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Countries Offering Fast-track Citizenship Through Marriage To Foreign Nationals

Published

7 months ago

January 22, 2025

Some countries offer a fast-track path to citizenship for foreigners who marry their citizens. This shortens the usual residency requirements and helps spouses gain citizenship more quickly. While the rules vary, marriage is often accepted as a valid reason for granting citizenship or residency. This also comes with benefits like the right to live, work, and travel freely. Fast-tracking citizenship through marriage is a good option for those wanting to build a life in a new country.

Here are five countries where marrying a local could quickly change your nationality in 2025.

Spain

In the past, marrying a Spanish citizen automatically granted citizenship. However, since 1975, direct citizenship after marriage is no longer possible.

Marriage still makes the citizenship process faster. Marrying a Spaniard makes it easier and quicker to get residency and citizenship. Normally, it takes 2 to 10 years of residency to qualify for citizenship. If married to a Spanish citizen, you only need one year of legal residency. However, you may need to renounce your original nationality unless you’re from a former Spanish colony. With Spanish citizenship, you can travel to 183 countries without a visa, live and work anywhere in the EU, and vote in Spain.

Step-by-Step Process: First, register your marriage with a notary in Spain. Then, apply for a residency permit to live and work in Spain for five years. There are two options: the EU Family Member Card for those with legal status and sufficient income, or Family Arraigo for those without legal status but with a clean criminal record.

After getting your residency, live in Spain with your spouse for one year. The year starts only after your residency permit is approved. Once you’ve lived together for a year, apply for Spanish citizenship. You’ll need to pass the Spanish language test (A2) and the CCSE cultural exam.

Argentina

Argentine citizenship can be obtained in two ways. The first is Citizenship by Option, which is available to children of native Argentine citizens as stated in Article 1, Law 346, and Article 2, Decree 3213/84. The second is citizenship by naturalisation, which requires two years of continuous residency in Argentina, verified by the National Directorate of Migrations. This residency requirement is waived if you are married to an Argentine citizen or have Argentine-born children. However, siblings of Argentine citizens cannot apply for citizenship through this route.

To apply, you must be at least 18 years old. You need a legalised birth certificate, either with an Apostille or international legalisation if required, and a valid Argentine ID (DNI) or passport. You also need police clearance certificates from your home country and any other countries where you lived for more than six months in the past three years. These certificates must be apostilled. A non-criminal record certificate from Argentina’s National Registry is also required. This involves fingerprinting, and the results are sent by email.
You must provide proof of residency in Argentina, such as utility bills, a rental contract, or a domicile certificate from the local police. You also need to show proof of income through pay stubs, monotributo receipts, or an income certificate from a public accountant. If you have Argentine children, you must include photocopies of their birth certificates and a certificate from the Immigration Directorate.

You need to have basic Spanish skills to understand court proceedings and take the citizenship oath. Two specific forms, provided during the process, must also be completed.

The entire process usually takes one to 1.5 years. Applicants must appear in person at three key stages: submitting the application, processing the criminal record, and taking the citizenship oath. A legal advisor must be appointed to manage the application. After completing the process, you can apply for your DNI and Argentine passport.

Brazil

If you and your Brazilian partner marry, you can start the process for Brazilian citizenship within a year. You can marry in Brazil, but it may be easier to marry outside the country due to Brazil’s complicated bureaucracy. If you marry abroad, you will likely need to pay a fee to the Brazilian consulate to process your documents. After submitting the required paperwork, you will get a Certificate of Marriage Registration. This certificate confirms your marriage is recognised under Brazilian law. You will need to bring the marriage documents to Brazil to continue the process and apply for a permanent residence visa.

Marriage to a Brazilian does not automatically give you citizenship. You must follow additional steps. Usually, you need to apply for permanent residence at a Federal Police station in Brazil, which may require travelling there. If you do not speak Portuguese, getting help from a lawyer or a fixer is recommended. Due to Brazil’s bureaucracy, professional help is often important.

