That’s an intense journey! really impressive that you stuck with it, especially when so many people told you not to push. It’s frustrating how unpredictable the system can be, but it’s great to hear that persistence paid off in the end. Congrats on making it through.
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Mine went in early March ‘24 numbered 35xxx and in Sept 24 to para decisão and there it has sat. Wife in July numbered 67xxx. She is also at PD. It looks like 2023 and 2024 were about 140K total applicants (of which 85K are native born in Portugal) and 2025 is only about 100K. 2022 killed everyone but also led to processing changes which help everyone. Outliers aside Oporto seems to have reached about 110K of 2023. I expect a jump to 125K to 130K by mid March because of 2 mos at a time batching.
OMG did that really happen? 
I live in a country where the police was hacked and all the criminal certificates were lost along with the ability to request new ones for a while.. 
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Even a president is at risk of being kidnapped and transported to a different country. Who cares about protecting the criminal records?
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Did you apply on basis of 5 years residency or as spouse of a citizen? If the former do you mind if I ask how you were able to renew your resident’s card after your spouse got citizenship in 2023?
I applied after 5 years of residency. We’ve renewed twice since my spouse became a citizen, always on the GV track, although this year it was converted to D2 (like other property GV’s). I was worried that technically we don’t meet the requirements (spouse is a citizen, properties sold etc), but apparently according to AIMA we do. FWIW, I also tried to get an Art 15 appointment (reunifying to an EU citizen), but never heard back from AIMA, so just went with the GV when it came up.
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Thanks, that’s really interesting. Completely contradicts what most lawyers say is required to renew - retaining the investment, and the primary investor remaining on the GV.
Could you please collaborate a little more on this?
Since the property is sold, how could you renew the GV?
Did AIMA ask any proof of having had the investment during the renewal process?
If one is married to an EU national one is automatically entitled to live in the EU country of their residence.
Congratulations! Throughout your citizenship application process, did you have a valid residence permit during that time?
National law applies to family reunification inside the country of residency of the EU citizen, EU law applies when the EU citizen is using EU law for family reunification elsewhere in the EU. In theory PT could tighten the regulations inside their own country
Although there is the Surinder Singh route. It was mostly used in the UK (where national family reunification rules were much stricter than EU rules) but I believe it’s based on an EU court ruling so in theory applies to all EU countries.
In principle, the Surinder Singh route applies to all EU citizens, not just UK citizens. For example, a French husband could bring his Mexican wife into France by exercising his treaty rights in Spain. It also applies to qualifying dependent family members as well as spouses.
Yes. The key point is that this route allows reunification in a third EU country (not PT) under free movement law rather than under national family reunification law. The reunified family is then free to return to PT under the same freedom of movement
Thank you and yes, I had the valid residency the whole time until the citizenship process was concluded.
Just want to share the experience of one person applying for citizenship at IRN Vila Nova de Gaia. Her resident card already expired 1 year 11 months ago but the process of citizenship still concluded and she has passport in hand now.
So anything can happen in Portugal !!!
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"The Central Archive of Porto receives between 500 and 600 emails a day with questions about the status of nationality applications . This statement comes from Isabel Almeida, director of the Central Archive of the Porto Registry Services. At an event on immigration promoted by the Bar Association (OA) , the professional explained that the workload is “far exceeding” what they can handle.
“If we responded to everyone, there certainly wouldn’t be enough workers to process the cases ,” Isabel stated. According to the director, even when they respond to requests for information, they soon receive new messages from the same person. “It often happens that we respond today and, a week, a month, or two months later, the person comes back to ask about the status of the case,” she said.
According to the conservator, the volume of cases was already high and, with the anticipated change in the law soon, it has increased even further. "Now, with this prospect of a change in the law, a huge number of requests are coming in every day ," she emphasized.
At the same time, he stated that all employees “do everything they can” to be as quick and professional as possible . "The public administration has a shortage of human resources, and that makes it impossible. Even if I didn’t sleep and was there 24 hours a day, always working, it wouldn’t be possible, " he exemplified.
One of the reasons that led the government to change the law is precisely to reduce the flow of applications, especially those based on length of residence. When approved again, it will be necessary to prove seven years of residency with a residence permit to be eligible for the application — a rule valid for citizens of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP). For others, the required time will be ten years"
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What a vicious circle! If they processed the applications faster and provided better status updates, there would be far fewer inquiries.
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this information gives me a relief as mine has already expired last year and the citizenship progress has not even moved to stage 2 (applied in November 2024,article 6.1, Porto)
Not sure if this would be a problem 