The Promulgation of the Nationality Law and what it means for you

Added: 2026-05-13

[00:10:15]Hello everyone. Um, good afternoon from Portugal. Uh welcome to our second webinar about the new Portuguese nationality law. Uh for those who uh are not aware of prime legal, my name is Vanessa Lima. This is my partner Sad Bulu. Um and uh we are going to address today the most recent change changes in the Portuguese nationality law. uh as the president approved uh on Sunday the diploma that was uh previously um approved by the parliament. So any questions that you have uh following the webinar please feel free to send us an email please mention in the subject nomen gate so we are aware that you are coming from uh that platform. uh if you are already a client, don't hesitate to to reach out also uh to your team uh that that is managing your file in order to address any additional questions that you have or uh in order to confirm the following strategy after these changes.

[00:11:19]Okay.

[00:11:26]So uh today uh we are going to start uh with here uh summarizing what happened.

[00:11:34]So uh these reforms started approximately 9 months ago. In June last year and ultimately in April uh this year the law was approved and as mentioned before uh it was uh promulgated by the president on Sunday.

[00:11:51]Uh we received today the information that uh the publication will most likely happen tomorrow. Um and then the law will uh enter into force in the next day of its publication. In this new law um there are amendments uh changes uh in what concerns the residency period uh there was an extension so from um applicants from Portuguese speaking countries and from European Union uh there is an increase of in the number of years from 5 to 7 and all the other applicants from third country um the increase was from 5 to 10 and of course um the main change was also uh the way that we are going to count the time necessary to submit an application. Um it is no longer from the submission of the residency application. It will be now from the moment of the issuance of the first residency card. Unfortunately and despite all the lobby uh efforts um in order to promote uh protection of pending applicants uh no transitional period period was uh mentioned in in the law. Uh so uh these changes will apply to all uh applicants that of course they have either residency already uh issued but uh not yet reached 5 years or um also applicants that are still waiting for the residency to be approved.

[00:13:33]Um so in sumary who is protected and by protected we mean who is subject to the current law that we will call the old law only the ones that already file citizenship applications. Okay. Um why there is no transitional provisions. So uh new citizenship applications will be subject to the new regime to the new law and uh only the ongoing citizenship applications are subjects to the current and old law. Same for um residency applications. So as we are already know citizenship applications are different from residency applications. If you have a D7, a D8, a golden visa or any other immigration program, you are under a residency process not a citizenship process. And so you are not subject um to um the you are only subject to the new law, not to the current one because uh you don't have yet filed uh your citizenship application. So when you file it, it will be subject most probably to the new law. And we say most probably just because there are here a small window that is still under discussion and pressure as we will um explain further in this webinar. for clients and applicants that are organizing their documents for citizenship application as Vanessa mentioned most probably the law will be published tomorrow and will be come into force in the day after. So today is Wednesday >> Wednesday which means that most probably the law is uh public on Thursday which means that most probably will be in force on Friday this week. So if you have documents to file your citizenship application, you should file it either today better today or best case scenario tomorrow uh so that you can be protected under the current law.

[00:15:34]So in summary what we have we have a new law the new law will be in force probably within this week. It is applicable to all new citizenship applications which means that your residency process is not protected in principle. The residency period increases from 5 to seven years for Portuguese speaking countries and applicants and from nationals of European Union countries. For all the other applicants from third countries, then 10 years will be the new deadline to achieve citizenship in Portugal. the counting of the starting dates from this moment that the new law is in force will count from the first residency card which means that the waiting period since the application is no longer an option. Um there are also new requirements that are not yet uh fully defined. Uh requirements that regard to tests on cultural history, national nationalities, symbols, rights, duties, democratic rule of law, uh means of subsistence. So there are new stuff coming on and in terms of requirement in this new law that is not yet fully um accomplished in terms of definitions but will be soon and new applications will need to comply with those.

[00:16:56]The new law also includes uh something new regarding biometric data. So it foresees the collection of the biometric data so that it can be compared with other databases for purpose of security and protection. Um one uh very important aspects that sustains all the uh if that we are mentioning in our uh webinar is the regulation. All the laws or most of the laws they may have a regulation that is published afterwards in order to densify and to uh define how to make operational in terms of the um new law requirements.

