FWIW:
“We want to make the submission of requests available online”, Ferrão Tavares told the paper…
Processes for the concession of nationality are, right now, “one of the most congested in the notaries and registries institute, with processing deadlines that exceed ten times the period defined by law”, says DN, stressing this has been the case for “years” due to an exponential increase in the number of requests for Portuguese nationality.
Sounds promising as a general trend
Am I mistaken or is this talking about pre-approval? Or is there yet another deadlocked Portuguese bureaucracy 
I think it always worked like this. First the notary institute looks over the documents to ensure everything is in order then they forward it on to the Justice Ministry that makes the determination. I think this change is saying that the submission to the notary institute will be online. I’m not really sure how just doing that will speed up anything, but one can hope.