Dear all, as I have now progressed with my citizenship application I want to provide you some update based on facts which might be useful for future references.
- You would recall that there are 7 stages of the citizenship application
- Since last year if you apply via solicitor or a lawyer the application has to be online
- All online applications are forwarded to Porto
- Before online applications, stages 1 (received) and 2 (registered) would take up to 15 months; with online applications these steps now seem to take 6-8 weeks. I’ve heard few cases in which the first two steps were completed within a week!
- On the official page, the expected completion duration is still shown as 24-29 moths.
- Stage 3, which is referred as external consultation with SEF, ministry of justice and possibly the Portuguese embassy at your home country is the next one. Mine took just underneath 4 months to be completed… I know three other cases which took around 3-4 months.
- Stage 4 is the most critical. It is defined as verification of all documents, once you are done through stage 4 the rest is “usually” pretty fast… Basically stage 5 and 6 are almost straight forward and is a natural following steps of the previous ones. I heard cases where they were each completed in a day, or a case where the progress jumped to stage 7 directly from stage 3. Stage 4 can take some time, anywhere from 6-12 months. 8-9 months is what I hear as the average time.
- Stage 5 is more about checking whether you fulfill the criteria for citizenship and stage 6 is the final decision. If everything is in order till stage 5, Stage 5 and 6 should become formality stages and “natural consequence of the previous ones.”
- Stage 7 is the stage where birth certificate is created, you would need that certification to make an ID card or passport claim which can be only done in person.
Timelines for stage 7 can again vary. The current expectation by many is 6-8 weeks, but I’ve read cases who are stuck on stage 7 for more than 6 months.
Yet here comes the disclaimers
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It is generally believed that the tracker may not be always updated, this is not the DHL tracking system. You application might have progressed to stage 4 but the progress may not be captured on the tracker. That’s why some people “might” be stuck at a certain point.
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Contrary to what some might believe, from what I’ve read over the forums, the original nationality does not seem to impact the timelines, at least this is my conclusion.
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As a general rule of thumb unless something radical happens avoid Lisbon for any bureaucratical stuff, there is almost a consensus around that…
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In my view, if you choose to work with a lawyer/law company, the reason why you need to work with an experienced one is that having the peace of mind that they won’t make a silly mistake and slow down your application. Let me put it this way, I don’t think any lawyer can accelerate the progress, but an inexperienced lawyer who may be making mistakes may slow your application. You can read several cases of that here and there.
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In my humble view with the online application, 15-18 months is a more realistic timeline, however this will be verified once the first online applicants “graduate” from the system.
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The two quickest timelines I have read/seen are 8 months each followed by two 12 months… I don’t know those people in person and have read what they shared on forums so can’t really comment on the accuracy. Statistically speaking you might have few exceptional fast cases; but overall 15-18 months seem to be more common. Still in Facebook groups you will see many people who have made their application way back in 2021 at earlier stages… I think by now we all know that the whole process is not a math equation but is of an interest to statistics science.
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Last but not least applications via article 6.1 which will be relevant for the GV holders - citizenship after 5 years of residency - is regarded as the fastest route to citizenship except for the applications for minors whose parents are already Portuguese.
I hope the above info shed light onto the process a bit…
All the best
Mr.E