[00:17:38]The citizenship law is one of these laws. So there is already a law. That law is being updated and there is already a regulation and that regulation needs to be updated. The definition or the deadline that was given in this law is 90 days to have this update to the regulation um regarding the new requirements of the law. Normally the government does not comply with that deadline but is something that we need needs to have in attention. Why? Because this regulation can densify very important concepts and it's now regarding the regulation that's the industry the legal industry the ind the immigration industry is continuing to forcing and to fight and to lobby so that can introduce here in the regulation some kind of protection. The probability is low but there are here some room for discussion.

[00:18:35]So it's important important also to mention that there there were additional changes besides uh the nationality through residency. We are not going to address those uh today as our audience uh is more focused on nationality through residency. Nevertheless, if uh you are interested in uh getting additional information or clarifying any any um uh requirement regarding other types of applications, just let us know by mail and we will be able to to clarify. Those changes um affected also uh cases of children born in in Portuguese territory, grandchildren of uh Portuguese national uh also nationality through marriage and civil union um and also minors born in Portugal. uh in uh what concerns um other types of applications like surfic Jewish descendants or children of foreign residents uh without a legal residency status. They revoked those those paths. Then in terms of connection to the Portuguese community, there are also uh additional requirements uh that um are listed here in in this slide.

[00:19:53]then we will uh of course um send you the recording of this uh this webinar and you can then analyze and feel free to to send us any additional questions.

[00:20:06]So uh as I was mentioning um in terms of the legislative process now the the next big step would be the implementing of the regulation. The regulation will here um be issued with the purposes uh purpose of clarification um of concepts.

[00:20:25]Uh and we uh are also expecting that uh there can be a more um clarification in what concerns the expression of pending administrative processes. So uh in what concerns the strategy to follow in terms of litigation for example um our advice is of course to wait for the regulation to be issued uh before you decide to move forward with any litigation strategy as the regulation although as mentioned in the slide cannot change uh the requirements or create new grounds uh uh for example for refusal but uh can clarify and densify here all the concepts uh in what concerns the grounds for legal challenge. If in fact the regulation is issued and we conclude that through the regulation there is no protection whatsoever to clients that were affected immediately uh regarding this uh these changes then the grounds for the legal challenge will be protection of legal expectations, legal certainty, proportionality, good faith and also of course the delays um that are coming from public entities.

[00:21:48]So in this um presentation we divided um the different situations because one thing that needs to be clear for everybody is each situation is a situation and the litigation strategy sometimes does not fit everybody. So for this purposes we have divided into the situations where we have applicants with a citizenship application submitted before the new law. So that's the ones that are submitting up to tomorrow, Friday, the latest.

[00:22:18]>> Yeah.

[00:22:19]>> And the applicants that have not filed a citizenship uh any kind of citizenship application. And why we are just focusing on citizenship applications because what was changed was the citizenship law. It was an amendment to the citizenship law for the number of um uh regimes that were amended as Vanessa mentioned children, parents, descendants, safarics, uh residency path. You can see that is um is not focusing just one kind of program is a truly um complete uh change of the regime. So we need to assess what is the difference and to distinguish between citizenship application and nationality application. So for those of you that already filed c citizenship applications, you are in a different position and you are in a different position.

[00:23:13]Why? Because you already have a pending administrative process in the most conservative perspective of the current law or the new law. And with that um pending application you have some means of reaction available for you. Okay. So in this chart that we have here we summarize the main ones and of course we start with immediate nationality application because of exactly these points that is if you don't have a citizenship application you cannot challenge anything because you don't have an act or some a decision to to challenge. So if you are in position to file your citizenship application today or tomorrow, you should do it. Um for sure with as many documents as you can um considering that the law is exhaustive in terms of what you need to apply for this uh path of citizenship.

