Latest from CRC Lisboa. At least as far as Art 2 (minor children of naturalized parents) are concerned, there’s zero movement. I was skeptical before @Mr.E but I think you’re right that there’s a deliberate standstill on the naturalisation Articles.
1 Like
How about citizenship applications that are through “declaration” - for example, for minors. Isn’t the basis of this type of citizenship that the applicant is in effect saying “I am Portuguese” - and it’s up to the state to object if they wish? Is the delayed process therefore the administrative procedure of being issued a birth certificate? If that is the case, could individuals in this position sue on the grounds the state is being too slow issuing their birth certificate (and the state has had more than sufficient time to object to their declaration had they wished to)?
I should have said naturalization-associated I guess. In any event, declaration is still “I wish to be Portuguese” - it’s just that there is a lot less room for them to object - and not “I am Portuguese”.
Can you sue? I honestly don’t know. We have compelling facts and tangible harm. The courts have not responded (it’s been 2 years) and the Conservador (after 4+ years) and Provedoria (whose mandate includes protecting the rights of the child) could, politely, care less. I will need to enter the fray again shortly so we’ll see what they say this time.
Hi Lala, I can only smile. 
I faced with skepticism across multiple platforms, there are still some people who try to portray everything being normal. Yet with each passing day, I see more people seeing the standstill, as it is becoming just too evident to not to see it..
In short;
What used to happen once a month, has not been happening since last December. and this is what I can’t treat as normal. During normal times, in most IRNs, with each passing month we would see approvals from the next month in que; some IRNs were ahead, some behind, but with each passing month or two, the IRN would start approving cases from the newer months. For Porto IRN, since December 2025 we are not seeing progress into newer months, my observation is most of the IRNs simply stopped where they are, and just approve pending cases from the past.
My main purpose is to create awareness and make people question this. By the way what I am doing is an observation and is a matter of statistics, and I’m posting about a clear pattern change. In my opinion people should be pushing their lawyers and ask a clarification but also question what they hear if it doesn’t explain what’s happening.
If things have stayed normal, since December 2025, there should have been a progress of 6-7 months and we should be seeing approvals from mid 2024. However we do not hear any renewals beyond October 2023 from Porto. People should be questioning this - and raising this question to lawyers and to the IRNs, now I’m not 100% sure if we’ll hear the true story behind, but at least it will make negligence harder and perhaps at one point one will need to make an explanation; but I would never try to normalize this.
For your note, in the meanwhile I’ve talked to my lawyers and one of my friends talked to theirs. The feedback from two big legal companies are more or less the same and is overtly generic in terms of repeating things like IRNs are understaffed, each applications take different time to be processed, staff process applications at different pace..
However as stated this doesn’t explain why there is 0 (Z E R O ) forward movement in the last 7 months vs past. Zero progress over months vs slowed down progress (due to staff shortage) are two very different things.. Btw even the official email coming out from Porto IRN is stuck at October since so many months, so one can confirm this from official sources.
I’m also sure that there are some people out there who know what’s really happening.
2 Likes
What if they were ask to stop everything for now and use the resources to find and fish out early applicants? What if they were ask to concentrate on different set of applicants instead of ARI-GV applicants?
Okay, so we’re aware the government hates immigrants and doesn’t want any new citizens. Now what?
1 Like
I’ve always seen this as the logical answer - that scarce resources are being reallocated, most obviously to deal with the enormous backlog of Portuguese children born to Portuguese parents abroad, who were taking more than a year to get registered. But Mr E is right that questions need to be asked about those choices. Article 2 has been stuck on October 2022 for 3 months. In Jan 2025 Lisbon was analysing April 2022! Keep in mind that these are minors and people living with disabilities who are dependants - not (ostensibly) fat cat GV holders. It’s the reason many of us got into this in the first place.
We do not see 6.1 approval of newer months; and 6.1 category include anyone who completed 5 years (it doesn’t have to be ARI).. ARI contribution to 6.1 is most likely less than few percents..
Hey there- anyone from Texas? (Travis county)? I am in PT and just applied under the wire for nationality and they requested certified copies of my two adult children’s name change documents apostilled of course in 26 days. I am frantically looking to do this asap and hoping for someone who has done this already and has some tips. I am mad at myself for not thinking that this would be an issue since nationality is IRN and not AIMA. grr.
Unless Donald Trump threatens Portugal to speed up the citizenship’s processing time, there is zero solution that I can think of so far….
Not from Travis county, but we needed statements of single and student status apostilled in Austin, and Jeff Haskill from https://austintexasapostille.com/ was amazing. There was a problem with the student status doc, and he hooked us up with a notary (who was also incredible) and they both worked so hard to help us out! Highly highly recommend him!
1 Like
As expected almost 2 weeks have passed since my last post and there is still no progress. Given the change in approval times some speculate whether there is a deliberate attempt to extend the lead time for approval to 3 years, some say they might be waiting for the back-end regulations to be circulated. As the law came in force on May 19th, the back end regulations should be circulated till Aug 20th, but in the past there were cases when the regulations were not released in that timeline.
One thing is certain, there is a radio silence on approving of citizenship applications of newer months, and even the renewals are delayed - and based on approvals coming out it doesn’t seem as if they are clearing the back-log.
Btw, I’ve completed 32 months since the date shown as the official submission and almost 34 months since the real submission - and I was told that my case has all the approvals including that of AIMA.
6 Likes
more likely till Sep 25th (as 90 business days)..
well it seems as if it is calendar days;
“O Governo procede às necessárias alterações ao Regulamento da Nacionalidade Portuguesa … no prazo de 90 dias a contar da publicação da presente lei.”
" In Portuguese legislation, when a law simply says “90 dias” without qualifying it as “dias úteis” (working days), it is interpreted as calendar days. If the legislature intends working days, it expressly says “dias úteis.”
Are you quoting some AI?
1 Like
Código do Procedimento Administrativo - CPA - Artigo 87.º
Contagem dos prazos
À contagem dos prazos são aplicáveis as seguintes regras:
a) O prazo começa a correr independentemente de quaisquer formalidades;
b) Não se inclui na contagem o dia em que ocorra o evento a partir do qual o prazo começa a correr;
c) O prazo fixado suspende-se nos sábados, domingos e feriados;
1 Like
Someone on this thread has already given a recommendation, but I’m curious as to how this worked out for you?
Are you referring to rapid documents and apostille in Texas?