Since many of us are trying to apply for citizenship under the new citizenship’s law, the certificate “Contagem de Tempo” plays a vital role in pointing out the exact “starting date”.
There are so much rumours/noises/faked news/BS about this CdT. Therefore, I would like to open this thread to gather more information.
Please post here if you have already either received the CdT or requested it.
how long did it take since requested: weeks/months (in case you requested it but have not received it yet, please write down you’ve been waiting for how long).
Please do NOT comment on other things and ask why we need CdT; on what occasion we use CdT; how CdT helps; what benefits of CdT are; how to get the CdT…just please do NOT spam the thread.
Contagem do tempo from 25.02.2025
The start date is the date of issuance of the residence permit.
First request in December 2024 (almost 3 months from the day of request)
Requested by myself, costs 22 euros in AIMA Setubal.
Did you need an AIMA appoitment to request the CdT or did you just email them? I am finding conflicting information online. My lawyer is telling me he needs an appointment from AIMA to request it. Is this correct?
Ok, I am not in Portugal so it seems my lawyer wants to save time queuing and rather wait for an appointment. I wonder how long this will take…
Thanks for your reply.
Yesterday we took a day trip to Tomar, and decided to stop at the AIMA store in Alverca - hoping we might be able to obtain CdT’s at this location in a smaller town. The posted information for Alverca on AIMA’s website is shown below.
Alverca 2615-075 Alverca do Ribatejo
Weekdays: 08:30-15:30 Currently the store opens at 09:30 Application for Nationality Certificates: 09:30-10:30
Arrived about 9:40am, and was able to approach the reception desk right away. CdT’s were not available on a walk-in basis. We were offered an appointment in September, which we declined. By the way, we have not attempted to seek a CdT from any of the Lisboa locations yet.
All working hours of all AIMA’s branches are published on AIMA’s website. It shows very clearly what hours are used for CdT and how many CdT per day per branch are processed.
Thank you for that clarification! I was really just focusing on Alverca and the reference to the certificates. I now see that other locations specify the number of certificates they say they will handle on a walk-in basis. No such reference for Alverca, only “requests”.
My lawyer had requested the cdt on 28 January 2025 and it arrived at her office in Lisbon yesterday, nearly three months later. I think she made the application in person.
It states that my residence began two days after the payment of the analysis fee on 15 April 2019. It also mentions the issuance and expiry dates of my permit.
Unfortunately, my citizenship application was submitted just the day prior as the criminal check was about to expire soon.
Why is it “unfortunately”? Your first date starts from 15 April 2019. Until now, it is more than 6 years. Did you apply for citizenship before 15 April 2024 ?
Unfortunately is that the cdt couldn’t be submitted with the citizenship application as was intended by my lawyer and myself. This could possibly save a little time in that IRN wouldn’t spend the time on checking with AIMA whether I met the 5-year residence requirement.
Hi Chris, no we don’t. That’s way I mentioned it as a possibility. The hope is if IRN is genuinely interested in reducing the processing times, then they could accept the cdt and move on to the next step. In any case, seeing the cdt gives me confidence that at least the 5-year residence won’t be an issue during the application process.
In principal, you could add contagem de tempo to yr process later but there is a risk it could delay yr process . Also, if e.g. yr current residence permit expires earlier than 2 yr (average time before yr docs would be analysed) IRN will ask AIMA anyway. In that case it is better to issue new CdT after renewal and add to yr process.
Moreover, as IRN now emphasizes that all applications in every category should be analyzed strictly according to priority of the date of application, CdT could likely not speed up anything. It could save some processing time to IRN, but will not move yr application forward. New date priority is really followed since summer 2024, and some conservatories even sometimes say the period of applications they are analyzing at the moment. Also, there are intentions to do all processes according to the standard and minimize the effect of different procedures of different IRN or different persons. I think, it is very likely that IRN could not avoid request to AIMA regardless submitted CdT as it is not an obligatory document.
So do not bother, all indications are that it does not matter. It is good that you received it and could be sure that you have 5 yrs.
How can a CdT delay a process?
If it helps, it helps. If IRN officials do not need it, then they ignore it. I still cannot see how it possibly delays the process.
The worse case scenario is that CdT does not speed up or help anything i.e IRN officials ignore it 100% and they requests Aima a new CdT themselves. That’s all.
Nope. Not CdT, but adding it to the process in a short time after submitting the application may delay the process by resetting the clock. We were talking about the particular case when CdT was received after the application has been already submitted. Obviously, if it is included in the application from the beginning it may not do any harm.
While there is a request for additional docs on the stage of analysis it increases the process time by approximately 8 months now. Who knows how they process additional documents when you do it on yr own initiative.
From what you wrote, it means that it may harm if Cdt is added from the beginning?
How can it possibly harm the process if it is added from the beginning?
I still cannot find any logic in your sentence.
Do you know, that it is possible to add more documents to the process via special request AFTER you submitted the application? I was talking about that case, because @taufiq.choudhury was not able to include CdT from the beginning. I am saying that it is possible to request add this doc to the process LATER but there is the risk that it may delay it. How else I could write it?