[00:24:06]But let's focus if you have already filed your citizenship application. So if you already found your citizenship application um we all know that the timings are delayed. So it's taking more than two years and a half to have final decision on the process. But there are some options to try to get feedback from the civil office during the process uh the ongoing of the process. So for instance, after 6 to 9 months of your ongoing citizenship application, you can eventually uh file a preventive submission to the civil office to understand what will be uh their position in terms of um accepting your application in case for instance uh we are filing a early citizenship application. And for the ones that are not so familiar with this concept, the early citizenship application is the one that is filed by applicants that do not have yet the five years of residency. So it's um uh an application that is uh based on the arguments from the recent arguments from the constitutional court and based on article 15 number four of the current citizenship law. one of the articles that says that um the residency period should be counted from the submission provided that is approved by the end. So we are counting with that um understanding from the the constitutional court and that's what we call the early citizenship submissions.

[00:25:38]In that case then you file this kind of preventive submission um before the civil office so that you have their feedback and based on their feedback then you can jump into administrative complaint or a response to a prior hearing stage. All of this is that what we can call the administrative strategies under the administrative route because we are still discussing with the civil office and what we are discussing we are discussing the applica the the the subject of our application our citizenship application to the current law in case they don't understand that the current law should be applicable or that you are in position to use the five years law alternative alternatively or um not so alternatively but the next step the next step is the judicial route. Okay. And here uh we need to have a decision from the civil office and with that decision we can go uh to the court. At the court we have different options. We have the standard administrative action in order to force an act if we don't have yet a decision from the civil office.

[00:26:48]We can do a judicial challenge of the refusal. a refusal from the judicial office. We can uh file for the nudity of the the application the challen we can challenge the regulatory provisions or if we have very specific grounds that can justify urgency we can go for the injunction that is uh a different kind of um lawsuit in the perspective that uh runs in vacations has a urgency character. So besides the legal right to demand in court, we need to justify why we are going on urgent proceeding. So we can conclude that all of these options are only available if you have an ongoing citizenship application because without the ongoing uh citizenship application, we don't have anything to challenge because we don't have anyone saying that we cannot apply this or the other law.

[00:27:50]And now we have the second group, second group of applicants. So um uh SA mentioned that we have two different groups. So clients that already apply to the nationality and that applicants that don't have a nationality pending application and now of course will be subject uh to this uh new law. So in terms of strategy uh we have constructed here two options. Um, of course the the the the objective of both options uh is to um promote a rejection. So what we are uh triggering is a decision to be issued uh from uh public entity which will be the civil registry office and then we will be uh filing a motion to challenge. In that motion to challenge, we will then um mention all the grounds uh um that we uh mentioned before in our presentation um legal expectations, proportionality, retroactivity of the law. Uh so all those arguments will be then here uh used to promote this motion to challenge. uh very very important is the possibility to request the court the constitutional court to rule on that potential retroactivity of of the law or uh everything related with legal expectations. The difference between option one and two is that opt option one is basically we are still applying the five years um regarding the old law uh and then uh we are counting from uh the submission uh of the application.

[00:29:36]The second option is of course applying uh the new uh requirement in terms of residency period 10 years but um is still using the way uh to count uh as before uh namely the article 15.4 so from the date of submission and then the the structure of the the the strategy would be the same. So promote a rejection, challenge that rejection and request the constitutional court to rule. Uh there is also the possibility for us to to to use a multi-party um action. But then um as far as we could uh um uh study about this, the interest to um that they they need to be uh as similar as possible. So um in Portugal we don't have a class action.

[00:30:34]Uh we do the similar thing that we have is this multi-party uh legal action but then there are specificities of that action that we need to comply with. Um it is not that easy as people consider.

[00:30:49]>> Yeah. And just to to make it clear, we are not saying uh for purpose of clarity that is possible that already with the new law, we can file an application for the civil office just with the five years and to expect to be accepted. No, as Vanessa mentioned, the purpose is to trigger a rejection so that we can then take it to the court and discuss that expectations were breached. The new law is retroactive and to demands later the constitutional court to rule about that.

