Spanish nationality refused because of police records: what can I do?

Updated on 27 September 2026. The requirements in the Civil Code and the nationality regulation (Royal Decree 1004/2015) have not changed. We have added the exact deadlines for appealing, how to check and request the deletion of your police data, and what the Supreme Court has said about police records.

Receiving a decision that refuses Spanish nationality by residence (nacionalidad española por residencia) because good civic conduct has not been proven is particularly worrying when you have no criminal record (antecedentes penales) or when the events recorded in the file are very old.

Even so, the existence of police records (antecedentes policiales) or police actions does not necessarily mean that the refusal is final. Each file is analysed individually, taking into account both what appears in the records and your track record since then. However, the deadlines for appealing are short (one month for an appeal for reconsideration and two months to go to the Audiencia Nacional (National High Court)), so it is worth acting from the day you receive the notification.

What "good civic conduct" means and how police information reaches the file

Article 22.4 of the Civil Code (Código Civil) requires anyone applying for nationality by residence to prove good civic conduct and a sufficient degree of integration into Spanish society (buena conducta cívica y suficiente grado de integración). The burden of proof is on you (art. 8.1 of Royal Decree 1004/2015, which regulates the procedure), but the authorities must request the necessary reports on their own initiative.

The most important one here is the mandatory report from the Ministry of the Interior (Ministerio del Interior) (art. 8.2 of RD 1004/2015), which must include an assessment of the foreign national's "conduct and situation with regard to the obligations imposed by their entry into and residence in Spain". In practice, this is how arrests, complaints or police proceedings get into the file, even if they never led to a conviction. On top of that, the Central Criminal Records Register (Registro Central de Penados) is consulted (art. 5.1.a of RD 1004/2015) and, if you are an adult, a criminal record certificate from your country of origin is required; refugees and stateless persons are exempt, and EU nationals may replace it with a certificate from the Spanish Central Criminal Records Register (art. 5.3 of RD 1004/2015).

Good civic conduct is not simply the same as having no criminal record: it is a broader concept, assessed in light of all your circumstances. But that does not mean that any police entry justifies a refusal either.

A refusal "on reasoned grounds of public order or national interest" (art. 21.2 of the Civil Code) is a different matter. It is sometimes based on confidential reports from the National Intelligence Centre (Centro Nacional de Inteligencia, CNI), which the regulation treats as sufficient reasoning (art. 11.2 of RD 1004/2015). Even then, the Supreme Court requires the decision to give at least a minimum of information so that you can defend yourself (Supreme Court judgment of 17 March 2021, ECLI:ES:TS:2021:1125).

Can police records lead to nationality being refused?

Yes. The authorities may take them into account. But they are not decisive on their own.

The Supreme Court (Tribunal Supremo) has held that, to decide whether there is good civic conduct, all the circumstances must be assessed together, both favourable and unfavourable, without leaving any out (judgment of 3 November 2022, ECLI:ES:TS:2022:4221). In that case, the applicant, who had paranoid schizophrenia and had been legally resident in Spain since 1991, had arrests from 1998, 1999 and 2006, long before his 2012 application, and another from 2013 for which neither the reason nor the outcome was recorded. He had no criminal record. The Supreme Court concluded that merely citing those police proceedings did not show antisocial behaviour and recognised his right to nationality. The case had very particular circumstances (the doctrine laid down expressly covers conduct resulting from the illness), but the rule of joint assessment applies generally.

What matters, therefore, is not only whether there is an entry, but:

• Which events it reflects and how serious they are.
• When they took place and whether they have been repeated.
• How they ended: case closed, proceedings dismissed, acquittal or conviction.
• How you have behaved since then.

If the court proceedings are still open or there is no record of how they ended, that gap may count against you. That is why it is advisable for you to provide the decision that closed the matter whenever you can obtain it.

What happens if the events are very old?

How long ago the events took place can be particularly relevant: assessing recent events is not the same as assessing actions from many years before the application. The more time has passed, the more important it is to show how your life has developed. Some examples of how to do this:

The aim is to show that your current conduct cannot be judged solely on the basis of isolated events from long ago.

Is a clean criminal record certificate enough?

Not necessarily, but it is important evidence. Good civic conduct and the absence of a criminal record are not the same thing, so a certificate with no entries does not guarantee that nationality will be granted, although it is a favourable factor that must be weighed with everything else.

