Changes to the Portuguese Nationality Act Published in the Official Journal (Diário da República)

Law No. 1/2024, constituting the tenth amendment to the Portuguese Nationality Law (Law No. 37/81, dated October 3), has been officially published in the Official Gazette on March 5, 2024. The changes include lighter residency requirements for nationality applications submitted by foreign residents and a new alteration to the requirements for granting nationality to descendants of Portuguese Sephardic Jews.

Main changes

The principal features of the legislation are:

1. Residents in Portugal for more than 5 years

▪ The time elapsed since the submission of the temporary residence permit application at AIMA (formerly SEF) will also be taken into account when counting the time of residence, provided that the residence permit is granted. This means that foreign citizens suffering significant delays in the processing and issuing of their residence permits will not be harmed, being this time counted towards the residency requirement for the citizenship application.

2. Descendants of Sephardic Jews

▪ Must demonstrate a tradition of belonging to a Sephardic community of Portuguese origin, which is subject to final approval by an evaluation committee appointed by the Ministry of Justice, comprising representatives of the relevant departments, researchers or lecturers at higher education institutions in Sephardic studies and representatives of Jewish communities with the status of religious legal person, based in Portugal.

▪ Must be legally resident in Portugal for a period of at least 3 years, consecutive or non-consecutive.

3. Affiliation

▪ The rule that makes the effects of nationality dependent on filiation established exclusively during childhood is repealed.

▪ For the purposes of granting nationality (by origin), filiation established at the age of majority is now taken into account, in cases where the establishment of filiation takes place following legal proceedings.

4. Collection of biometric data

▪ For the purposes of verifying the reliability of the data submitted in the nationality applications, biometric data may be collected (picture, fingerprints and height).

▪ If the application for nationality is successful, the data can be reused for the purposes of issuing the Citizen Card (ID Card).

Effectiveness

The amendments to the Portuguese Nationality Law will take full effect on April 1, 2024.

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This Informative Note is intended for general distribution to clients and the information contained herein is provided