[00:31:22]And the topic here is or we do that under the topic that we understand that to my case the five years should be applicable because I had ongoing immigration process or in option two we are waiting for the 10 years but because during my period of residency application I had a law saying that the submission period counted I will count that period for purpose of achieving during the 10 years. So that's the difference. Again, this is not tested because to be honest, it's the first time we are having a law with this kind of retroactivity. Um especially regarding residency and citizenship which was never ruled before. Um there are a huge discussion about uh what is the correct interpretation regarding retro activity, the the interpretation of the uh pending period for these purposes. But that is also what brings um the necessity of taking this into the court if there are diff so many different interpretations is because this is a legal matter that needs to be decided and the options that we are presenting here are still a preliminary analysis considering what we have and again this is something that can totally change after the regulation comes out.

[00:32:44]So again, this is just to have a prior idea of what can be done, but the concrete reaction for each of you that are listening to this webinar can only be assessed after the regulation comes out and we see what is the impact of the regulation in the law and consequently in your concrete case. Yeah. And one thing that we forgot to mention is that this needs to be uh individual assessment. Okay. So uh if uh a litigation strategy is required then uh >> the concrete >> the concrete case need needs to be discussed uh because uh we need to of course understand uh if it is um a family that um already relocated or have further investments in Portugal the connection uh things that we can argue so it's always um a case by case evaluation and and of preparation of the case >> as the constitutional court already mentioned this is not this is the the the publication of this law was a political move. It was within the margin of the states to decide in which condition should we grant citizenship.

[00:33:59]But here is the specificity of the cases because when we are speaking about these kind of uh fundamental rights we need to balance them to see what are the ones that should in this very concrete situation be favorable in uh opposition to the others. So the preparatory diligence that you have done for your immigration process um each the sale of the real estate the relocation of the assets the situation of having minors all of that will be relevant and that's why in most of the cases individual petition when comparing with the multi-party litigation can be have a different outcome because the court what we'll do is to balance fundamental rights and see in the concrete situation if the law was breaching the rights that you had and needs to be protected or not.

[00:34:51]>> Exactly.

[00:34:56]>> Um after the national uh level of course we have uh the European roots okay and we have the state civil liability. So these are different uh options and when we say different is why one thing is to go for the legal uh path for purpose of forcing or discussing the application of the five years to your case. This is one thing. A different thing is you want to give up or you still want to continue with the program but you want to be compensated for the fact that 10 years are being applicable and in that case we can have options in terms of legal actions uh available namely the administrative action regarding civil liability of the state and public entities which a parenthesis is available not only regarding this specific and particular case that we are discussing of the change to 10 years but also for your situations of pending applications or waiting for appointments regarding IMA delays. So all of that can be discussed and um at some point enough is enough and uh we are patients we we understand our clients that were patients in the last years but at some point uh actions needs to to be to be taken. So that is available. Okay. For this concrete case, we also have available the liability action against the state for damages that comes from their political legitative function.

[00:36:26]Okay. A very specific kind of action but that we believe in this case can also be discussed at the European root references to the um action in the in court. Okay. European Union court where we can assess namely the fact that the European Convention regarding citizenship says that it should not uh the countries should not demand more than 10 years. And here for those of you that are already re effectively residing in Portugal for more uh time uh because the waiting period was counting, we can eventually have here grounds to discuss and to take this to the European Union court. Also, not only because of that, but also because of the rights that are in in question, family rights, family reunification, uh the relocation purposes. So everything that was affected with distillize that consequently also leads to the fact that you become subject to the 10 years root.

[00:37:30]So summarizing a little bit of the presentation. So um key takeaways um as uh as as we mentioned um the the strategy would be for uh clients to submit early applications if uh agreeing with the strategy that can be done either today and tomorrow. Uh but uh we advise if uh someone wants to to do this still to do it uh within today if possible. Of course to do it you need to have the documents ready which sometimes is difficult to to manage. Um so submitting a preemptive um feeling and uh of course that the amendments to the to the to the nationality law um were were broader than reported. So we had uh other types of amendments that were not um mentioned or explained today. So uh this is also important to to bear in mind. Um very very important is um to wait for the regulation. Um after the regulation is issued and if there is any um uh provision that can protect our clients, we will of course use them. uh otherwise then we would need to follow then the strategy that we mentioned before uh in what concerns the administrative route and of course the litigation uh and uh finally to mention that each case must be assessed individually.