Criminal records can be cancelled once the sentence has been extinguished (for example, because you have served it) and the following periods then pass without reoffending (art. 136 of the Criminal Code, Código Penal):

• 6 months for minor penalties.
• 2 years for penalties of up to 12 months and those imposed for offences of negligence.
• 3 years for other less serious penalties under 3 years.
• 5 years for less serious penalties of 3 years or more.
• 10 years for serious penalties.

Note that the period is not counted from the conviction or from the events, but from the day after the sentence was extinguished (art. 136.2), with a special rule where its enforcement was suspended. If the period has already passed and the records have not been cancelled automatically, you can request cancellation from the Ministerio de la Presidencia, Justicia y Relaciones con las Cortes (Ministry of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Cortes), which manages the Central Criminal Records Register. Cancellation helps, but it does not guarantee that the events will stop carrying weight in the overall assessment.

Police records: how to find out what is held and request deletion

Police records and criminal records are different registers, with different rules. A police entry is not a conviction. Police data are governed by Organic Law 7/2021 of 26 May (Ley Orgánica 7/2021):

• Access (art. 22): you can ask the National Police (Policía Nacional), the Civil Guard (Guardia Civil) or whichever force is responsible what data they hold about you. It is free of charge (art. 20.5).
• Rectification and deletion (art. 23): if the data are inaccurate or should no longer be kept, you can ask for them to be corrected or deleted.
• Limited retention (art. 8): the need to keep the data must be reviewed at least every three years, and the general maximum period before deletion is twenty years, subject to exceptions such as open investigations, offences that have not become time-barred or reoffending.
• Response: if you receive no answer within one month, the request is deemed refused (art. 20.4). If your right is restricted, you can exercise it through the Spanish Data Protection Agency (Agencia Española de Protección de Datos) (arts. 25 and 48). If the data are part of criminal investigations or proceedings, the rules of criminal procedure apply (art. 26).

In addition, as a party to the procedure you can ask for access to the nationality file and copies of its documents (art. 53.1.a of Law 39/2015), in principle including the Interior report on which the refusal is based. The exception is classified information: the CNI's activities and any data that could reveal them are classified as secret by law (art. 5.1 of Law 11/2002 regulating the National Intelligence Centre, Ley 11/2002), so its reports are normally not disclosed. If you go to the Audiencia Nacional, the authorities must send the complete file to the court (art. 48.4 of the LJCA, Law 29/1998 on Administrative Jurisdiction), but even then documents classified as official secrets are excluded, and the index only records that they have been removed (art. 48.6 LJCA). In those cases, your safeguard is that the decision must give you at least the minimum of information you need to defend yourself (Supreme Court judgment of 17 March 2021, cited above). Before appealing, it is advisable to know exactly what information the authorities used.

Deadlines for appealing a refusal of nationality

Nationality by residence is granted or refused by the Minister of Justice (art. 21.2 of the Civil Code), and that decision leaves the route to the administrative courts open (art. 22.5). These are the options:

Some important points:

• You can go straight to the Audiencia Nacional without first seeking reconsideration (art. 123.1 of Law 39/2015). But if you do file for reconsideration, you must wait until it is decided or deemed dismissed (art. 123.2).
• Deadlines in months run from date to date: if you are notified on 15 March, the month for reconsideration ends on 15 April (art. 30.4 of Law 39/2015; for the court appeal, art. 5 of the Civil Code and art. 185 of the Organic Law on the Judiciary, Ley Orgánica del Poder Judicial, LOPJ).
• August does not count towards the deadline for judicial review or for preparing a cassation appeal (art. 128.2 LJCA), but it does count for reconsideration. The 30 days for cassation also exclude Saturdays, Sundays, public holidays and 24 December to 6 January (arts. 182, 183 and 185 LOPJ).
• If you are notified electronically and do not access the notification within ten calendar days, it is deemed rejected and the procedure continues (arts. 41.5 and 43.2 of Law 39/2015).
• If the Ministry did not decide your application within one year, it is deemed refused by administrative silence (art. 11.3 of RD 1004/2015). No time bar runs against challenging that deemed refusal (Constitutional Court judgment 52/2014), but if an express decision arrives later, the ordinary deadlines start to run.
• If, after the refusal, essential documents come to light that show the decision was wrong, such as a later judgment of acquittal, there is the extraordinary appeal for review (recurso extraordinario de revisión): 3 months from when you became aware of them (art. 125 of Law 39/2015).
• You do not need to try an appropriate dispute resolution method (MASC) first: that requirement, in force since 3 April 2025, applies only to civil cases (art. 5 of Organic Law 1/2025).

