Also sharing this Q&A from our lawyer about sending in our citizenship application early, in case it is useful to anyone on this channel:
"Q: There is a lot of discussion currently in the expat community about what we can do in relation to the pending nationality laws. Some of our Portuguese-based friends say that we should try to apply early and get a process number in order to lock in our rights under the existing law. They say that we can begin our process after 4 years. They mentioned that we could do this under the âprincipio da economia procedimental.â
A: Unfortunately, there are many misconceptions circulating. Nationality applications, even without the recent law change, can only be submitted after five years of residency. While you can technically begin the process, it will be discarded as the legal requirements are not met.
The principle of economia processual does not apply in these situations, where there is a strict timeline requirement.
You cannot âlock in rights,â as, unfortunately, you do not currently have them.
Q: Is there any possibility of trying this? If there is even a small chance that we could protect our rights by filing an application for citizenship, we would be willing to attempt it and pay the fees for this. Our friends said that we should not worry about the paperwork being complete as we will need to update most of it when AIMA / IRN gets to it in 3+ years.
A: Although you might need to provide additional paperwork later in the citizenship process, if the requirements arenât met at submission, the application wonât be accepted. This is my legal and completely honest advice. If there were any alternatives or options available, I would gladly share them with you; unfortunately, there are none in this case."
No, itâs Caiado Guerrerio. If EDGE or others have a good counterargument to the information provided, have at it. At 4.5 years, Iâd love to lock in my citizenship request, should that be possible. However this is what weâve been advised.
I too have also been given legal opinion to consider applying for citizenship prior to 5yr mark. It seems like a very unwise step, and one incredibly unlikely to yield the desired result especially in a system that appears to be looking for reasons to make transition to citizenship as difficult as possible. I am likely going to hedge my bets, watch and wait in january, and hope to apply under âestablished rulesâ at 5 yr mark. interested in what others are hearing from legal system. Cost/implications of a âfailedâ application not trivial in my opinion.
Unfortunately these just look like empty answers, no reference or justification given besides saying âtrust my honest legal adviceâ. I bet they have not even read the TC ruling..
I have emailed my lawyer to ask her opinion on submitting an early citizenship application and whether there could be any risk/harm in doing so. Not expecting a reply now til the new year but will share her views on the matter when I have them. Sheâs never tried to over sell us on anything GV related so I would be inclined to go ahead if thatâs her suggestion.
It actually doesnât say anything about being banned, rejected, barred for committing fraud or what have you if application is not all perfect. It just says the following:
ââŚ
After submitting the application, it is received by a Registry service, which will validate the data entered and the documentation submitted.
*If any discrepancies are found, the request will be returned to you via the platform for correction or completion. After fulfilling all the requirements, please resubmit the request on the platform. *
When the application is validated by the services, the process is automatically created (in the system supporting the processing of nationality applications), and the number and status of the nationality application will be displayed in your restricted access area.
All status changes generate an automatic notification to the email address associated with your profile on the platform.
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Now obviously if youâve submitted fraudulent/fake documents then thatâs likely to be a different matter. But if your application is early but not incorrect, or merely incomplete say missing document, then it doesnât seem as though itâs the end of the world, they just send it back and ask for corrections to be made and/or supply whateverâs missing.
But will be interesting to hear what various lawyers advise.
Hello, my 5 year mark comes in January. However i am starting my A2 certificate in January and they do not deliver the certificate before May. Would you think i can still apply for citizenship without the A2 certificate and give it later ? Thank you for your help
I donât think you can as the A2 certificate is one of the mandatory documents to be submitted with the application.
On the other hand, I do not know what technically happens if you submit by post or online. If the IRN finds one document missing, are they going to reject straight away or request the applicant to re-submit the missing part? And if the latter, how long do they allow for the re-submission before rejection?
Which school is that? Canât they expedite the certificate as a matter of urgency? Seems very unreasonable of them. Perhaps try pushing back on that, even a letter from the school saying the certificate will be issued and confirming youâve completed the course?
Just to let you know, it takes about two months after the test to obtain your certificate, and the testing centre will not forward it to you - it must be picked up at the place of testing.
There is no such thing as âurgencyâ in Portugal, except when it comes to voting on Nationality Law!
Better ask your lawyer this question. Some lawyers including mine advised one can apply and then supply a certificate within 6 months. Some of my PLA classmates were advised by their lawyers the same and applied without their certificates.
The A2 certificate was not my problem. I got my A2 last year and applied this Dec 2025. But I did not have the legalised police character certificate till date. My lawyers used the 2022 outdated PCC to apply but once my legalised PCC is ready, I will send it to them online so they can replace the outdated one. So I think you can send something as a replacement until the real certificate is out. But May 2026 might be a long time, IRN probably might have checked your application. Assuming Feb 2026, it could have been better.
[EDIT - this was originally the first post in this sub - after creating the topic, I moved some older posts on the same subject here, so they appear above]
I thought this merited a new topic.
After the Constitutional Court (TC) ruling, some lawyers are discussing with clients the idea of applying for citizenship before the fifth anniversary of application, relying on Article 15(4) of the current nationality law and the TC commentary. This could be done from now until the date a new nationality law is promulgated next year, which will presumably remove 15(4). Lawyers differ, though, on whether they think this route has a reasonable chance of success.
It may be useful to share thoughts on this here - have you had such advice and are you minded to make an early application.
Just got an email from Prime Legal saying, we are happy to submit citizenship application even if 5 years not completed yet. They think this is one way to get this application in before the new law. Obviously they shared scenarios that are as follow