[00:39:05]Okay. So um all the details of the case are important. So um although this presentation um uh the purposes of this this presentation is to give you uh a little bit of how we are um constructing uh here possible reactions. Um these then must be then analyzed carefully together with the client and all uh the details around the case. Main conclusion uh from today don't take any decision neither to uh pursue already legal action or either to give up on your uh immigration program without waiting for the regulation and without discussing with your legal advisor. Each case it's a case there are always alternatives. There are always information that is important for you to have in mind when taking that decision namely the fact of all the uh context details requirements advantages and not so advantages of the permanent residence regime. Okay. So that is something to have in mind which means that this webinar today is more informative is for purpose of you to have already a big picture of what is coming but is not yet definitive. the things can change with the regulations. So we should wait for it and of course here in prime legal we'll be available for any kind of clarifications and to guide you and to to assist you during this final stage of this legislative change. Just also a note that usually we mention this in the beginning of the webinar. Uh reach out to your um to your lawyer to your legal representative. uh they will also be uh the best uh to person or or advisor to to let you know what would be the best strategy. So again this was an informative webinar but then it's also good that you are in touch with your legal representative then to uh receive any legal advice. Um we have here some questions in in our Q&A. Um there are some questions related with requirements around permanent residency and the golden visa program investment.

[00:41:24]So we are not going to address those today. Nevertheless, you have here our email. You can uh reach out and we will reply. Okay? We will revert to your questions. So if you have specific questions related to topics that we are not addressing today, just let us know.

[00:41:43]Um, so perhaps we can start with the questions. Is there any chance to how a minor could obtain citizenship after a parent receives citizenship? What about if the child is born outside Portugal, but the parent is already a citizen when the child is born? So, it's uh it's of course possible uh for a minor to apply for the Portuguese nationality having one Portuguese parent. Um >> the requirements are changing.

[00:42:12]>> The the requirements are changing.

[00:42:15]So um we we we have different situations if the the minor is born outside if the minor is born in Portugal. So for further confirmation on the requirements uh please send us an email. The main idea for um all the paths with exception of the the res the 10 years residency is that the um connection requirements were reinforced and that is the main change that we can say that is more or less applicable to everybody with exception of the um path of 10 years of residency.

[00:42:51]Do we need to be registered for a language class to apply early for citizenship?

[00:43:00]Um, so basically one of the documents that you need to apply in a standard uh citizenship application by by period of residency is the proof of the A2 Portuguese. What is uh occurring in this moment because of the rush uh before the the new law comes into force is that if you don't have yet your certificate of A2 to at least file your application with a proof of enrollment which will be then discuss if it's acceptable by the civil office or not but there are grounds to discuss this again based on the interpretation that come out from the constitutional court.

[00:43:37]>> Exactly. So uh if we have not yet sent in the application the early nationality application can it be done in person or online with a lawyer tomorrow? Yes. Uh according to the information that we received uh the diploma was sent to publication >> for publication uh today right published tomorrow should be published tomorrow entering in Friday >> Friday. So you still have today and tomorrow. The filling can be done in person of course. Uh if it is the client directly going to the services and submitting the application. Um >> Portuguese address.

[00:44:16]>> Uh yes it can be with a foreign address but then um uh because the the submission in paper in person um follows different >> follows different different path. Um so but anyway it can be done in person by the client directly or by a lawyer which is uh submitted uh mandatorily through the portal online portal that exists for that purpose. Okay. So between today and tomorrow uh that option is still available.

[00:44:46]Um if I file application for permanent residency do I wait for 5 years from starting of my initial good visa. So the although we are not addressing here today permanent residency I just want to clarify this because I'm receiving a lot of emails regarding the way that we count 5 years for permanent residency uh for for the purposes of permanent residency. The five years were always counted from the issuance of the first card was never from the submission. The submission date is applicable to the nationality law since April 2024 >> because it was an amendment to the citizenship law and not an amendment to the immigration law and the PR is ruled by the immigration law and not by the citizenship law.

