As many of you know, my life in Portugal is built on a specific plan: live here, contribute, and apply for citizenship after 5 years.
But right now, Parliament is debating a change to the Nationality Law that could move the goalposts from 5 years to 10 years.
The scary part isn’t the change itself—it’s that they might apply it to those of us who are already here. If that happens, and you add in the AIMA delays, we are looking at 12 to 15 years before we have security.
I’m not willing to just wait and see if they wipe out the last few years of my progress.
I’ve joined forces with PAIIR (Portuguese Association of Immigration, Investment and Relocation) to do something real about this. We aren’t just signing petitions. We are raising a legal defense fund to hire a professional public affairs team.
Their job is to get into the committee meetings and fight for a “Grandfather Clause”—basically, ensuring that the rules we signed up for are the rules we finish with.
We have a very short window to get this right. I’ve contributed because I can’t afford to lose five years of my life. If you want to protect your timeline too, please chip in.
Here is the link to the fund: https://gofund.me/eebf01de5
Please, please forward this or tag anyone you know who is waiting for citizenship. We need everyone on this.
And just who am I, and why am I doing this? I’ve lived in Portugal for the last 4.5 years (prime screwed over timeframe) in the Lisbon area. My family and I are here on a D7 visa, and we’re originally from the US. I’m mostly active on the GV WhatsApp groups, trying to come up with a plan for grandfathering for all of us. I’m trying to do this for my teenage daughters, who will feel the brunt of this change as they won’t be here long enough for citizenship.
- thanks !