More Than 132,000 Sephardi Jews Apply for Spanish Citizenship as Deadline Expires
2nd October 2019
More than 132,000 Jews have applied for Spanish citizenship since the government offered residence to relatives of those expelled during the Inquisition more than 500 years ago.
The deadline has now passed for Sephardi Jews – hailing from the Iberian peninsula – to claim rights to citizenship after the window for applications closed.
Most have applied from South America. But in Britain the rules have created an unexpected opportunity for some members of the Jewish community to avoid the impact of Brexit by gaining a European passport.