Hi,
Could someone please verify my understanding of the requirement for ‘stay in the national territory’ at these various stages, in the reverse chronological order:
- The citizenship application does not require any evidence of ‘stay’. Instead it requires a document (comprovativo) from SEF of the applicant’s legal residency status over the period of 5 years. Which in turn should be proven to SEF by the fact of possession of legal residence permits (cards) covering the 5 year period.
- During the period under ‘permanent residence permit’ the absence from Portugal must be less than 24 consecutive months or, within a period of three years, 30 months interpolated.
- During the prior periods under ‘temporary residence permit’ the absence from Portugal must be less than 6 consecutive months or 8 months interpolated, within the total period of validity* of the temporary permit. (*The temporary residence permit is valid for a period of 2 years counted from the date of issue of the respective title and is renewable for successive periods of 3 years.)
https://dre.pt/dre/legislacao-consolidada/lei/2007-67564445-155706525
The above stay parameters are currently different for GV (~7days per year), but that’s likely to go as we know from the latest news.
So for the non-GV permits, it looks like the minimum physical presence requirement is actually about 16 months (24-8 months of interpolated absences) within the first 2 years? Equating roughly to 8 months (240 days) per year.
That’s quite different from the 183 days per year figure I saw quoted in some other posts here.
Thoughts?..