Foreign resident population that acquired Portuguese nationality: total and by reason of acquisition.
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Isn’t it amazing that we still don’t see IRN’s moving forward by approving nationality applications in the next month vs wherever they are right now; e.g. for Porto this is Nov 2023 submissions.. It has been now 6 months that there is this arbitrary pause. Within the last two years there was never something like this, and the pause synchronized perfectly with the nationality law discussions.
My thinking is once the law is published in the official gazette, and a phrase like “Aos procedimentos administrativos pendentes à data da entrada em vigor da presente lei aplica-se a Lei n.º 37/81, de 3 de outubro, na redação anterior à presente lei.” ; translated as “Pending administrative nationality procedures, at the moment the law enters into force, remain governed by the prior version of the nationality law.” we will finally see IRNs moving onto the newer batches.
Processing a month shouldn’t take 6 months at a time when the backlog has passed 30 months.. It is now obvious that IRNs have not moved onto newer months. Now that the parliament and president approved the law, and the IRNs actually confirmed this implementation, I can’t see what else is blocking the approval of already submitted cases from 2023.
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Am I reading that table correctly? Are they processing c.20,000 a year from the 500,000 pending???
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News from 1 year ago…
There are 700.000 pending applications for Portuguese citizenship.
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Right, although that doesn’t align with the experience of people getting their applications finalized in about 3 years. I’m not sure we can trust any of the published data.
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Is that 700k naturalizations or are they also counting things like babies born to Portuguese overseas?
Btw processing times used to be solidly 24 months - for the fastest cases without any falta or transfer - for Porto till the nationality law discussions started.. It was almost like a linear function, with every passing month they would start approving applications from the next month and then suddenly everything is put on hold.
I strongly think the initial driver was more around waiting to see if the final text of the nationality law could be used scrap pending cases. The initial law actually would have been worded accordingly, but as per the constitutional court review that had to be addressed, still it seems as if someone is still waiting for the final text to release the hold order.
My friend was telling me that this happened in Sweden as well, when there was a discussion about the nationality law (which eventually came into effect recently) they paused processing.
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So what’s holding them from publishing it, since it was already promulgated by the president several days ago?
My daughter applied in January 2026 and we received the access code this week.
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My application was submitted on April 1, 2024, the day after I reached my 5 years of GV residency. I expected to receive citizenship in around 2 years, or any day now. I was told today that it would likely be another 6-12 months. Just when I thought I was near the finish line of this 8-year process. . . Is there anyone on my timeline who has more encouraging news?
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The National Institute of Statistics (INE) of Portugal is the official body responsible for producing and disseminating national statistics, ensuring reliable data on social, economic and demographic realities.
Nice. It would be helpful to know what the denominator is for each category so that we can see where IRN are putting their energy. This tells us how many applications were finalized, but not in relation to how many were submitted. I, for example, would love to be able to make the case (which my gut is telling me) that Art 2 applications (ie children) are being systematically deprioritized in relation to others.
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So, roughly 45,000 cases run-rate per year, with around 500,000 still pending? Wow.
Right? The numbers aren’t numbering.
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Mr E:
Looking at this months Citiz data I see a more benign explanation. Porto seems to be exhuming ‘cold cases’ from 2023 and 2022 in order to catch up to the 29 month timeline they gave out, as well as to finish off with the paper applications. The data shows May to be the first month ever where exhumations about equal approvals. This suggests that there will be movement once the cold cases have been put into the system, whether that is soon or after the summer. Thereafter things may move faster given lawyers’ applications have been vetted by lawyers. Sadly the early application shenanigans may have tarnished the image of lawyers in IRN eyes - but I guess the fee stream could not be ignored.
I know that you are a Nov 2023 application and online was made compulsory in December 2023 so you are unfortunately on what looks like an arbitrary cusp.
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LISBON CENTRAL REGISTRY PROCESSING INFO FOR APRIL 2026
Refresher: Art 6(1) is naturalizations based on time & Art 2 is minor children of naturalized 
citizens.
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I can’t count how many times people have said this about AIMA or IRN.
“After covid … things may move faster”
“After the rush of Dec 2021 applicants who wanted to get in under the old law allowing real estate … things may move faster”
“After AIMA asks everyone to refresh their docs online … things may move faster”
They never do. There’s always another excuse.
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Note word ‘may’. Few were dumb enough to say ‘will’.
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AIMA - Activity and Goals Plan 2026
AIMA - Plano de Atividades 2026.pdf (1.2 MB)
https://aima.gov.pt/media/pages/documents/fe3ea047bb-1773849331/plano-de-atividades-2026.pdf
Set/2026 - Implementation deadline for a system for submitting, electronically, requests for certificates of service time for nationality and AR for Study purposes.
50% Rate of reduction of pending legal proceedings related to ARI Applications.
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