After a favourable decision: registration, passport and DNI

A favourable decision is the big news, but it is not the end yet. Two steps remain before your nationality is valid, and after that come the documents that let you use it: the passport and, if you go to Spain, the DNI (Spain's national identity card).

Each consulate organises these steps its own way. What follows is the general path; your consulate's details (appointments, forms, fees) are on its official page.

The two steps that make your nationality valid

Under the rules consulates apply, acquiring nationality is only valid once:

1. You swear or promise loyalty to the King and obedience to the Constitution and the laws. Your consulate tells you how and when.
2. The acquisition is registered in the consular civil registry. That inscripcióninscripciónThe official entry of a fact (a birth, a nationality) in a public registry. When your nationality is inscrita, it is recorded in the system.Close is what records your birth and your nationality in the Spanish Registro CivilRegistro CivilThe public office that keeps identity and civil-status records: births, marriages, deaths and nationalities. In Spain, civil-registry functions also exist at consulates.Close.

You do not have to give up your other nationality. The nationality you receive is Spanish nationality of origin, but it counts from the day you acquire it, not from your birth.

Your Spanish birth certificate

Once your birth is registered, you can request a Spanish certificado literalcertificado literalThe full-text copy of a Registro Civil entry, with all its annotations. Passport and DNI offices usually ask for a recent one.Close of birth. It is the base document for everything that follows: the passport, the DNI and, later on, your children's applications. In Miami, for example, the consulate contacts the applicant to send the Spanish birth certificate once the decision is favourable.

Some procedures require a recent certificate. For a passport in Los Angeles it must be under 12 months old; for the DNI, under 6 months old and issued specifically for the DNI. Request a new one when you need it rather than keeping an old one.

Registering with your consulate

If you live outside Spain, register next in the Registro de Matrícula ConsularRegistro de Matrícula ConsularThe list of Spaniards registered at a consulate. Registering lets you carry out procedures there, such as getting a passport, and request residence certificates.Close of the consulate that covers your address. The Miami consulate names it as the step that follows a favourable decision, before the first passport. That registration is also what the residence certificate you will need for the DNI is based on.

Your first passport

The Spanish passport is issued at the consulate, by appointment and in person. Each consulate publishes its exact requirements; as an example, Los Angeles asks for:

• registration in the Registro de Matrícula Consular;
• a Spanish certificado literal of birth under 12 months old, original and copy;
• a recent colour photo on a white background;
• the signed application form;
• the consular fee;
• proof of your address within the consulate's area.

Book one appointment per person and per procedure. If you are also applying for your children's passports, each child needs their own.

The DNI: only in Spain

The DNI cannot be issued at a consulate. A first DNI is issued only in Spain, in person, at a National Police DNI office. If you travel to Spain, bring:

• a certificado literal of birth for the DNI, issued by the civil registry no more than 6 months earlier;
• a recent colour photo, 32 × 26 mm, on a plain white background;
• if you live outside Spain, a certificate from the consulate where you are registered as a resident, no more than 3 months old (people who live in Spain bring their municipal registration certificate instead);
• the fee, paid in cash, by card, or online when you book.

You can book an appointment on the official DNI appointment website. Your passport is enough to travel and to identify yourself as Spanish outside Spain; the DNI matters most if you will live in Spain or deal with authorities there.

• I took the oath or made the promise
• My birth is registered in the consular registry
• I requested a recent certificado literal of birth
• I registered in the Registro de Matrícula Consular
• I booked an appointment for my first passport
• If I travel to Spain: I prepared the documents for the DNI

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