President António José Seguro has ratified a new bill into law that, in some cases, will double the length of time foreigners must legally reside in Portugal before they can acquire citizenship. This legislative action follows an unprecedented increase in the country’s foreign population, according to multiple Portuguese news outlets.
The new rules significantly alter the requirements for nationality. Previously, a child born in Portugal automatically gained Portuguese nationality if a parent had been living in the country for at least one year, irrespective of their legal status. Now, children born in Portugal will only be considered Portuguese by origin if one parent has been legally resident there for a minimum of five years.
The standard legal residency period required to acquire Portuguese nationality has been extended across the board. Citizens from Portuguese-speaking nations and European Union member states will now face a seven-year wait, up from the previous five years. For all other foreign nationals, this residency requirement will rise to ten years.
[See more: Portugal plans to expel thousands of foreigners amid rising anti-migrant sentiment]
Furthermore, several specific paths to nationality are being abolished. These include the regimes for descendants of Portuguese Sephardic Jews, which were established in 2015, and those pertaining to people born in former Portuguese overseas territories that gained independence and subsequently remained in Portugal, along with their children who were born in Portugal.
The changes arrive in response to a substantial influx of immigrants since the pandemic, which has placed considerable strain on the nation’s housing, public services, and healthcare system. Data from Portugal’s Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum indicates that a record 1.5 million residents currently originate from abroad, which is approximately fifteen percent of the total population and nearly three times the figure recorded in 2019.
President Seguro, whose presidential mandate started in March, expressed his hope in a statement that those with pending applications would not be adversely affected by the new legislation. He stated that such an outcome “would constitute an undesirable breach of trust in the state, both domestically and internationally.”
