Andorran citizenship: residence, family and the 2026 reform

Residence permission does not buy citizenship

Andorra has no ordinary citizenship-by-investment programme in the nationality framework reviewed here. A residence investment can support a permission to live in Andorra; it does not replace the nationality law’s residence, integration and other conditions.

The 2026 reform matters. Summaries that promise a three-year marriage route or describe twenty years as invariably continuous omit the new rules.

Compare the principal acquisition routes

The ordinary and education routes

The ordinary route now permits an aggregate twenty years, but the final five must be principal, permanent and continuous. Gaps therefore cannot simply be ignored, and historic permission records should be matched to actual qualifying residence.

The education alternatives require the relevant Andorran schooling and residence history. A short private course or a university admission letter does not substitute for the statutory school pathway. The integration and conduct requirements are assessed alongside the route, not after an automatic entitlement has already arisen.

Marriage and same-sex spouses

The current spouse route requires five years of continuous qualifying residence, which may fall before or after the marriage. The couple must continue cohabiting through the decision and meet the other statutory conditions. A marriage certificate alone is insufficient.

Civil marriage is open to same-sex couples under the family law. The nationality assessment still requires a recognised marriage and the relevant spouse/residence evidence. Registered partnerships and marriages must not be silently treated as identical for a nationality route that specifically refers to marriage.

Children, descent and consent

The amended law contains several parentage paths, including cases involving an Andorran parent born in Andorra and specified further-generation or parental-residence situations. Build the chain from civil records and the parents’ nationality at the legally relevant dates; ancestry in the cultural sense is not the legal test.

For a minor child linked to a naturalising parent, birthplace, qualifying residence and the application circumstances matter. The reform requires the child’s consent from age twelve in the relevant acquisition process. A child does not automatically inherit an adult’s satisfied residence years.

Dual nationality is restricted

Successful naturalisation is conditional on satisfying the loss-of-previous-nationality requirement. The reform gives five years to establish the relevant loss, with a possible additional two years where renunciation has already been initiated and the statutory conditions apply. Special rules address minors and other situations.

An adult Andorran who voluntarily acquires another nationality can face loss through the legally required determination. Do not plan around hiding a passport or assume a foreign nationality can be retained because a foreign country itself allows dual citizenship. The laws of both countries must be reconciled.

The evidence file and the decision

Expect civil birth/marriage records, residence-period certificates, the relevant nationality/parentage chain, conduct records and schooling evidence where applicable. Foreign documents may need legalisation and translation; discrepancies in names and dates should be resolved before submission.

Eligibility years are legal minimums, not processing estimates. The sources do not establish a universal administrative completion time. Where the decision is conditional, complete the later nationality-loss evidence and registration steps rather than treating the initial decision as the end of the process.