Looking at the number of 2023 cases being dredged up in Citizcheck and the numbers of approvals per month the cases are likely tom peak at a 36 month delay around December of this year and stay there for one year before rising again because of the number of 2025 submissions.
citiz now shows more 2024 entering phase 2 than 2023 suggesting most 23 have made it into the system.
I received this notification from IRN ACP Porto. Is there any good sign?
In response to your letter received in these services on 15/06/2026 in which you request information about the status of the process and submit your power of attorney, which the signatory became aware of on 07/07/2026, I inform you that:
1. The nationality application, submitted under Article 6(1) of the Nationality Law, was submitted on the online nationality application submission platform and entered the nationality process handling platform on 05/12/2023. It was then redistributed, due to internal organization issues of the IRN, IP registry services, for handling and decision-making by this Central Archive in Porto.
2. This service receives, for handling and decision-making, thousands of nationality processes requested under Article 6(1) of the Nationality Law that are submitted either with the Central Registry Office, Lisbon, or in other registry offices—beyond applications lodged at the counter, by mail, and via on line.
3. In compliance with the principles of legality, equality, and impartiality (Articles 3, 6 and 9 of the Administrative Procedure Code), nationality processes are analyzed and decided in order of entry (day, month, year), regardless of the applicants’ or their attorneys’ qualifications, and regardless of how the application was submitted (counter, mail, and on line submission), except in duly proven urgency cases.
4. In the process, the requested information has already been obtained through computer queries to the following entities: DGAJ (responsible for issuing the Portuguese criminal record certificate), AIMA (responsible for information about the period of legal residence), the Judiciary Police, and the Border Coordination Unit for Foreigners and Immigrants (entities responsible for information regarding the absence of danger or threat to national security or defence).
5. In the aforementioned process, all responses from the aforementioned entities have already been obtained.
6. By compliance with the aforementioned principles of legality, equality, and impartiality, the process is required to wait its turn to be analyzed and decided.
7. Regarding applications for the grant of Portuguese nationality by naturalization, as is the case, these services are analyzing/deciding applications submitted in October 2023 that contain all responses from external entities, as well as processes submitted earlier, to the extent that the missing entities’ responses are received.
With best regards,
The Registrar
Vera Lucia Barreira Xavier
Hello. Congratulations. What exactly did you write to them to obtain such a well-phrased response?
It is the first time when I someone actually writing a comprehensive explanation of what’s happening.
Yet, the million dollar question is what will it take for them to move to November. They’ve been finalizing cases of October since last December.. This is now becoming absurd; the backlog is already 33-34 months and a single month should not be taking 8 months to be processed.
My Lawyer send them an letter for update my process
Recently someone visited to ACP Porto talked with an IRN Officer and officer said that there are still some files left from October. They are trying to finish them quickly and November & December files will start soon.
Very interesting insight, thanks for sharing.
I am just curious as to why someone should wait 33+ months when the legal timeline is 90-120 days per the law. So once ~120 days have passed, can the applicant simply request IRN to issue the new birth certificate?
I received a very similar response last year from ACP for 6.1 and also a reasoned response from CRC for Art 2. @Boris71351 you or your lawyer has to invoke the right to reasons for the delay. The response is detailed and formal because this response can now, technically, be taken on appeal. If the writer had invoked urgency they would further have received a relatively pro forma response explaining the grounds available.
To answer your question @a920083611 about what it means from my experience. My process ran from Feb 2023 to Feb 2026 (36 months). I received a similar letter a bit after 2 years, except mine said that responses from external entities were outstanding and had been for ~6 months. This took a further ~6 months to resolve. So you know you don’t have to stress about that, which is a good sign. My file went for analysis around September 2025. And it took 5 months from that point for a final decision. By that stage I had a good relationship with the conservador but they were adamant - even with an AIMA renewal appointment looming - that decisions had to be made in the order they came up on their system (because, you know, legality, equality and impartiality).
The good news is that now you just have to wait. The bad news is that unless you’re dying or about to become stateless the wait can still be a while for the final decision.
according to this article 1) staff has been beefed up an 2) 3K+ people under 6.1 are for the boot.
I think the phrase translates to summary dismissal or first ruling - so may be those who applied out of turn/did not meet requirements and therefore no need to analyse. But what do I know.
The ridiculous part being this apparently doesn’t apply across conservatories. So Gaia can process two years faster than Porto!
Only if the applications don’t get lost mid‑Douro… otherwise they’ll be, aging gracefully
and also, this wasn’t an issue before the discussions around nationality law started. Prior to nationality law discussions, with every new month, Porto would move to the next month in que (at least the applications without any falta or issues could get their approvals)
This principle has been always in place, the big question is whether it is now being used an excuse to control & slow down the naturalization process. My feeling is, some IRNs seem to be dragging their feet to slow down the approvals and I won’t be surprised if the current political climate has an impact on this behaviour.
What I’m surprised is how the deadlines stated in the law can so easily be overlooked.. I think this shouldn’t be happening in a country rule of law. Ok perhaps 90-120 days is too ambitious, but in my opinion 12 months is a realistic time frame.
3 years of processing makes me feel as if they are trying to make us wait extra - for what couldn’t be done with the law.
Time is an amorphous thing in Portugal.
It isn’t a country of rule of law. It’s a country of rule of lunch.
Anyone get approved November 2023 at ACP porto article 6.1?
Well I have seen 3-4 approvals in whatsapp groups, well two of them were from tiktok.. Citizcheck now show one 1105xx; it could be early Nov or 31st of Oct, but it seems as if this week we might hopefully hear more..
But it’s August, remember