximately 700,000 people could be eligible for Spanish citizenship under the Grandchildren Law.
On the other hand, available data show that nearly two million Spanish citizens left the country persecuted between 1886 and 1915, as well as the civil war.
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