Just joining this thread as we all received our final approvals on Friday!
Apologies if this question is already dealt with somewhere in this thread (or elsewhere on the forum) but for those who recently received their residence cards this year, are the residence periods now for -
1 year + 2 years + 2years - meaning 2 renewals after Year 1 and Year 3
2 years + 3 years - meaning 1 renewal after Year 2
2 years + 2 years + 2 years - meaning 2 renewals after Year 2 and Year 4
or some other alternative?
I intend to apply for citizenship after 5 years of GV residence so I wonāt be looking to continue renewing the GV beyond 5 years, only as may be necessary to cover us for the period of citizenship application which I gather can take 1 to 2 years.
Any information anyone can provide would be great! Thank you!
I havenāt received our cards yet. I only just received final approvals and made payment last Friday.
Permanent residence is probably a sensible option from Y6 onwards, alongside the citizenship application, if only to make sure I donāt have to go through any further renewals nor dealings with SEF!
@elle1 my first card validy for 2 yrs and i am having same understanding as @tommigun and @anonymous69.
I will definitely have to renew at year 6 or apply for GV PR together with citizenship.
Perhaps worth noting that although the cards are now 2yr/2yr/2yr, the regulations (Art 65-C of Dec REg 84/2007) still talk about spending 7 days in the first year, 14 days in the subsequent two. I think lawyers differ about what that means in practice about the minimum stay requirements, but I think Iād make sure I did 7 days in year 1.
Strictly speaking, boots on ground are not required for a citizenship application. This is because as of last year, the IRN (Instituto dos Registos e do Noteriado) which reviews citizen applications - can be dealt with entirely online if you mandate your legal representative to make and follow the submission on your behalf. Only a lawyer licenced to practice in portugal can have [online access] and can interact with the IRN regarding any clarifications/requests. Eventually you need to available for the biometrics.
If you do it yourself you will need to be physically available to deal with queries at a [BalcĆ£o da Nacionalidade].
But presumably you need to maintain a valid residence permit all the way up to grant of citizenship? You canāt just have an ARI for 5 years, apply for citizenship and have no residence permit during the year or two it takes for citizenship approval?
I donāt see why not, it seems unusual to require you currently be a resident to apply for citizenship based on having previously been legally resident for 6 years or whatever
Itās an interesting and (to me) non-obvious question. The Nationality Law says
āO Governo concede a nacionalidade portuguesa, por naturalizaĆ§Ć£o, aos estrangeiros que satisfaƧam cumulativamente os seguintes requisitos:ā¦ Residirem legalmente no territĆ³rio portuguĆŖs hĆ” pelo menos cinco anos;ā
My Portuguese isnāt good enough to figure out whether āresidiremā means āhas resided, and still residesā or just āhas residedā.
Interestingly, the law was changed in 2018 to specify that the five years can be aggregated in non-continuous chunks over the past 15 years. So in theory if you were resident for a couple of years in the 2010s, and again for three more in the 2020s, that should be enough.
The Regulations then specify that you have to produce a
āDocumento emitido pelo ServiƧo de Estrangeiros e Fronteiras, comprovativo de que reside legalmente em territĆ³rio portuguĆŖs hĆ” pelo menos cinco anosā
And the whole section in the regulations on this point is titled āNaturalizaĆ§Ć£o de estrangeiros residentes em territĆ³rio portuguĆŖsā, which suggests to me that itās assumed youāre currently resident in Portugal. Iād be interested to see this clarified by a lawyer.
My optimistic reading is that the section is referring to how people are naturalized in Portugal as in how they do it, not people that are in Portugal
And then I wouldnāt expect that conjugation to imply you are still resident, but perhaps my Portuguese isnāt good enough either. Consider that an educated guess
@cj807 residirem is the future subjunctive or the personal infinitive - neither of which have an exact equivalent in English but the meaning is will have resided.
I read the text as @garrett does (requirement in the past tense, not present tense). The requirement of proof of 5 years residence is met by the SEF ācertidĆ£o do contagem de tempoā which gives an official calculation of the time the GV holder has āofficially residedā in the country.
The original question was does one need to continue to be officially resident (GV or PR) while applying for citizenship. Before the online procedure became the norm, the answer was invariably yes. Boots-on-ground was the practice in order to deal with IRN questions. Does that need GV or PR? Not sure it does, now. COVID and the recent online citizenship process seems to substitute for physical presence but requires a good immigration lawyer to follow up regularly.
Really interesting, thanks. Iāve seen a number of comments recently in various forums by people wondering whether, while pursuing citizenship, they should keep renewing their ARI, or maybe get PR while they wait. Yours and garrettās comments suggest that would be a waste of money. Iām years away from all this, so will see what the advice is at the time.
Im years away too .
But physical presence doesnt seem to be a requirement during the application process. I should say that PR doesnt cost much, but does require you to be in the country for 183days+
.