Dear Bonnie,
Congratulations on your submission.
I heard that solicitor-submitted 6.1 article applications have stopped landing in Porto Central Archives and have recently been directed by the system to the Central Registry office. Could you please share which office was assigned to your submissions?
Regards,
Boris
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@Boris71351 My attorney explained that she applied online and it will be distributed by IRN to one of the specific sites. It is also possible that all 3 of our applications each go to a different site.
Process is also explained earlier in this thread. Allocation to a Registry office happens many months after submission…
Bonnie, as soon as your lawyer shares this information with you, please do let us know.
Hello. Thanks for your thoughtful response and for offering you interpretation. May I just say, respectfully, that the assignment to a registry office (and disclosure thereof) happens almost immediately with solicitor-submitted applications. So does the attribution of the process number. What takes time is the tracking number, used to track the process. And that depends on the registry office. Porto Central Archives takes 6 months to give the tracking number. Central Registry – about 2 months.
Does this mean that someone whose application goes to central registry rather than Porto will be 4 months ahead in the overall nationality process, or does it only affect the assignment of the process number?
No. It just means they can:
- log into the site to see their application hasn’t moved at all.
- Submit additional documents (ie language certificate, etc.) that they haven’t submitted initially. This is only possible when the registry office transfers you into their sustem and assigns a tracking number.
Then they both move like snails. Which snail gets to the finish line quicker? We will only know in 3-4 years. Or more. Think about that when you see that sign at the local restaurant:
Aqui há caracóis.
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Our applications were submitted to Porto 6 months and 2 days ago but no tracking number yet. I’ll update on here when that changes.
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I found this table on one of the Portuguese nationality groups on Facebook, which shows the average processing time per IRN location currently. I can’t verify the data, but I thought it might be interesting to share nonetheless.
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Thanks for this info. Could you please share the link or the name of the FB page where you got this?
sure, here you go: Redirecting...
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Thank you.
To repeat from my posts earlier,
- Online submission by lawyer (mine was in Aug 2025) results in an application number of the type IRN-12345/2025 (number issued immediately after payment, I think) which goes through multiple states reaching Finalizado in 6-7 months
- Very shortly after it reaches Finalizado (in my case, March 2026), the lawyer gets notified about the allocation to the specific IRN (Porto or whatever), with a process number 67890/26 which is different from the previous one, and the access code for online tracking.
- The fact that the latter process number is suffixed with 26 and the previous one is suffixed with 2025 indicates that the process number is not assigned immediately at the time of lawyer submission, but takes several months. This is corroborated by the interview with Porto’s registrar posted by @PTbound earlier.
I have first hand knowledge of the above, for the periods mentioned, but of course the process may have changed recently.
Hello,
Thanks for taking the time to repeat your previous post. As you have mentioned, the process may have changed recently. I have also submitted 2 applications for my relatives through a lawyer. Both of them are more recent than yours, and perhaps hence the discrepancy.
Relative 1 - submited in September 2025. Allocated immediately to Porto Central Archives and assigned a sumbission number. Beginning of April got a tracking number and an official process number, ending with 26. However, the system (lawyer provided screenshot) shows 2025 submission date.
Relative 2 - Submited last week. Got assigned a submission number immediately and got assigned to the Central Registry. Lawyer says tracking number for this one should come faster – in 2-3 months.
The lawyer I am dealing with is very transparent. She sent me screenshots of the submissions – not just the receipts. I am just wondering if my Relative 2 is in a unique situation or are many files being sent now to Central Registry. Bonnie would be able to tell is more…
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So, you did not get the Finalizado email but your process has already been allocated, is that correct?
How does your lawyer know that the process was allocated and where, do they see it in the lawyers portal?
Correct. She sent me a screenshot.
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Similar here..
Lawyer submitted several months ago and immediately assigned to Porto central registry. The submission number assigned immediately, and process number not received. I am told that these are now taking 6-7 months from submission.
One thing I am not clear on. I did not recieve any confirmation directly from IRN. My lawyer apparently didn’t enter my email address as part of the submission so I receive no direct updates or confirmations. Is this something that it is possible to do during the online submission, because I highly value transparency and I consider this at best bad practice and at worst a breach of trust to intentionally limit direct communication from IRN.
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If you come across timeline of other IRN locatios, like Vila Nova de Gaia or Guimarães, please share.
Slide 15 of the IRN manual shows a field for applicant’s email:
