This brief introduces a structure for complex variable fractional delay (FD) finite-length impulse response (FIR) filters. The structure is derived from a real variable FD FIR filter and is constituted by a set of fixed real linear-phase FIR filters and two multiply-accumulate chains containing variable multipliers. In this way the implementation complexity and delay may be reduced in comparison with the cascade approach which hitherto has been used for the same purpose. A design example is included to demonstrate the benefits of the new structure. © 2007 IEEE.