How Much Does Spanish Citizenship Cost in 2026?
The real cost of applying for Spanish citizenship by residence, from the application fee to the two exams and the document costs people forget to budget for.
The headline cost of a Spanish citizenship application is small. The government fee is just over a hundred euros. But the application fee is only one line in the budget, and the parts people forget, the two exams, the document legalisation and the translations, often add up to more than the fee itself. Here is the full picture for 2026.
The application fee
The main government charge is the tasa modelo 790 código 026, the fee for processing a nationality by residence application. In 2026 it is around 105 euros. The exact figure is reviewed each year in the national budget, so confirm the current amount before you pay. You pay it once, using form 790 with code 026, online or at a collaborating bank.
This is the only fee that goes to the Ministry of Justice for the application itself. Everything else on this list is a cost you pay to other bodies to assemble what the application needs.
The two exams
Most applicants have to pass two exams, and each one carries its own fee paid to the Instituto Cervantes.
- The CCSE, the constitutional and sociocultural knowledge test, costs 85 euros in 2026.
- The DELE A2 Spanish language exam costs around 138 euros in 2026.
If you are a national of a Spanish-speaking country, you are exempt from the DELE A2, so your exam cost drops to just the 85 euro CCSE fee. For everyone else, the two exams together come to more than 200 euros, which is roughly double the government application fee.
Document costs
This is the part that surprises people. To file the application you need several official documents, and getting them into the right form costs money:
- Legalisation or apostille of foreign documents such as your birth certificate and criminal record certificate. The cost depends on the country that issues them.
- Sworn translations of those documents into Spanish. Translators charge per document or per page, and several documents usually need translating.
- Criminal record certificates from your country of origin, which may carry their own issuing fee.
- Smaller items such as the certificado de empadronamiento from your town hall, which is usually free or very cheap.
Depending on your country of origin and how many documents you need, this part can run from under a hundred euros to several hundred.
Optional professional help
Many applicants handle the process themselves. Others use a gestor or an immigration lawyer to prepare and file the application, especially when their history is complicated or their documents are hard to obtain. This is an optional cost, and it varies widely depending on the professional and how much work the case involves. It buys convenience and a lower chance of errors, not a faster legal outcome.
Putting it together
For a national of a Spanish-speaking country, exempt from the DELE A2, the unavoidable costs are the roughly 105 euro application fee plus the 85 euro CCSE fee, plus document and translation costs. For an applicant who has to take both exams, add the DELE A2 fee on top. Across all the pieces, a typical self-managed application tends to land somewhere in the low hundreds of euros, with professional help on top if you choose to use it.
Confirm the current figures
Fees change, and the application fee in particular is updated each year. Confirm the current tasa amount at mjusticia.gob.es and the exam fees at the Instituto Cervantes pages on cervantes.es before you budget. For an estimate that fits your exact situation, a gestor or lawyer can break down what your case will cost.
One cost you can avoid entirely is paid CCSE preparation. PassCitizen has the full official CCSE question bank, organised by topic, with study mode and full mock exams and no account needed.
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