In this article you are about to learn what exactly is the phase within the Spanish nationality application process of pending official mandatory reports (called “pendiente de informes preceptivos oficiales” in Spanish). We will analyze exactly what the authorities do during this process, how long your file will be inside this phase, and what are the next steps.
During the application process for Spanish nationality, the DGRN (Dirección General de Seguridad Jurídica y Fe Pública) must request a series of documents to ensure that you meet all the necessary requirements.
That is to say, the Spanish authorities must verify that there is no reason that could invalidate the granting of your nationality, and for this purpose, they must solicit the necessary information from different institutions.
Thus, once the DGRN receives any citizenship application, one of the first things it will do is to ask different government institutions for important information about the foreign applicant. We are talking about:
- Social Security
- General Directorate of the Police
- CNI (national center of intelligence)
- The Ministry of the Interior
- Central Registry of Convicts and Rebels
- Etc.
These are the institutions that will provide all the personal and essential data to finally issue a favorable resolution or, on the contrary, if there is something that invalidates the application, deny your nationality application.
What data do they check exactly?
For example, with whom and where is the foreigner living, if she has had any kind of links with political parties in her country of origin, past criminal records, if she has had police arrests, if she has complied with the residence periods required for nationality, absences in the country, what kind of residence card she has had, etc.
That is to say, it is an in-depth analysis of all the requirements that the law requires to obtain citizenship.
The final result are the reports where all this is justified, and these documents are called mandatory reports or “informes preceptivos”.
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What is then the phase "pending the response of the mandatory reports"?
As you already know, after submitting all the documents for your citizenship application, your file goes through a set of different stages.
Those stages can be checked through the online platform “cómo va lo mío”, obtaining nearly real-time updates of its status.
Within those stages, there is one called “pendiente de informes preceptivos oficiales”, which undoubtedly is one of the most important phases.
It comprises the period of time from the time the DGRN requests the necessary information to the different institutions mentioned above, until they prepare, classify and group it into the different mandatory reports, and send them to the General Directorate of Registries and Notaries so that they can assess compliance with the requirements.
In that sense, it is completely normal to have your file in this phase, a phase that all nationality applications must go through.
Hence, you do not need to worry about anything, and you don’t need to take any extra action either.
As long as you have reviewed the nationality requirements carefully before submitting your application and have made sure to fulfill them in detail (essential to avoid problems at this stage, for example), you will not have to worry about during the time this stage takes.
How long does this stage take?
Many foreigners who do not understand this phase are also concerned about its length.
That is, how long will it take for my file to go from pending official prescriptive reports to the following one?
Generally speaking, this phase used to take about 3 months.
But after the shock plan implemented by the government to speed up the resolution times a few years ago, many applications reached this stage very quickly, and the national police did not have enough resources to manage all of them at the same pace.
That is why many were delayed.
Nowadays, though, you can expect to wait between 1 and 4 months at this stage, although the exact timeframe is very variable and will depend on how long it takes for the authorities to prepare and send all the reports.
In addition, the process will take more or less time depending on your country of origin.
For example, for citizens from African or Asian countries the process may be slower; while for South American foreigners the opposite is true, usually taking a maximum 30 days.
And which stages comes next?
Once the necessary time has passed for the authorities to send the required reports, what phase comes next in the nationality process?
There are two different options here.
The next phase is called “informes completos” or full reports, and you will reach that stage once all the documents have been received in full.
It simply means that all the paperwork and preceptive reports have been received effectively.
However, in most cases your file will jump this phase and directly go to the study phase (“en estudio”), a phase in which the content of those reports is analyzed.
Let us remind you that after this study phase comes to an end, the next step is the qualification and then final resolution phase. Here you can find a list containing each and every one of the phases in which your file can be found.
And remember that if you have any questions, our expert immigration and nationality lawyers will answer all your doubts in detail:
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