I agree, its 24-26 months. Everything else is an outlier/edge case.
Just to check if others experience the same, for the past 2 months, Porto IRN which used to process much of the online applications, is not starting processing applications submitted on September 2023 or onwards. There was one Aug 31st application getting approved back in end of July yet since then, there is no progress. It seems as if there is a pause to start processing newer cases, for Braga this might be Feb 2024 as Braga is ahead. It seems as if there is an unofficial pause - and they are not moving onto newer applications. A similar pause took place earlier on, this year around June when the initial nationality law discussion took place. I suspect same to be the case. Let me know if others observe the same.
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Highly unlikely. Any law they gets passed (increasing the naturalisation period to more than 5 years for example) will not (or should not) affect applications in process.
I think they started processing long time ago for application submitted on all 2023 and 2024. What we are not seeing is that the processes are not concluded. IRN actually does not have to do much work. If I understand correctly, IRN requests external parties (police, aima, interpol,âŚ) to check the information. The check is likely done via digital format in their system. So if one of these parties do not complete the check box, irn will do nothing. Basically they are having coffee and waiting for the digital response. They donât care how long it takes. Their task is only to send request to external parties.
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I submitted my application docs in April, but the status has changed to âsubmittedâ in August. I was not expecting such a delay for the first phase. Maybe they are under a flood of applications.
Ok let me be more specific and quote some data points, and also I agree with what @live2learn has written about IRN not having much to do.
First comes first, few people have visited IRN and theyâve been told, their application is only waiting for the final feedback from AIMA.
Though there is a unanimous agreement about current citizenship applications being grandfathered by the 5 year rule, when the initial discussion took place in June, there was again a pause; and I do recall one article where (most likely someone from AIMA) stating that they are waiting for the nationality law discussions to finalize, to resume processing of applications as per article 6.1.
Now coming to the one final real data point, Iâve been monitoring applications coming out of Porto IRN since December, and till know there was almost a steady pace; each month, a month worth of progress would happen and submission to approval was between 23-24 months. There were few pauses, one after Christmas and the one I mentioned around June (during the initial discussion) However more or less 23-24 month pace was there. There was one 31st of August approval way back in end of July.. Since end of July we have not seen any Sep 2023 applications getting approved. Perhaps they are waiting for the nationality law discussion to take place.
Still now that we have moved into October, I expect to September approvals; if we are not seeing any September 2023 applications getting approved for the next two weeks, then clearly there is something going on.
Few people in facebook also highlighted the absence of newer approvals coming out of Porto IRN. There are few pending cases getting resolved, but Sep 2023 seems like a cut-off date. At least this is my perception.
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Thank you very much for keeping track on IRN Porto and sharing your opinion.
I also see that many people got the same response from other IRNs that their application is waiting for Aimaâs response.
So now, everything bounces back to Aima. As weâve been seeing recently that Aima improves the biometric services. Aima also improves the final approval/pre approval/ and issueing cards. At the same time, IRNs slows down its conclusion due to lacking of aimaâs response. By connecting all dots together, we can tell that Aima allocate most of its resources to biometric/preapproval/final approval and a certain resource that was used to respond to IRN now is doing other tasks. In my opinion (which might be 100% wrong), IRN slows down not because of newly proposed citizenship law but because of Aima takeing out the its resources which was dedicated to IRN and now putting it on other tasks.
Regarding Aima, yes, the most genius organisation in this universe, how can it be so difficult for Aima to confirm/check/verify its own issued information of someoneâs 5 years residency? It should be no more than 15 minutes. But maybe the genius Aima needs 3 years to check its own document.
Nothing we can do when dealing with this level of geniusness! We only can wait and pray!
My lawyers submitted my naturalisation application (online) a few weeks ago. I got an email a couple of weeks later saying the status of my process had changed to âsubmittedâ. Neither the original submission ack nor the mail has any indication of a specific IRN branch.
I have the process number, but still havenât received the code which will let me check the status online.
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Iâm applying this week, so thatâs useful info. So whatâs the deal with the code? At some point youâll receive a code by email that will allow you to check your status?
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Yes, I think either the applicant or lawyer or both get the access code by mail. The status check page says there are other ways to get it, but I havenât tried.
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Also: prior to June, my lawyers had recommended waiting until my residence permit got renewed before applying for naturalisation. I met all the other requirements, and had a renewal appointment as well. After the proposed changes to the nationality law, they advised applying as soon as possible. The submission went through without having a currently valid physical card (legally valid due to the extension decree, plus they might have submitted proof of the renewal application). It might get stuck later, but hopefully the application will continue to be governed by the current law.
Well, if we havenât seen any applications getting approved, I would agree with you, and say that it is possible that AIMA has simply shifted resources for biometrics and other tasks, however, we do see approvals from Porto IRN, but they are all from earlier submissions dates.
This is the reason why I still think, there is almost an informal cut-off date for approvals, for Porto this is applications with a submission date of September 2023 or newer.
In June there was this arbitrary pause and I recall reading an article about it; I suspect same to be the case, and my hypothesis is there is an arbitrary wait for the citizenship law discussion.. The head of AIMA made one comment he said, when the law changes it needs to be implemented on the next day, otherwise we end up having a rain of applications, in my opinion AIMA is waiting for the discussion to take place, but this my best estimate based on the available data and what Iâve seen.
My only hope is once this pause is over, we see few months worth approvals in few weeks, otherwise this would mean increased process times for all, at least an additional +3 monthsâŚ
Thanks for that info. On the above question, I think youâll be fine. From what Iâve been told, the law states that once you submit your renewal request, your residency is extended until AIMA gets around to assessing it, even without any blanket extension decree in place, and even if your card expires in the meantime.
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Not ideal for travelling though is it, especially with ETIAS.
More info on that status checker here:
Also not sure if this has been posted before (Iâm years away from being eligible, perhaps soon 5 more years than expected 
)⌠Martins Castro seems to poll âthe respective registry officesâ for what year theyâre currently working on - but only for non-primary applicants?
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I will become eligible to apply for citizenship in around 3 weeks. Too late ?
Probably not. The budget will take some time and then the full parliamentary process has to run. But donât dally.
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No, itâs not ideal, especially for ARIs from countries that require Schengen visas. But I think there is some âdeclaraçãoâ you can get from AIMA to say you have a pending renewal, and in theory you can exit/re-enter with that and an expired card. I donât know how easy/fast that document is to obtain. Anyway, thatâs a little off topic for this particular thread. Point is a citizenship application shouldnât be impacted by an expired card as long as you have applied for a renewal.
Just a Question, I need someoneâs experience. I and my wife have a GV resident card and December 22 will be our 5 years of application so we are supposed to apply for citizenship around that time. As the main applicant, I have a valid residency card till June 2027 (renewed in 2024), so not issues but my wife card expired in April 2025. We recently got renewal appointment on 27 January 2026. Is it advisable to apply for citizenship in December 2025 for my wife with expired resident card but will be renewed in Jan. 2026? Thanks.
For legal purposes in PT her card is extended since she already has an appointment ⌠apply ASAP before the law changes if you can.
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