[00:45:38]>> Exactly. According to the new law, what additional requirements for citizenship are introduced in addition to AU A2 language tests? Are those additional tests only or also proof of ties to the community that are not strictly defined?

[00:45:54]In principle, it seems that will be a cultural test and declarations of adurance to the principles democratic principles of Portugal. Uh it's not yet defined. It's just uh listed or referred in the law. But the specific details and the the content of that of those requirements will be densified in the regulation that we are mentioning that is the key of the to close to close to make the closure of this uh legislative change.

[00:46:32]If you challenge the if you challenge the process after five years you are rejected and you file in court how long does this court process typically typically takes also does the 7 day in country requirement remain the same but now we have to do it for 10 years. Okay.

[00:46:51]So these are two questions. So the first ones is regarding um uh the courts and our judicial system. So of course that uh uh it can take time. Um I would say that depending on the legal action um we can estimate a timeline between two to four years depending of on the legal action that we are submitting uh and of course the case. Okay. But of course that we need to be prepared and transparent to um explain to to you all that our judicial system also uh uh is suffering from from delays.

[00:47:28]Nevertheless, um I would say that in order for us to protect um certain situations and of course to benefit from um positive decisions, uh this path uh uh is is um a good option for the future. if the regulation uh does not mention any sort of protection to to applicants.

[00:47:59]Yeah, it's the same question.

[00:48:14]It's more or less the same the same questions.

[00:48:23]Uh if I already submitted a citizenship application then is the best strategy no is the best approach to simply wait the outcome of that application or is there some reason why it's better to pursue administrative route proactively once the regulation are published.

[00:48:42]So uh here we need to to to differentiate two situations. If you are a client that is almost reaching 5 years then we can be proactive and pursue. If you are a client beneficiating from the early application but you are yet to complete a 5 years next year or within two years let's just sit and wait. Okay.

[00:49:07]So that will depend most most of all on on the timeline that you submitted this early application.

[00:49:30]What documents are required to process the early application? So, birth certificates, criminal records from country of nationality, birth and residency, uh proof of enrollment in the language course or already the certificates, passport, power of attorney, and that's it.

[00:49:47]>> And information like your profession, your email, your mobile phone and passport.

[00:49:55]Yeah.

[00:49:56]Uh so uh also uh we are receiving questions uh with the difference because we we we have two different expressions. We have early application and we have pre preventive application.

[00:50:16]>> So uh just to clarify because a lot of people is asking this. Uh the early application is basically submitting an application before the law changes >> and before you're having the 5 years.

[00:50:26]>> Exactly. Then preemptive applications will be after the law is published and uh the the new requirements are uh in force. Exactly. Then to submit an application based on the interpretation uh uh that we will use a rejection in order to force the court to rule on that specific case. Basically the preventive is not an application is a preventive petition to the civil office to have the civil office forced to reply to us if they are going to accept our application our early um citizenship application or not.

[00:51:03]>> Exactly. Uh I think that uh we are reaching more or less the one hour webinar. Um we must thank you for your patience uh during this periods uh last year's >> yes >> last year's period. H we understand that is difficult for you trust us is also difficult for us and for your legal team. Uh it's not of anyone's uh wish to have this happening neither the the delays that the services are doing. We are sure that we are doing everything we can to secure uh all the applications at the best way we can. Um from the perspective of prime legal, we will be here to assist the clients and to defend their interests and their expectations.

[00:51:48]We continue to say that this is totally unfair for the the purpose of the that you decide to to come to Portugal and to this to choose Portugal. uh uh giving a um a proof of faith when uh selecting from all the other options. So uh we are together with our litigation department structuring a very strong reaction uh because we do believe that uh it's important to to make a point here. Thank you so much. Uh and again if you have any follow-up questions just reach out to us by mail and we will make sure that you receive a feedback. Thank you so much. Thank you.