they are not organically related, but when you see the approvals for each article, it was hard to not to see that 1 year gap. Now with the delays that gap has extended, we’ll see if we will see a wave of 6.1 approvals over the next few weeks - I am aware that there is Christmas and then the New Year Eve - but it seems things have slowly started to move on.
Just hit 34 months here 
. Children applied before 16 and have now aged out. At least another year to go before a decision there. We have appointments for our 5th GV renewals (spread around Portugal of course) in January. I’ve been in the system for 11 years and can say from experience that AIMA & IRN are equally capricious and unaccountable.
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O…M…G… 
Never saw real stories like this in the PT GV promos!
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Repeat after me: Portugal doesn’t want you, Portugal just wants your money.
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Reading this made me feel ill. 
Especially this part 
Five renewal cycles would cost us somewhere around €75,000. 
But on the bright side it has confirmed everything I have come to believe about this program. I am desperately sorry to hear about your struggles, but thank you for sharing them.
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30 is a very optimistic number. For safety margin, I would prepare myself sth double of that i.e. 60 months = 5 years. Anything less than 5 years is a bonus. Take it as a most difficult challenge in life that one might have to surpass. I will definitely go for GV PR or normal PR (if dependents with 2-3 years behind can continue renewing their GV) while waiting for citizenship outcome. Because, as we all know, every renewal is pain in the a$$. Hence, I am willing to throw another 8k Euros as some bones to the dogs so that I can live in peace for at least 5 years.
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I’m not sure we have the bandwidth to continue on this path. Our renewal fees are high - too high in fact for the type of life we have here. And it seems that nothing ever gets any easier, SEF, AIMA, AT, IRN, take your pick. I think a simpler thing for us is for my wife to get Irish citizenship!
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In retrospect I would definitely have gone the PR route, but one of the defining features of this process is thinking it can’t possibly get any worse, and I definitely didn’t plan for 3 years! When I submitted, lawyers were all trumpeting about the new online portal that IRN had opened just for them and how it was going to massively speed things up. Exactly the opposite has ended up happening.
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Quick crib-sheet:
All of the Art 1’s relate to citizenship by ORIGIN (Portuguese parents, born in Portugal etc). Largely irrelevant for this forum (except maybe for proposals to change requirements for children born in PT to legal residents).
Art 2: minor/incapacitated children of a parent who became Portuguese after they were born. For most on this forum our children will go in under this article after we naturalize.
Art 3: spouse/life partner of a Portuguese national.
Articles 2 & 3 are classified as citizenship by DECLARATION, meaning there is an entitlement (arising out of the fact of the parent/spouse’s nationality) that merely needs to be claimed. It should be quick, but inexplicably they are amongst the longest - around 4 years.
All of the Art 6’s relate to various forms of NATURALIZATION. After fulfilling the stated period of legal residence, you’d apply under 6.1.
This shorthand is everywhere, so worth knowing, but really the only ones to look out for are Art 6.1 and maybe Art 2.
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If she can she should.
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Article 2 & 3 are not straight forward entitlements, they are subject to the “connection to the Portuguese community” requirement that makes them trickier than they first appear. For marriage this can be overcome by being married 6 years, so you can just wait it out. For children the only official way to overcome this is having the child hold Portuguese legal residence 5 years and attend school in Portugal, which isn’t practical for most GV holders. Lawyers say that there are ways around this, but there was a post of FB where some agent said their clients had to move to Portugal for 2 years full time to overcome this issue Redirecting...
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I set out a very basic high level legal framework. Of course there are specific (bewilderingly mutable) requirements in relation to each Article, and also procedures, both of which - in Portugal - often conflict with the underlying principles. For example, the Art 2 process, which essentially allowed minors to automatically follow their parent’s acquisition of nationality by declaration (there used to be a simple form) has now come to be much more demanding. That said, the “requirements” you’ve set out are deeming provisions. A minor is automatically deemed to have a close connection if they’ve been legally resident OR (not and) completed 5 yrs of school in PT, so no other evidence needs to be shown, but there are certainly other ways to make the case.
I’m not a member of the hallowed Americans & Friends FB group, so can’t respond to the post you linked. I’m also at the stage where I consider all agents (and lawyers) to be ignorant grifters until proven otherwise. I’ll just say that, on the face of it, this makes no sense to me:
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Right but the issue is that it’s subjective, so if the government is trying to turn the screws on making citizenship grants as rare as possible, they can really screw your over, and you can’t even make a legal argument for grandfathering because the “easier” requirements they used to have were never formally defined in law.
Personally it makes no sense to me that living with a spouse 6 years proves connection but having a child live with you for their whole life doesn’t, but here we are.
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I’m 100% with you on this. It is unfathomable to me how badly AIMA & IRN treat children. In my opinion this is the area where the Portuguese government is most obviously in breach of European Human Rights Law. It is very clear that zero *** are given for the best interests of the child. Even children who live in Portugal for 5+ years must stay in limbo until their parent gets citizenship - currently 5+3 yrs - and then only apply, which is currently 4 yrs. If you moved to Portugal at 13 you’d be 25 before you became a citizen if you’re lucky. It makes no sense. It’s much more onerous than an adult - and the indignities suffered along the way could fill a book. Like I said, don’t get me started.
We’re talking about a country that won’t recognise a birth certificate that is over 12 months old.
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- Forum.cidadaniaportuguesa.com has individual case histories and they track the processing tables. PLUS there are few complaints and opinions and conspiracy theories and lawsuits on that site - just the facts and a spot of haja pacienza.
- Citizcheck for the numbers and cases not on 1) above. I check the two against each other and everything on 1) shows on Citizcheck so CC is somehow getting real data. Transfers on CC shows rebalancing of workload.
- For those who are interested of the 150K cases in front of IRN about 85K are babies born in and to Portuguese. Most of the rest are claiming descent. Then a large group of Sephardic Jews. Actual 6.1 is tiny and GV an even tinier portion of that. So the thought that there is deliberate discrimination is silly.
- I have deduced that they are moving in chronological order because a huge number of people were moved to ‘para decisão’ in one go in 2024 but have moved to ‘concluido’ based on date of entry into the system.
- Some posting on the site have stated that they have told that all agencies (that prob means Aima) have responded but that they must hang on in line with no known end date. From other posters I understand rhat this is because an actual registar has to look at the papers to see that they meet the requirements. And the low number of those (including some offices who have none) is the gating factor.
Sincerely,
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Woah that’s an amazing stat.
Interesting artifact of the country processing ALL kinds of citizenship through IRN.
By comparison in the USA, birth registrations are processed by the state/county of birth, while naturalizations are processed by USCIS, and births to US citizens overseas are processed by the local consulate, all completely separate processes. Then it’s up to e.g. the Department of State to issue passports based on all those different kinds of evidence: birth certificates, naturalization certificates, consular records of birth abroad…
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And they are processed immediately. The reason for the unitary processing is the need for a national ID which does not exist in the US.
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