A PT lawyer shared in another group that she already got notification about falta for early application submitted in April.
And it’s not a one-off. I’ve read at least 3 such instances of falta among 20 early filers.
To be clear, this seems to be a separate check from the much later “exigencia”. They seem to have introduced a new “falta” step in the process that is much earlier.
If anything, this new step means the entire process is now longer not shorter. But because the falta is happening so early, people are not ready, because everyone assumed exigencia would be the first step for checking documents. And the falta notice gives only 10 days to cure, which is not enough time to get an apostille or A2 certificate.
A lot of things can be the problem. We have also seen so many people do early application and have gotten their access code as submitted without issues. There are different issues and scenarios; some don’t 5 years residence or legalised PCC or A2 certificate. Their case might be worse. Some have 5 years residence but don’t have PCC or legalized PCC, or A2 certificate. There are other scenarios but I think the most important fault is not having 5 years residence. The question is, how far are the rejected applications from 5 years? Did they submit A2 declaration? Or have legalized PCC? Are they main applicant or family member. So many questions to ask.
Yes, submitted online via their lawyer. They all received a numero processo and access code before the falta. But the numero processo and access code seems to be automated these days, being issued in a few days. The falta comes in 3-4 weeks thereafter.
The falta was not for CdT. The CdT will take many months, unless they somehow improve that step. The falta was for missing apostille for PCC, stale PCC, or missing A2 cert.
AFAICT, a falta is like an exigencia, but is a much earlier step, and only gives 10 days to cure instead of 30 days.
They were on WhatsApp, but moved to telegram. Link
Fwiw, a lot more anecdotes of early faltas are trickling in.
Both our dependent early applications have come back with Falta - and whichever document was not there has been flagged - expired criminal check and A2 enrollment instead of certificate. We thought this will happen after 2 years - but it’s happened in 2 weeks. Looking very hard to get the A2 in such short time..
Centrais.. Lisbon
Yes - we received tracking code (numero processo) before the falta
Mine (primary GV applicant) was 5 years completed - and has a faulty document - but not yet received any falta
Right now - driving back from a city 500kms away that we went to for submitting criminal check request since our city had earliest for 2nd June
Application to be rejected if documents are not submitted within time
Also lawyer said for falta - actual physical documents have to be sent to IRN by them via mail ctt- so need to reach the lawyer at least 5 days prior to deadline
N.b. This is not the initial Pre check - My lawyer had said to expect this notification after 15-18 months! I asked him how this happened so quickly and his comment was that he heard it mentioned that they want to weed out early incomplete applications that try to come in under the old law. Anecdotal fwiw.
The above is from a WhatsApp group for 2026 naturalization applicants. Most applied in late April. This WhatsApp group hasn’t moved to Telegram. Lmk if you want to join by DMing me your WhatsApp number.
I asked him how this happened so quickly and his comment was that he heard it mentioned that they want to weed out early incomplete applications that try to come in under the old law
The lawyer said early application and incomplete document. I know someone who met 5 years but the documents are incomplete. He has access code and a family of 3 and no falta for any of them. So the criteria may be both early app. and incomplete document.
As far as I understand, some lawyers will assist ARI applicants to bring up a lawsuit against the government regarding new citizenship’s law. One of the main reasons (probably it is the most powerful reason) is that a new citzenship’s law violates a “legitimate expectation”.
I am wondering that by using the same argument of “legitimate expectation”, why don’t lawyers sue governments when Aima consistently does not issue resident cards within 90 days?
I know that there has been thousands of lawsuits against Aima. However, since Aima does not listen/obey the court’s verdict, is it possible to sue the government (which is the one who created Aima)?
Receiving cards after having put and locked down 350k-500k in 4-5 years is certainly the nastiest violation of legitimate expectation. Who would have expected to receive cards in 4-5 years after making the investment! My expectation is to receive cards for my entire family within 90 days and it turned out that it took 4.5 years.
More and more faltas are pouring in now. It was a trickle, but becoming a flood. Missing A2 certificate is a common one for applications that only provided an enrollment letter. Missing apostille or stale PCC is another common one. Falta gives 30 days to fix, but people are scrambling because getting an A2 certificate isn’t that quick. The status shows “Aguarda Reposta” on the justica portal. The govt seems to be targeting April and May applicants. Lawyers are also in shock, they expected this in 4-10 months, not weeks.
For what is it worth I have a fully document complete (5 year from application date w/expired card) online application into this Lisbon office that lists “submetido” on 06-05-2026 that has not moved to “Em analise.” May be too early to judge definitively since there is only one day difference, but this would suggest completed applications are not necessarily being advanced to the next stage, just incomplete are being cherry picked out.
So applications are not being processed in the order of submission which is something they stress is the way it’s done (i.e. why they have not moved on from paper submissions)?
I suspect they only care about submission order for finalizing applications. So if you’re a new digital submission that can be processed faster, even if everything is ready to be finalized, you still have to sit in a pile until all the old paper submissions are finalized first.
But for intermediate stages like trying to weed out incomplete applications, they can go whatever order they want.
The potential change in Portuguese nationality law from 5 to 10 years was known for nearly a year before the law was finally passed on May 18, 2026. Even then, some people made no effort to get their CIPLE A2 certification, enroll in a legitimate A2 course, or collect and apostille the required PCCs, and are now complaining about receiving faltas for their own lack of preparation.
I understand that the counting of time was not in their hands. But if they filed early citizenship applications without taking care of the things that were clearly within their control, that is on them — and on the snake-oil lawyers who enabled this. Those lawyers should have their licenses revoked.
I have no sympathy. No excuse can justify that level of complacency.