Reconsideration, the Audiencia Nacional or a new application?

• Reconsideration: no lawyer or court representative is required and there is no fee. You can submit documents, although the law allows the authorities to disregard those you could have submitted at a hearing stage and did not (art. 118.1 of Law 39/2015). On the other hand, it delays access to the courts.
• Audiencia Nacional: as it is a collegiate court, you need a lawyer and a court representative (procurador) (art. 23.2 LJCA). Individuals do not pay court fees (art. 4.2.a of Law 10/2012), but if the appeal is dismissed in full you may be ordered to pay costs, unless there were serious doubts of fact or law, and within the limits of art. 139 LJCA. If you do not have sufficient means, you can apply for free legal aid (asistencia jurídica gratuita) (art. 2.a of Law 1/1996).
• New application: neither the Civil Code nor RD 1004/2015 sets a waiting period. You will pay the fee again (form 790, code 026; currently €104.05) and must still meet the requirement of legal, continuous residence immediately before the application and the other requirements for nationality by residence. It may make sense if your situation has changed, for example if the records have been cancelled, but it needs to be weighed against appealing.

The importance of the reasoning behind the decision

Another key aspect is the reasoning given for the refusal. Decisions that restrict rights must set out their facts and legal grounds (art. 35.1.a of Law 39/2015): it is not enough to cite certain records and conclude, in general terms, that good civic conduct has not been proven.

If there are relevant positive circumstances, check whether the decision has assessed them and explains why they are not enough. Also check whether the file is complete: the Supreme Court has held that the Spanish criminal record certificate and the Interior report must be in the file (judgment of 29 March 2022, appeal 3993/2021), and has made clear that it is the authorities, not the applicant, who must add them (judgment of 23 February 2022, ECLI:ES:TS:2022:817).

What should be analysed before appealing?

At a minimum, check:

• The exact date of notification.
• The date and nature of the events.
• Whether there were court proceedings and how they ended.
• Whether the criminal or police records have been or can be cancelled.
• Whether there have been any later events.
• Which documents prove your employment, tax, personal and family track record since then.

The most common mistakes are:

1. Missing the deadline, often because an electronic notification was not opened in time.
2. Appealing without having seen the file or the police report.
3. Simply stating that you have no criminal record.
4. Not providing the court decision that closed the matter.
5. Filing for reconsideration and judicial review at the same time.
6. Leaving out or playing down events: the authorities check the registers, and a lack of transparency counts against you.

How to frame the appeal

1. Identify which specific events the authorities relied on and which report they come from.
2. Place them in time: when they happened and how many years had passed when you applied.
3. Prove how they ended and what your criminal and police record status is today.
4. Describe your later conduct with facts: work, Social Security contributions, taxes, family, training.
5. Back up each statement with the document that proves it.
6. Argue, relying on the Supreme Court doctrine on joint assessment, why those events are not enough on their own to deny good civic conduct.

Frequently asked questions

Is an arrest a criminal record?

No. Criminal records come from final convictions entered in the Central Criminal Records Register. An arrest, a complaint or proceedings that were closed may appear in police records, but they are not a conviction.

Does the refusal affect my residence permit?

A refusal of nationality does not in itself terminate your residence permit, which is governed by its own rules. But the same events may be assessed again, for example on renewal.

In summary

When nationality is refused for lack of good civic conduct, it is not only your past that should be analysed, but also the years of subsequent conduct that show your current situation. A refusal should not be written off without examining the file, the information the authorities used and the evidence you can provide.

If you have received a refusal and the clock is running, we can review the decision and the file with you before choosing a route. You can book a consultation or, if you have not yet applied, go through the requirements with our Spanish nationality tool.

Legislation and sources

• Civil Code, articles 21 and 22 (consolidated text, BOE)
• Royal Decree 1004/2015, Regulation on the procedure for nationality by residence (BOE)
• Law 39/2015 on the Common Administrative Procedure (BOE)
• Law 29/1998 on Administrative Jurisdiction (BOE)
• Organic Law 7/2021 on data processed for criminal-law purposes (BOE)
• Criminal Code, article 136 (BOE)
• CGPJ note on the Supreme Court judgment of 3 November 2022 (poderjudicial.es)
• Spanish nationality by residence (Ministry of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Cortes)