After being married for one year and holding permanent residence, you can apply for citizenship by marriage. The naturalisation process may take 12 to 15 months. A good lawyer can help reduce delays. Lawyers in Brazil often work with a fixer, or “despachante,” to handle the paperwork. While many expats find fixers helpful, be careful, as some may not act in your best interest.

Italy

Italian citizenship through marriage or civil union is governed by Law n. 91 of 1992. A non-Italian spouse can apply after two years of marriage or civil union if living in Italy, or three years if living abroad. This period is shorter if the couple has children under 18 or adopts children. Same-sex civil unions, recognised in Italy since 2016, are treated the same as marriages.

The application fee is €250, paid by wire transfer. Since December 4, 2018, applicants must show B1-level Italian language proficiency from an approved institution.

To start, the Italian spouse must be registered with AIRE (if abroad) and have their marriage/civil union recorded at the consulate and the local comune. The citizenship application is submitted at the consulate (if abroad) or Prefettura (if in Italy).

The process has two steps: filling out an online form and making an appointment to submit documents and sign the application. Applicants need a marriage certificate transcript, criminal background checks from all countries lived in since age 14, a certified copy of their foreign birth certificate, and B1-level Italian certification from an approved institution.

France

Foreigners can apply for French citizenship by declaration or by decree, depending on their situation. Citizenship by birth, marriage, or ascendancy is through declaration. Citizenship by naturalisation is through decree.

Foreigners married to French citizens can apply for citizenship by declaration if they meet certain conditions. If living in France, the marriage must last at least four years, with three years of residency in France together. If living abroad, the French spouse must be registered in consular records. The application can be made after four years of marriage. If neither condition is met, the requirement is five years. The marriage must be registered in the French civil registry.

Applicants must have a valid residence permit (unless from the EEA or Switzerland), no expulsion order, and a community of life with the French spouse. They must also have B1-level French language skills and no criminal record. Irregular residency periods do not count toward the required residency.

To apply, submit a completed Cerfa form, photos, a tax stamp, proof of identity and residence, a marriage certificate, and other documents. These include proof of the French spouse’s nationality and evidence of language proficiency. All documents must be in French or with certified translations.

Headline

Wildfire Engulfs Mountain Near Western Canada City

Published

11 hours ago

August 13, 2025

Editor

Nearly 20,000 residents of a community in western Canada were on standby on Wednesday as a wildfire engulfed a mountain overlooking the city of Port Alberni, the latest area threatened in the country’s second-worst fire season on record.

“I’ve lived in Port Alberni since 1956, and this is one of the biggest fires we’ve ever seen,” Russ Wetas, 69, told AFP as smoke from Mount Underwood filled the sky behind him.

The wildfire service in the west coast province of British Columbia has listed the Mount Underwood fire as “out of control,” meaning it is expected to spread further.

But it remained unclear if Port Alberni, roughly 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) north, will be evacuated.

On the opposite end of the vast country, in the easternmost province of Newfoundland and Labrador, parts of the capital, St. John’s, received evacuation orders on Tuesday, following several days of intensifying fire.

A wildfire was also burning on Wednesday on the outskirts of Halifax, a major city in the eastern province of Nova Scotia, with a population of nearly half a million.

This is already Canada’s second-worst wildfire season in terms of landmass burned, based on figures dating back to 1983.

So far, 7.4 million hectares (18.3 million acres) have been scorched, an area nearly as large as Panama, putting 2025 past the 7.1 million hectare mark from 1995.

But this year is not expected to pass 2023, when 17.3 million hectares burned, an extraordinary toll that focused global attention on the growing threat of wildfires boosted by human-induced climate change.

Smoke from this year’s wildfires has put tens of millions of people under air quality alerts in both Canada and the United States. The haze has even crossed the Atlantic, affecting people in western Europe.

