Two years waiting for nationality: forcing a decision
Last updated 2026-09-01 · Reviewed by Jaime Piñeira Pardo, registered with the ICAM bar, no. 138826
The short answer
Art. 11.3 of Royal Decree 1004/2015 requires a decision to be made and notified within a maximum of one year from the application's entry, and once that year passes it deems the application refused. That silence is a deemed act open to challenge under art. 25.1 LJCA, and art. 46.1 allows six months to take it to court.
You filed your application for nationality by residence two years ago. You supplied everything, answered the requests for information, and since then the status has not moved. Every enquiry returns the same phrase: under review. Meanwhile you have renewed your card, turned down a public competition that required Spanish nationality, and twice postponed a family trip. Nobody has told you that the maximum time for a decision expired long ago, or that, once expired, the law already treats your application as refused.
The case, in five lines
- What is brought
- A contencioso-administrativo claim against the deemed refusal, seeking annulment of the deemed act and recognition of the right to be granted nationality by residence.
- Before which court
- The Sala de lo Contencioso-Administrativo of the Audiencia Nacional (the national high court), where you appear through a lawyer and a court agent; the reposicion, if chosen, is addressed to the body that should have decided.
- Deadline
- Art. 11.3 of Royal Decree 1004/2015 sets one year from the application's entry to decide and notify. Once it expires, art. 46.1 LJCA allows six months from the day after the deemed act arises to go to court.
- Who can bring it
- The person who filed the application for nationality by residence, or their representative. Art. 46.1 LJCA expressly mentions the applicant and other possible interested parties for counting time on the deemed act.
- Financial risk
- Proceedings before the Audiencia Nacional require a lawyer and a court agent and a payment on account, and dismissal may carry an order to pay costs. Forcing the file out may also bring an express refusal, which is in turn open to challenge.
The year in art. 11.3 is not indicative: once past, there is a refusal
Art. 11.3 of Royal Decree 1004/2015 is literal: the procedure must be decided and notified within a maximum of one year from the application's entry at the competent directorate general, and once that period passes with no express decision the applications are deemed refused. It is not a management target, it is the rule that defines when your file already has a legal answer.
An uncomfortable but useful consequence follows. Someone who has waited two years is not awaiting an answer: they hold a refusal produced by operation of law from the moment that year expired. What they are doing, without knowing it, is letting time run on a negative decision that already exists and that can only be shifted by challenging it.
The starting date must be pinned down. Art. 11.3 counts the year from the application's entry at the directorate general, not from the day you handed it in at any registry, nor from the last request you answered. That fact is on the file and is the first thing to be established, because every later deadline depends on it.
Silence can be litigated, because it is a deemed act
Art. 25.1 LJCA allows a contencioso-administrativo claim in relation to express and deemed acts of the public authorities that exhaust the administrative route, whether final or actos de trámite (procedural acts), where the latter decide the substance directly or indirectly, make it impossible to continue the procedure, or cause defencelessness or irreparable harm to rights or legitimate interests.
The word that opens the door is deemed. The court does not require a signed document in order to review a decision: it also reviews the one the law treats as produced. And art. 25.2 adds that a claim is likewise admissible against the authorities' inactivity and against material conduct amounting to action without legal basis, on the terms the law itself lays down.
For nationality by residence the backing is twofold, since art. 22.5 of the Civil Code provides that the grant or refusal is without prejudice to the contencioso-administrativo court route. Judicial review of this file is not a lawyer's construction: it is written into the Civil Code and into the procedural statute.
Six months, not two: the deadline when there is no express act
Art. 46.1 LJCA draws a clear distinction. If the act is express, the claim must be brought within two months from the day after notification. If it is not, the period is six months, counted, for the applicant and other possible interested parties, from the day after the deemed act arises under its own specific rules.
The specific rules here are art. 11.3 of Royal Decree 1004/2015, which places the deemed act at the end of the year from the application's entry. Reading both provisions together gives the real calendar of the case, and also the warning: someone who has waited two years may already have exhausted that window and needs to check the date before anything else.
There is a complementary route. Art. 124.1 of Law 39/2015 provides that, where the act is not express, the applicant and other possible interested parties may file a reposicion appeal at any time from the day after the deemed act arises. It is a route with no closing deadline, useful when the court calendar has become difficult.
What the claim usually produces is a decision, not more waiting
Once the claim is filed, the court calls for the administrative file. That order forces it to be located, completed and sent, and often a file that had been stalled for months then comes out with an express decision. This is not a promise of outcome, it is the usual effect of a court putting a date on something that had none.
If that express decision arrives during the proceedings, the case does not collapse: it is redirected towards it, because the real subject of the claim is the right to the grant and not the document being argued over. If the express decision is favourable, the proceedings lose their purpose and end; if it refuses, the argument moves to the grounds it relies on.
What the claim asks for, and what asking costs
The claim does not merely ask for the silence to be annulled, because annulling a nothing sends the file back to the start. It asks for recognition of the individual legal position, that is, a declaration of the right to be granted nationality by residence with the requirements of art. 22 of the Civil Code established on the file, and an order to decide accordingly.
The cost must be clear from the outset. Before the Audiencia Nacional you appear through a lawyer and a court agent, which calls for a payment on account, the proceedings take time, and a dismissal may carry an order to pay costs. Against that, continuing to wait is not free either: art. 11.3 has already refused your application and art. 46.1 has an end.
It is also worth knowing who decides. Art. 11.1 of Royal Decree 1004/2015 tasks the competent directorate general with drawing up the proposed decision for submission to the Minister of Justice, and art. 11.2 assigns the decision to the Minister. When a file stalls, what must be found out is at which of those two levels it has stopped.
