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UFC champion Topuria promised Spanish citizenship by PM

Spain's newest sports star and UFC featherweight champion Ilia Topuria had just one achievement missing from his growing resumé: Spanish citizenship. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez vowed to make "his dream" come true.

Published: 27 February 2024 11:55 CET
UFC champion Topuria promised Spanish citizenship by PM
UFC Featherweight champion Ilia Topuria shows off his title at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium. Photo: JAVIER SORIANO/AFP.

Spain has yet another sports star to celebrate, but technically speaking he’s not even Spanish… yet.

Mixed martial artist Ilia Topuria won the featherweight title at Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 289 in Anaheim, California, on February 17th, taking the belt from Australian Alexander Volkanovski.

But when the fighter made his triumphant return to Madrid after the bout, the new championship belt proudly slung over his shoulder, he was forced to go through immigration like any other foreigner arriving in Spain.

“When I landed, I thought why did I have to go through immigration, where the foreigners go and not where the Spaniards go?” Topuria later said.

Topuria’s ring walks are known for bearing two flags: one Georgian, where his parents are from, and one Spanish, the country where he has lived since he was 15 years old.

But the fighter, who defines himself as a Spanish-Georgian, is not Spanish legally speaking.

Not until now, anyway. Upon his return to Spain, Topuria revealed that his next aim isn’t more success in the octagon but to get Spanish citizenship. “My dream? To have a Spanish ID card,” he said while appearing on the Spanish TV chat show El Hormiguero on Monday.

Topuria was welcomed at La Moncloa by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Tuesday, after admitting he’d considered going straight to the top with his request: “Tomorrow I’m going to ask the President in person, to see if he can help me…” he said.

Topuria has also previously said that Sánchez was yet to congratulate him after becoming champion. “I have not been congratulated by the leader of our country. It hurt me, but I don’t hold grudges,” he argued.

However, Sánchez tweeted on Tuesday via X that “your love for Spain will be reflected on your Spanish ID”, confirming that Topuria’s request hasn’t fallen on deaf ears.

Of course, Topuria (27) could have already acquired Spanish nationality as he has been living in Spain since he was 15 years old, and therefore meets the legal requirements to obtain it, but to become Spanish he would have to renounce his Georgian nationality.

Georgia is not a Schengen area country, the reason why the UFC champion had to go through extra non-EU immigration checks upon his triumphant return to Barajas airport.

Ilia Topuria holds a Spanish-Georgian flag after knocking out Alexander Volkanovski of Australia in their featherweight UFC title fight on February 17th, 2024 in Anaheim, California. Photo: Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images/AFP

Ilia Topuria was born in January 1997, not in Spain or Georgia but in Halle, Germany. When he was six years old, the Topuria family returned to Georgia and he lived there until he was 15 years old. It was then that he came to Spain, to Alicante, and began focusing on mixed martial arts training.

The fighter has long been clear about his dual-identity and pride in being Spanish. “I feel very Spanish and I also feel very Georgian. It’s like having two sons. When they ask me, ‘Georgia or Spain? You can’t choose between two children, you love them both equally. My parents come from Georgia, my blood is Georgian, but I have grown up in Spain,” the featherweight fighter has previously said.

Given Spain’s past leniency in handing out Spanish citizenship to sports stars is anything to go by, Topuria is more than qualified.

Over the years there has been a trend in sports stars getting citizenship due to their sporting prowess alone, something known as ‘express citizenship’, including football stars Lionel Messi and US basketball player Lorenzo Brown, who, having never lived in Spain, was granted Spanish citizenship immediately just so he could play for the national team.

In Topuria’s case, his claim seems much fairer as he has lived in Spain for many years, speaks Spanish to a native level, and self-identifies as Spanish-Georgian.

Whether or not the Georgian authorities will be so flexible with their own citizenship rules when it comes to granting him dual nationality, however, remains to be seen.

READ ALSO: How foreigners can get fast-track citizenship in Spain

Most ‘express citizenship’ applications in Spain are done via a carta de naturaleza, as it’s called in Spanish, which allows foreign nationals who have done something “exceptional” for Spain to become Spanish citizens immediately, with the waiting times that all other applicants have to endure also non-existent.

Critics say this fast-track citizenship option is an elitist privilege and unobtainable unless you have friends in high places in the Spanish government, as it is awarded by Royal Decree by Spain’s Council of Ministers.

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SPANISH CITIZENSHIP

Numbers of foreigners acquiring Spanish nationality hits record levels

The number of foreigners acquiring Spanish nationality shot up by a third in 2023, with certain countries of origin and regions of Spain dominating the figures.

Published: 17 June 2024 11:50 CEST
Numbers of foreigners acquiring Spanish nationality hits record levels

New data released by Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE) has revealed that the number of foreigners acquiring Spanish nationality has increased by a third in the last year alone.

In 2023 the number of foreign born people naturalising and getting Spanish nationality increased by 32.3 percent, to 240,208 in total, the highest figure for a decade.

INE data shows that of the near quarter-million foreigners who acquired Spanish nationality in 2023, 54.8 percent were women and 45.2 percent were men.

READ ALSO: Spain’s population inches closer to 49 million with 900 new residents a day

By age, people between 30 and 39 years of age made up the largest group acquiring Spanish nationality, followed by the 40 to 49 age group.

In terms of origin, Moroccans were most likely to get Spanish nationality, with 54,027 cases, followed by Venezuelans (30,154) and Colombians (18,738). Other South American and Central American countries, such as Ecuador, Argentina and Bolivia, rounded out the top 10.

READ ALSO: When’s the deadline for Spanish citizenship through the Grandchildren’s Law?

Of the 240,208 people who acquired Spanish nationality in 2023, 21.2 percent of them had always lived in Spain. The remaining 78.8 percent had previously lived abroad and then moved to Spain. On average, it took them roughly five years to acquire Spanish nationality.

Catalonia was the region that had the most naturalisations in 2023, with 60,846, followed by Madrid, with 50,049, and the two regions between them accounted for almost half (46.2) percent of the total acquisitions. Third was Valencia, with 25,119, and Andalusia, with 24,059.

La Rioja (952) and Extremadura (1,309) were the regions with the lowest number of foreigners acquiring Spanish nationality in 2023.

In terms of how foreigners acquired Spanish nationality, INE states that “212,779 cases were by residence and 26,844 by option.”

To gain Spanish nationality, most foreigners need to reside legally and continuously in Spain for ten years, depending on where they come from.

INE defines nationality ‘by option’ as “a benefit that the legislation offers to foreigners who meet certain conditions in order to acquire Spanish nationality. Persons who are or have been subject to the parental authority of a Spaniard, or persons whose father or mother was Spanish and who were born in Spain, are entitled to acquire Spanish nationality in this way.”

Nationality by option was much more common among those under 20 years of age, representing 95.7 percent of the total.

The period of time foreigners must wait before applying for nationality may vary depending on family ties:

  • 10 years is the normal rule
  • 5 years if you are a refugee
  • 2 years if you are from a Latin American country, Andorra, Equatorial Guinea, Philippines or Portugal. In all of these cases, you will not need to give up your original nationality, and you will be granted dual citizenship.
  • 1 year for those married to a Spanish national or children/grandchildren of Spanish citizens born in Spain. 
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