I received few questions around the facebook groups and whatsapp groups.
The below is one of the most useful fb group, it has +64 k members, this is a group founded by the Brazilian community; the updates and shared posts are very useful and if you check this group I think you may not need to check other sites or whatsapp groups.
Also happy to share my story. Family of 3, first applied in early 2016, and received our first TRs in the same year. My wife and I submitted our file for citizenship in Nov 2022. I received my approval in October 2024 and managed to finalize 2 weeks ago and obtain my citizenship. My wife unfortunately had a slight set back, requiring a double check on her papers (internal AIMA process, we were not asked to provide any new documentation), and are now waiting on her process.
Now trying to figure out how to apply for our 17 year old daughter, especially that weâre not living in Portugal hence satisfying the Portuguese school enrollment is not possible, and enrolling her now is also not possible as sheâs in her last yearâŠ
Ok, thanks. Altho sending new Contagem de tempo to AIMA sounds a bit bizarre as it is IRN handling the nationality application, not AIMAâŠMore crucially, given AIMAâs situation, I seriously doubt they would take a notice of it after I send them anything related to my nationality application.
Did you at any point live in Portugal? Im asking this question to see if they are granting citizenship even if the applicant hasnât lived in Portugal
Huge congratz and many thanks for your sharing. Could you please share a bit about your wifeâs situation? I am very curious because it seems to me that documents are pretty straight forward. Language certificate can be easily checked. 5 years residency is obviously easy peasy. Criminal record cannot go wrong. I am trying to figure out the reasons of how AIMA could refuse/deny giving citizenship to people if they can meet all three requirements.
Thank you. Itâs mainly due to the name on the passport that has the maiden name + my family name, whereas the rest of the documents have only the maiden name.
My understanding is that school attendance is not a necessary requirement, it is just one sufficient way to demonstrate the connection to Portugal. So your daughter should apply while under 18 with other evidence of connection. I can PM you contact details of a lawyer specializing in citizenship if youâre interested.
Even if sheâs rejected, canât she just apply for naturalization herself after turning 18?
Once her TR runs out she may need to apply for GV PR to bridge any gap until citizenship.
I can share my timeline as well.
March 2015 applied for gv.
August 2017 got the first card after a lot of delays.
October 2022 applied for citizenship.
August 2024 got the citizenship.
In total the process took 9 years beginning to end.
The requirement is 7 days per year, but my lawyer always advised to keep an extra day buffer to avoid any counting issues. And since the GV residency is 2 years, we were doing one trip every two years spending roughly 15-16 days in Portugal.
At the moment, the residency requirement is checked by IRN via AIMA. AIMA just states periods of residency, and at the moment AIMA treats time with residence permit as valid residency period. The time periods between permits are counted toward 5 years if they are covered by covid prolongation. AIMA also assumes that if it renewed yr GV, it has already checked stay requirements. IRN in its term does even not see that you have GV, not other permit, because AIMA does not say it in contagem de tempo.
My citizenship application is also in the âwaiting for final decisionâ stage. Here is my timeline.
2018 August: applied
2019 March: first card
2024 April: applied citizenship
2024 September: stage 2 analysis complete, waiting on decision.
I have been told that this could be as quick as a month or as long as a year, but it appears that measures are being taken to tackle the backlog of applications, so I check the âapplication statusâ portal often and hope to see âapprovedâ in the next few months. Then I will fly to Lisbon for new biometrics (no appointment needed) for my citizenship card. I will post as soon as I get it. After my citizenship is approved, I was told to expect the process to take 2 more years for my wife and daughtersâ citizenship to get approved, but these time estimates seem to change regularly depending on numerous factors.
Are they also applying by Article 6.1 (5 years legal residence), or by Article 2 (for minor children of naturalized citizens) and Article 3 (spouses of citizens)?
Thank you! My daughters, ages 15 & 17, have had residency visas since 2019 as GV holders so they will apply as âunder 18 when you were born your mother or father did not yet have Portuguese nationality, but acquired it later.â It is my understanding that their legal residency and proofs of stay for 5+ years is sufficient to show âan effective connection to the Portuguese community.â However, if my oldest daughter turns 18 before I get citizenship then her application would have to include the A2 language certificate:
You can acquire Portuguese nationality under these conditions if:
are over 18 years old
has been legally resident in Portugal for at least 5 years
knows the Portuguese language sufficiently (A2 certificate)
My wife will apply under the provision that says that âyou can apply for Portuguese nationality if, on the date of application, you have been married or in a de facto relationship with a Portuguese person for more than 3 years.â She already has an A2 language certificate.
I need to highlight that almost all applications which are recorded in the system are shown as waiting for a decision, which is hugely misleading. If you have submitted your application via online (with a lawyer) till very recently it was forwarded to Porto IRN which is flooded by thousands of applications. Porto is now processing applications from 2022 DecâŠ
It is also sad to see that the new platform is actually seems to provide less info and as I said still displays misleading information. For your reference even July 2024 applications is shown that way, in the old tracker at least you would see the right progress point⊠This reminds me of SEF AIMA transition - there was so much statement about how AIMA will help clear backlog and in the end we are where we are⊠Portugal now has one of the slowest process times for citizenship applications and to set expectations, it doesnât seem to be getting any betterâŠ