Portugal Nationality Law Update on March 5, 2024

  • 6 March, 24

Following the announcement on 5 Mar, the amendments to the Citizenship Law have been officially published. These amendments bring about significant changes to the citizenship application process. One crucial aspect of these changes is Article 15, which states: “For the purposes of counting legal residence periods provided for in the present law, the time elapsed since the moment in which the temporary residence permit was requested, provided that the same will be granted.”

There has been some ambiguity regarding what constitutes the “request” for a temporary residence permit, especially concerning the process of acquiring a golden visa for citizenship purposes. According to IAS, the partner of Mercan, they have given several possibilities exist, including:

i) The online submission date

ii) The date of payment of the online application

iii) The date of biometrics

iv) The date of biometrics with no notice of further documents missing

v) Other moments

Given the legislator’s intention to address the backlog affecting immigration proceedings, lawyer anticipates that the date of online submission or payment will likely be considered as the “request” for residency calculations.

While the law is already in effect, the regulation will be implemented within the next 90 days. Once this regulation is finalized, Mercan Asia will update the news about the answer to the question of what moment constitutes the request for a golden visa in the context of acquiring citizenship. For Mercan Asia side, we are the Global Support Center for International Investors. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us via email at hello@mercan.com. Follow up with Mercan Asia to update the new information.

Cre: IAS

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