Hi,
My lawyer submitted my documents for naturalization this week, and I am curious how long it took for others to obtain their citizenship, and what was the average time at each stage.
Also, my GV expires in May 2025 and my lawyer informed me that online renewals are no longer taking place, nor have they opened in-person appointments. Even though my GV is valid at time of submission, what will happen once it expires in May?
Please share your thoughts!
2-3 years.
See this post about Facebook/WhatsApp groups specifically for citizenship discussion, you will get. much more detailed timelines there: Portuguese Golden Visa success stories? - #21 by Mr.E
I follow that Facebook group, and there are also occasional posts about it here and in the Whatsapp group. It seems to vary a lot - anything from about 18 months to 2 years plus through residency. 3 years is for citizenship through marriage I believe, which looks to be the slowest category.
I wonder if the new law (backdating the start of 5 years residency) will cause a noticeable crush of applicants and increased processing time.
Maybe if we’re lucky IRN has elastic processing capacity. But I somehow doubt that given historical processing times…
@tkrunning to avoid duplication should there be a sticky thread for citizenship applicants (stage 6)?
I wonder if they have actually accepted citizenship applications under the new law.
I’m mentally prepared that it will take 3 years to obtain citizenship but just worried about the impact of my GV expiring in May and not knowing when I will be able to renew it.
The good news is that in 2026 Portugal is planning to extend the validity of passports from 5 to 10 years, so we’ll be good to go for a decade!