Espe3, I do not want to get into a USA vs. Spanish Debate either. Vs.(versus) implies one is against the other. I am not. I happen to be married to a Spaniard and have a daughter who is therefore, Half American and Half Spanish. I want to raise her as you obviously have been raised. Proud to be American, Proud to be Spanish. That is all.

I have a question, as some of this info is new to me:

My mother-in-law was born in Spain (or at least her parents were)...so I'm curious if my wife could pull off this citizenship thing, and if so, would I be allowed at least resident status as a spouse?

This would make the jump to employment and residence in Spain much less complicated...any ideas, folks?

I really can't understand why someone would want to get rid of US citizenship. There are so many who would do anything to come here and stay here.

Anyway - I have a cousin who lives in Madrid, and has done so for more than 25 years. His wife is a Spanish national. His children have dual citizenship. One is an adult and one is 15. They go to the American School and speak perfect Madrid Castillan and Pittsburghese (from their dad!)

I hope to visit Spain next year.

Cali-
First find out if your MIL was born in Spain or her parents. If it was her parents, your wife would have to go the grandparent route-
If THEY were born in spain (only one is fine) then she WOULD be able to apply for citz and yes, you as a result could get residency as a spouse- and eventually with that comes a work permit.
Hope that answers your question.

Menacy-Right O!

Equinepro and Mencey- since I started this thread I am going to respond to your comments to Soria first. Personally I find them out of place. It is those types of comments, which make some americans elsewhere in the world ashamed to be american. In addition they support the impressions of americans as arrogant and ignorant which many believe in other parts of the world. I am an international realations specialist and comments such as yours do embarass me. To be honest I am tired of making up for your actions when I travel to others in their impressions of americans.

Rather than waste time getting into political or cultural debates and making personal attacks, I would prefer to simply keep the comments off this thread. Please keep all posts related to assisiting others on the topic Spanish Citizenship. Please dont attack others for their personal opinons or preferences, simply because they do not converge with your own notions. If you cant be tolerant and add something of relevance to the thread (specifically Spanish citizenship through the new ley) without attacking anyone else, then please say nothing at all.

Guapetona- my situation is completely different than yours. My mother was not eligible for registry and therefore neither was I. So I am applying as a grandchild. There is a disproportionate amount of mis-information floating around and the consulados arent helping. For yourself it would not be near as difficult, for others such as myself, it becomes more of a pain and confusion. Not to mention the pain of trying to find my grandfathers birth certificate from 1903 too (anyone have any tips there short of flying over to Santander? ). I would be in complete enamour if the consulados and embassies could get their act together on this. However I am not holding my breath. Yes I am a stubborn Spaniard, I will be hanging in there to try and get this done (in a short amount of time- grrr, thanks to grad school ).

For all who are reading please note I have no intention of renouncing any citizenship I currently have. Nor, as it has been explained to me, is it required. I myself feel more intune with the Spanish culture. I hope to be able to live in Spain again, and to have the option to raise my children there as I find it to be a preferable environment (my opinon not anyone elses). Citizenship will make my life infinitely easier.

Now Espe3- I do happen to agree with most of what you said in regard to being born in the middle so I am not going to add to that. It also seems like you might be able to help me out with some of the citizenship details and attmepts do go through the process. I will contact you in private. I can give you the complete picture as I am still THOUROUGHLY confused about the visa thing. Just give me one I will set up residence in my cousins apartment and get this overwith please Personally I would rather live there and be exempt from the condition of national employment (as that will be difficult to deal with) and fund myself- which I can (just not to the tune of keeping 75K in a bank acct for a year). Please tell me there is some way to make that work- otherwise life becomes much more of a nightmare! I am also wondering if I am considered exempt what constitutes residency and what will have to be done during the year that I am there. Anyone know that one? Also I do have plans already to go (next month) and handcuff myself to the SF Consulado until they give me my visa or at least some better information! The writing a complaint though is nice- to whom would I send it?

To everyone who has made efforts to give relevant information on the topic I do wish to sincerely thank you. I promise to update and try to return the information of my experience also.