More than 700 wildfires were burning across Canada on Wednesday, including 161 considered out of control, with nearly every province and territory impacted.

Mount Underwood is on Vancouver Island, making the blaze there part of a worrying trend of increased wildfire activity near the coast.

Experts have said that historically, coastal areas did not burn, but more serious wildfires near the ocean are being recorded, even if they remain less intense than blazes further inland.

“This is a fire that hasn’t been seen on Vancouver Island,” John Jack, a First Nations chief and regional official, told the public broadcaster CBC.

Ted Hagard, who works at Port Alberni’s paper mill, told AFP he had been watching the fire’s progression on social media but needed to see it for himself.

It’s “insane how huge it is,” the 46-year-old said, standing on the shores of a lake adjacent to Mount Underwood.

Canada is experiencing a rise in conditions that are conducive to fires, experts say, linking the trend to climate change, which has caused elevated temperatures, reduced snow, shorter and milder winters, and earlier summer weather.

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Zelensky Rules Out Swapping Territory, Calls For ‘Fair Peace’

Published

17 hours ago

August 13, 2025

Editor

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday that Ukraine and its allies must work together to pressure Russia into ending its invasion, ahead of talks in Berlin with European leaders and US President Donald Trump.

“Pressure must be exerted on Russia for the sake of a fair peace. We must learn from the experience of Ukraine and our partners to prevent deception on the part of Russia,” Zelensky wrote on social media.

“There are currently no signs that the Russians are preparing to end the war,” he added.

Zelensky is due in Berlin on Wednesday for talks with European leaders and Trump ahead of the US president’s summit with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

The Ukrainian leader said he and his team had held more than 30 conversations with world leaders and high-ranking officials ahead of the talks.

The flurry of diplomatic engagements have been overshadowed by rapid, but so far limited Russian push in the eastern Donetsk region, which the Kremlin claims is part of Russia.

A member of the Ukrainian delegation travelling with Zelensky to Berlin told AFP that the Russian gains around the mining hub of Dobropillia “did not influence” preparation for Wednesday’s talks.

Zelensky conceded one day earlier that Russian forces had advanced by up to 10 kilometres (six miles), but ruled out swapping territory with Moscow as part of any deal with Russia.

AFP

Headline

S’Africa Offers US New Trade Deal To Avoid 30% Tariff

Published

2 days ago

August 12, 2025

Editor

South Africa will offer a “generous” new trade deal to the United States to avoid 30 percent tariffs, ministers said Tuesday.

Washington on Friday slapped the huge tariff on some South African exports, the highest in sub-Saharan Africa, despite efforts by Pretoria to negotiate a better arrangement to avoid massive job losses.

The ministers did not release details of the new offer but said previously discussed measures to increase imports of US poultry, blueberries, and pork had been finalised.

“When the document is eventually made public, I think you would see it as a very broad, generous and ambitious offer to the United States on trade,” Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen said at a press briefing.

Officials have said the 30 per cent tariff could cost the economy around 30,000 jobs.

“Our goal is to demonstrate that South African exports do not pose a threat to US industries and that our trade relationship is, in fact, complementary,” Trade Minister Parks Tau said.

The United States is South Africa’s third-largest trading partner after the European Union and China.

However, South African exports account for only 0.25 per cent of total US imports and are “therefore not a threat to US production”, Tau said.

Steenhuisen said US diplomats raised issues related to South African domestic policies, which was a “surprise given the fact we thought we were in a trade negotiation”.

The two nations are at odds over a range of policies.

US President Donald Trump has criticised land and employment laws meant to redress racial inequalities that linger 30 years after the end of apartheid.

“Things like expropriation without compensation, things like some of the race laws in the country, are issues that they regard as barriers now to doing trade with South Africa,” he told AFP on the sidelines of the briefing.

“I think we’re seeing some form of a new era now where trade and tariffs are being used to deal with other issues, outside of what would generally be trade concerns,” Steenhuisen said.