It is known that Brazilian citizens set records when it comes to requests for Portuguese nationality, which, given the proximity to the sister country, is not surprising.
Many are entitled to Portuguese nationality because they are still descendants to some degree of Portuguese citizens, but a large number of requests stem from legal residence in Portugal.
It is worth remembering that, as can be read in the newspaper Público, “almost 800 thousand foreigners live in Portugal and 30% are Brazilians. (…) The SEF, Brazilians remain the main foreign community residing in the country, representing last year 30.7% of the total, and it was also the community from Brazil that grew the most in 2022 (17.1%) compared to 2021, totaling 239,744.”
And this is why the most recent amendment to the Nationality Law, particularly to its article 15, benefits Brazilian citizens especially, as they are the largest community residing in Portugal.
But what is this amendment?
The naturalization of foreign residents in Portugal is possible as long as the citizen has legally resided for five years in Portuguese territory.
Article 15 of the Nationality Law provides that “individuals who are in Portuguese territory, with their situation regularized before the Portuguese authorities, under any of the titles, visas or authorizations provided for in the regime of entry, stay, exit and removal of foreigners and in the regime of the right of asylum” are considered to legally reside in Portuguese territory.
It happens that, in many cases, citizens reside in Portugal for years until their “situation is regularized” and often not through any fault of their own.
In fact, if we think about the expressions of interest (that is, the request that the citizen makes to regularize his situation when he already resides in Portugal) and the obtaining of the residence card, after its approval, it takes 2 or 3 years. During this time, the citizen is in “limbo”, actually residing in Portugal, but because the situation was not regularized, the 5 years to acquire nationality easily turned into 7 or 8.
And why is it so important?
The amendment to the Law allows for the consideration of “the time elapsed since the moment when the temporary residence permit was requested, provided that it is subsequently approved.”
This change adjusts the rights of those who, only due to delays in services, do not have their situation regularized earlier; it is the change of the date from which the period of legal residence is counted.
Learn about the other changes made to the law in our news or contact our team of lawyers to learn more about this topic or request support in your Portuguese nationality application process.
