Citizenship in 4 years for Indian citizens via stateless path?

Residencies & citizenships Portugal Golden Visa
1

Since India doesn’t allow dual citizenship, Indians who acquire Portuguese citizenship would automatically lose Indian citizenship and then usually acquire OCI which allows living/working (but not voting) in India instead.

Since the new law allows stateless persons to naturalize in Portugal at 4 years, does this open a strategy for Indian citizens to preemptively renounce Indian citizenship (and switch to OCI), then apply for naturalization at 4 years instead of 10, and thus take a shorter path to the same outcome (Portuguese citizenship + OCI)?

2

I Don’t know about India but a lot of countries wont allow you to renounce your citizenship without first having another nationality (it’s mostly connected to UN and international law for preventing statelessness).

even if they allowed it, it would be extremely inconvenient, you will basically be stuck with effectively no passport (no nationality no passport) to travel to Portugal even.

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3

Maybe if you have PR, and then renounce while inside Portugal, it might not be too difficult to live with a 5 year PR card until your citizenship is processed.

4

Maybe, but again the most important point is that the Indian government will most likely not allow you to renounce without another nationality.

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Please reconsider. To be stateless is a dangerous position, with no right to cross borders and no one to speak for you at the international level. You would sacrifice some of the most basic security on the chance that, years down the road, you might get a different nationality.

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6

It’s technically allowed: https://indiancitizenshiponline.nic.in/Renounce/Documents/Notice/ic_faq_05072024.pdf

  1. I am Indian Citizen but I have not acquired/am not planning to acquire any
    foreign citizenship, can I renounce Indian Citizenship.
    Ans: Yes, but you will become stateless which is not desirable.
7

oh ok i didn’t know you can do that, but still i highly advise against it.

(also Portugal needs to validate your statelessness, I don’t think they would be so keen on someone basically becoming stateless for a loophole)