MEXICO CITY -- Spain's embassy here has geared up to deal with the hundreds of Mexicans applying for Spanish citizenship under the so-called law of the grandchildren, which took effect Monday.

The new law, signed last Friday by Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, extends eligibility for citizenship to children and grandchildren of Spaniards forced into exile between the beginning of the 1936-1939 civil war and December 1955.

A diplomatic source told Efe that the embassy's consular office was busier than normal on Monday, while a line of around 150 people could be seen outside the mission.

The consular office "has boosted human and material resources to attend to those interested" in obtaining Spanish citizenship, the source said, while noting that the law gives people two years to apply.

Among the most famous of the Spanish political exiles in Mexico were the "children of Morelia," children of Loyalist families who were given refuge here after Gen. Francisco Franco's forces won the civil war in Spain, establishing a dictatorship that lasted until 1975.

The number of Spanish citizens - plus their children and grandchildren - residing in Mexico is estimated at between 52,000 and 60,000.