I think the line is when IRN contacts AIMA to calculate the Contagem de Tempo. That’s about 3-10 months after the initial application. You would, ideally, want to get a 5yr CdT when AIMA calculates it.
I believe you’re trying to make the slippery slope argument: if IRN is so slow that they accept people who hit 5yr in 3-10 months, why can’t they be so slow to accept people who hit 5yr in 4.9yrs?
I think the slowness of CdT is an accident, not per law. The law does not say CdT should be calculated in 3-10 months. But the law also does not say apostille documents must be 90 days. It just says “recent”. IRN interprets “recent” to mean 90 days for apostille documents, and 1yr in the case of apostille birth certificate. Similarly, IRN interprets CdT to mean whenever they contact AIMA to calculate it.
The slippery slope argument doesn’t really apply. Just because “recent” was relaxed to mean 90 days for apostille documents isn’t a slippery slope that it should be 5yrs. Just because CdT takes 3-10 months to calculate isn’t a slippery slope that it should be calculated after 4.9yrs. The 90 days for documents and 3-10 months for CdT are just inventions of IRN to run the bureaucratic machine. The law just says “recent documents” and “calculate CdT and check for 5yrs”. It is left up to IRN to create the details to enforce it.
I agree that Portuguese law dislikes randomness and 2 applicants on the same day with identical situations should be treated identically. I think IRN may soon make CdT less vague/random and codify an exact cut off. I have no idea what that cut off might be. 90 days? 2 years? The TC has given two rules that is difficult for IRN to solve simultaneously:
- The government must not be random. It must treat 2 people with identical scenarios in the same manner.
- The eligibility for naturalization must use the most recent information at the time of decision. (Not the most recent law: the law is frozen at the date of application. “Information” means the latest documents, etc. So if you submit A2 certificate late, they must accept it if they received it before their decision.)
Rule 2 says at the time of decision, so if you hit 5yrs at the time of decision, they should use that new information. But rule 1 says don’t be random, but the date of decision is inherently random, and 2 identical applicants may have their decision on different dates, one with less than 5yrs and one with more than 5yrs at the time of decision.
In the words of Jaime Lannister, “Oathbreaker”, “They call me Kingslayer. They call me Oathbreaker. But what do you do when you take an oath to obey your king and an oath to protect the innocent, and your king orders you to slay the innocent?”. When 2 oaths contradict each other, one will inevitably fall.