Tinkerbell....blahblahblahblahblahblahblah. First of all the topic is "Spanish Nationality" and my comments pertain to that topic. The topic is not or was not" Only answer if you are able to help me with this spanish nationality question" Don't be ridiculous. If i want to make a comment that pertains to the topic, which it does, or to somebody's reply to the topic, which it does, than I will. I do not care if you are a international relations specialist or, nor do I care if you feel the need to clean up misconceptions of americans. Do you always care this much about what people think of you? If so, you have a lot more messes to clean up than those left by us outspoken americans. And if you had no "international messes" to clean up, well, then, you may just be unemployed. So just thank your lucky stars that there are people like me out there to keep you employed. Also, you say," Please do not attack others for their personal opinions or preferences simply because they do not converge with your own notions To be honest, I am tired of making up for your actions when I travel to others in their impressions of Americans" HYPOCRITE!!!!

Mencey-

Your posts may have been responses to what someone said, but you must be fairly insecure to have to attack others to make yourself feel better or "show" pride in who you are. This board, as I understood it, is intended for people to help others. I found your post to be of no help on the topic and instead to be rude towards another poster.

Regardless this thread was about people trying to work out intricacies of a legislation in relation to OBTAINING Spanish citizenship/nationality (go back take a look at the OP that is ALL it is about, not about broad nationality issues). You said NOTHING relevant to that topic or what anyone else said except to attack someone else for expressing their position/opinon that goes contrary to being a I LOVE AMERICA, ITS THE BEST point of view. If you are going to say "THIS IS AMERICA" and you can "say what you want"- but attack others for saying things which indicate not wanting to be american or not being grateful enough. Well, I find that to be abhorrent and weak. Those freedoms extend even to those who say things you find abominable or else they are not true freedoms. I personally have no qualms about standing up to such bullies.

I dont care what people, let alone you, think of me. There would be enough to keep me employed till my dying day with out you making matters dramatically worse (or in your terms "keeping me employed"). I respectfully decline to "thank my lucky stars for people like you". Even with my "cares" I am still cleaning up 90% american messes to 10% other nationalities.

As to the name calling ("hypocrite" etc). I have a 3 year old niece with more tact, intellect and diplomacy than you are currently exhibiting and I refuse to lower myself to that level. If you want to read something into what I have written which is not there, there is nothing I can do about that. Personally I would prefer to be an adult and keep it off thread. Honestly this is not worth any more of my time, thought or key strokes.

To anyone else who has applicable experience or information on Ley 36-2002 in response to eligiblity for Spanish Citizenship/Nationalidad for children and (for my case/interest especially as) grandchildren of Spaniards- I hope we are able to change the tone and return experience and information for others to be able access on this new legislation and process. To those who have posted on the topic and have provided references and information I sincerely thank you for you time, thoughts and experiences.

Look, Tinkerbell and to anyone else I may have offended with my remarks...I apologize. The end.

I have a few questions. I hope to stay in Spain for a few years after I retire (7 years from now)before I go gaga and have to live in a La-La-Land Home, here in Florida.

What will I need to do that? Do I need a special Visa? Will the U.S. allow me to live there without coming back every year? Can I buy a house or piso in Spain? Will that ownership allow me to have residency? Or, does the $75,000 have to be cash in a bank?

Thank you!

Booklady, it is a possibility, but you have to give some more information.

For retirement, yes, you can purchase a home in Spain-No, simply owning a property there does not give you automatic residency. Yes you can go there without having to return yearly- you'll get a special visa, it will give you permission to reside in spain, but you won't be able to work. The $75,000. yes, in cash, in an account(but its for a different visa, not the one you'll be applying for) as far for retiring, for the most part I believe that all you have to do is show proof of income (your retirement fund) and medical insurance. Retirement is a bit different, I'd request the information from the Embassy or a Consulate. You're familiar with Miami, but since its just information, if you can get it from somewhere else, I'd do that- we all know how useful Miami can be. It won't hurt to start getting some info now, you can also get much of the information off of the NY consulates website- it gives you a variety of visas and explains the conditions and what will be necessary for each one.

Let me know if you need anything else!