How we run the case, step by step
- 1
Fix the date the application entered
The year in art. 11.3 of Royal Decree 1004/2015 runs from the application's entry at the competent directorate general. We locate the receipt and the file number, because that date determines when the deemed act arose and how much of the art. 46.1 LJCA period remains.
- 2
Document the real state of the file
We gather the status enquiries, the requests answered and their receipts, to show that the delay is not due to documents outstanding on your side and that no express decision was issued within the maximum period.
- 3
Work out whether the window is still open
We check whether less than six months have passed since the deemed act, the period in art. 46.1 LJCA for a non-express act. If that window has closed, we consider the reposicion under art. 124.1 of Law 39/2015, which in that case has no closing deadline.
- 4
File the claim and call for the file
The claim is brought before the Sala de lo Contencioso-Administrativo of the Audiencia Nacional through a lawyer and a court agent, and we request the complete administrative file, which is what forces it to move within the authority itself.
- 5
Ask for recognition of the right, not just annulment
The claim asks for a declaration of the right to the grant with the requirements of art. 22 of the Civil Code established, so that a favourable judgment does not send the file back to the start but settles the substance.
- 6
React if the express decision arrives
If the Ministry decides while proceedings are running, the content is examined at once: if it grants, we push the registration through; if it refuses, the case turns against the specific grounds the express decision finally puts in writing.
The evidence that decides the case
- The filing receipt with the file number and the entry date that starts the year under art. 11.3.
- The dated status enquiries on the file, showing the absence of any decision over time.
- The requests for information received and your answers with receipts, ruling out that the delay is due to outstanding documents.
- The administrative file sent to the court, showing at what stage it stopped and since when.
- Evidence of the harm: the vacancy requiring Spanish nationality, the contract lost, or the trip postponed.
- The certificates of continuous lawful residence supporting the requirements of art. 22 of the Civil Code.
What closes the door
- Continuing to wait because they are assumed to be slow. Art. 11.3 of Royal Decree 1004/2015 already deems the application refused once the year expired, and the court deadline runs from there.
- Chasing informally, with letters or calls that produce no challengeable act and do not stop the six months in art. 46.1 LJCA.
- Assuming silence favours the applicant. Art. 11.3 expressly makes it a refusal.
- Counting the year from filing at any registry. Art. 11.3 counts it from entry at the competent directorate general, and that date is usually later.
- Asking only for the silence to be annulled. Without a request to recognise the right, a favourable judgment may simply send the file back to the start.
The law that applies
- Art. 11.3 del RD 1004/2015. It requires the procedure to be decided and notified within a maximum of one year from the application's entry at the competent directorate general, and provides that, once that period passes with no express decision, the applications are deemed refused. BOE-A-2015-12047
- Art. 11.1, 11.2 y 11.4 del RD 1004/2015. It tasks the competent directorate general with drawing up the proposed decision for submission to the Minister of Justice, assigns the decision to the Minister, treats one based on the report of the Centro Nacional de Inteligencia as sufficiently reasoned, and requires notification stating the appeals, the time limit and the body, as well as the condition of maintaining good civic conduct until registration. BOE-A-2015-12047
- Art. 25 LJCA. It allows a contencioso-administrativo claim against express and deemed acts that exhaust the administrative route, whether final or qualifying actos de trámite on the terms it lists, and also against the authorities' inactivity and material conduct amounting to action without legal basis. BOE-A-1998-16718
- Art. 46.1 LJCA. It sets two months to challenge an express act from the day after notification, and six months where the act is not express, counted for the applicant and other possible interested parties from the day after the deemed act arises under its own specific rules. BOE-A-1998-16718
- Art. 124.1 de la Ley 39/2015. It sets one month for the reposicion where the act is express and allows, where it is not, the applicant and other possible interested parties to file it at any time from the day after the deemed act arises. BOE-A-2015-10565
- Art. 22.5 del Código Civil. It provides that the grant or refusal of nationality by residence is without prejudice to the contencioso-administrativo court route, confirming that the decision, whether express or deemed, is reviewable by a court. BOE-A-1889-4763
Each article checked against the consolidated text published in the BOE (the Spanish official gazette).
Frequently asked questions
Is silence on a nationality file positive or negative?
Negative, and it is written down. Art. 11.3 of Royal Decree 1004/2015 requires a decision and notification within a maximum of one year from the application's entry and adds that, once that period passes with no express decision, the applications are deemed refused. Someone who has waited two years is not awaiting an answer: they hold a refusal produced by the rule itself.
How long do I have to challenge that silence?
Art. 46.1 LJCA allows six months where the act is not express, counted from the day after the deemed act arises under its own specific rules, which here art. 11.3 of Royal Decree 1004/2015 places at the end of the year. In parallel, art. 124.1 of Law 39/2015 allows a reposicion at any time from that same day.
Can I sue just because of the delay?
Art. 25.1 LJCA allows a claim against express and deemed acts that exhaust the administrative route, and its paragraph 2 also allows one against the authorities' inactivity on the terms the law lays down. In practice, the natural route on this file is to challenge the deemed refusal that art. 11.3 of Royal Decree 1004/2015 has already produced.
Could challenging it make them refuse me?
The refusal already exists: art. 11.3 of Royal Decree 1004/2015 produced it when the year expired. What may arrive is an express decision, favourable or refusing, and that is precisely the advantage, because a written refusal finally states the ground held against you and lets you fight it. Silence, by contrast, cannot be answered because it argues nothing.
What if they decide while the case is running?
It is a frequent outcome, because the court calls for the administrative file and that forces it to move. If the express decision grants nationality, the proceedings lose their purpose and registration is pushed through. If it refuses, the case turns against the specific grounds finally set out in writing, and the argument stops being about deadlines and becomes about the substance.
This guide explains how the action works in general. It does not replace the study of your own case: deadlines depend on when things happened and on what you have done since.