Question about affiliates for work permit purposes

My Spurs team was recently linked with Alaves for the purpose of obtaining a work permit for non-EU players, it said it would take 4 years to gain Spanish nationality for anyone sent there. Which is all fine and good until I sent a player from Sudan there and found out it would take him 3650 days (10 years) to gain citizenship! but on the other hand, I sent a Mexican player to Alaves and it only took him 730 days to gain Spanish nationality (he had only ever played in Mexico).

How come?

Spain has special rules for foreigners. Most take 10 years, but anyone from S. America takes 730 days, IIRC. I suppose that also includes C. America.

So Spain is great for having a feeder club for your S. American talent, but isn't as generalized as Belgium or Poland.

Also beware that you can only play 1 foreigner in the B1-B4 leagues, or 2 in the BBVA, and 3 in the top flight in Spain, so your talent is likely going to sit on the bench for 10 years if you leave them there. Actually, its that you can only register 1-3 foreigners for the match squad of 25, so its even more limited than some countries.

I think it's actually Spanish speaking countries, rather than South American ones. Otherwise correct though. I have a Bulgarian feeder which is three years. I'm pretty sure that's about as good as it gets.

Oh, and African Players don't count as foreigners in Spain, but like your Sudanese loanee, will progress towards citizenship anyways.

I think it's actually Spanish speaking countries, rather than South American ones. Otherwise correct though. I have a Bulgarian feeder which is three years. I'm pretty sure that's about as good as it gets.

It still works for Brazilians, who speak Portuguese