Possible legal actions subsequent to recent law change

Residencies & citizenships Portugal Golden Visa
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Hi all. Further to the developments we all know about, please find below a letter from my lawyers (they’re not really called XXX, but that would be fun).

Presumably others have received similar.

I’m curious what others think the merits are regarding pursuing these options below - their likelihood of bearing any fruit.

My case is that I have the temporary resident’s card (after years), but my partner still waiting for biometrics. The original citizenship timeline of course would be great, but getting permanent residency clock started at time of application would be valuable.

Appreciate your thoughts.

Further to the assistance we have been providing in relation to the amendment process of the Portuguese Nationality Law, we would like to share with you a decisive development, which marks a new phase in this matter.

Following the Constitutional Court having declared certain provisions of the previous draft of the Law were unconstitutional (Judgment no. 1133/2025), the Portuguese Parliament approved, on 1 April 2026, a new version of the amendment to the Nationality Law. On 3 May 2026, the President of the Republic approved this legislative amendment and, accordingly, its publication in the Official Gazette (Diário da República) is now awaited, with the new Law entering into force on the following day.

Regarding the core content of the new Law, the previously announced amendments with the greatest impact on applicants for nationality proceedings remain unchanged. Specifically, the period of legal residence required for the acquisition of Portuguese nationality by naturalization will increase to 7 years for nationals of Portuguese-speaking countries and European citizens, and to 10 years for all other applicants.

It should also be noted that, following the entry into force of the Law, a 90-day period is foreseen for the approval and publication of the Nationality Regulation, which is expected to implement the new rules and clarify the applicable practical procedures.

It is also important to highlight that the President of the Republic accompanied the approval with certain guidelines, namely that “the counting of the legally established deadlines for obtaining nationality should not be adversely affected by delays attributable to the State itself”. In this regard, we consider as reasonable to expect that the Nationality Regulation will be balanced and aligned with the instructions and guidance issued by the President of the Republic, particularly concerning the rules governing the calculation of the legally established periods for obtaining nationality.

The position of XXX remains unchanged. We consider that several provisions contained in this new Law continue to raise well-founded concerns regarding their constitutional compliance, particularly in light of the principles of equality, proportionality, legal certainty, protection of legitimate expectations and non-retroactivity of the Law.

Therefore, XXX, in coordination with leading law firms in Portugal, has carried out an in-depth assessment of the available legal protection and response mechanisms. Accordingly, we hereby propose the following strategy of action for your case:

Administrative Claim for Recognition of Rights – We will file an Administrative Claim for Recognition of Rights, arguing and requesting, both in fact and in law, the applicability of the previous legal framework to your case (including your reunited family members), namely the continued applicability of the 5-year period for access to Portuguese nationality and the same counting rules. This action is expected to last approximately 2 years.

Complaint to the Ombudsman – Simultaneously, we will submit a formal Complaint to the Portuguese Ombudsman, identifying the specific provisions that raise constitutional concerns and the concrete impact on your case, including your reunited family members. The purpose here is for the Ombudsman to assess the matter and request the Constitutional Court to review the constitutionality of such provisions, so that they may ultimately be declared unconstitutional and you may continue to benefit from the more favorable legal regime. This formal complaint will not entail any public costs;

Injunction for the Protection of Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees – Should none of the above measures produce results by the time you complete 5 years since the submission of your Golden Visa application, we recommend filing an Injunction for the Protection of Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees, which is an urgent judicial proceeding typically decided within 3 months. This action would be grounded on the fact that the previous legal mechanisms have not yet produced the intended effects, requesting the Court to rule in favor of the application of the more favorable Law to your nationality process. This proceeding will not entail any public costs.

We are fully convinced of the formal and substantive merits of this cause and, accordingly, XXX will dedicate its best efforts towards safeguarding your rights in the shortest possible timeframe.

We further highlight that, although we have positive prospects regarding the success of these actions, we cannot guarantee a favorable outcome. Nevertheless, initiating these proceedings will not prejudice any of your rights and may only bring advantages, with the purpose and objective of ensuring that your ongoing case remains subject to the nationality requirements that were in force at the time of submission of your Golden Visa application, in particular the 5-year eligibility period and the same counting rules.

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Did XXX give any estimate of their fees for you to pursue these claims with their help?? I am assuming if they are doing them for many of their GV applicants it is a lot of copy-paste of the same arguments ?

3

Thanks for sharing this.

The organization I am working with sent a similar email. They claim they will send out the cost breakdown for court and Ombudsman filings, soon.

To be honest I am not going to go forward with any of it I have not yet even received my card (my organization claims it’ll arrive in early 2027 giving me a nice, short 3 year wait). I might consider going along with it if I see others further along in the process reach favorable outcomes.

Whatever you decide I wish you the best but please go into this with both eyes open. They will love to take more of your money while telling you the chances are good. But they really need to be judged by their actions and past statements (and they are all guilty of over promising and under delivering).

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To be fair, the situation isn’t one over which they have much control. You are also dealing with a lot of clients who want a ray of hope and are willing to throw money at it, and it is in the best interest of those clients for the lawyers to come up with answers, however much of a long shot they might be.

Would the situation be better if all the lawyers simply said “eh, there’s no hope, just pack it up and go home”? Some would agree, some would disagree.

I’m sure there’s profiteers in all this, and others simply doing the best they can.

But trust me, I get it’s hard not to be at least a bit skeptical. There’s definitely limits as to how far I’m gonna go down this rabbit hole, certainly.

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I am sure that lawyers lose nothing. People file lawsuits, they get paid. If lawsuits fail, they show that they’ve tried their best. If lawsuits win, they gain the fame!

The investors are the ones who lose. Indeed, investors have already lost time and energy for years waiting for cards and doing biometrics. Now some of us want to pay extra to fight for what should have been theirs years ago. Chance to win this battle is slim. However with only one bullet left and being surrounded by the predators, shooting at the the predators’ eyes seem to be a right decision!

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In my experience the Portuguese Ombudsman (Provedor de Justiça) is useless - mainly because they cannot impose binding decisions. They can whine about something, but Portugal is awash in “whine” so it’s mostly just water under the bridge.

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7

Can they not refer things to the constitutional court?

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This is interesting to read. In respect of IRN I have actually done 1 and 2. This was simply, and uncontroversially, requesting the application of the existing legal framework to a child who would suffer irreparable damage if their application, which had been submitted nearly 3 years previously was not processed before they turned 18. IRN opposed the court action, which they do as a matter of course. We responded, and then the courts got bogged down with all the AIMA-related matters. Nearly 2 years later we have heard nothing (and the damage is done). @PTbound is right about the Ombudsman. In our case they referred the complaint to the Ministry responsible for IRN, who referred it to IRN, who came back with the same response they had given in 1. I watched the webinar where this group of lawyers launched their litigation strategy hoping there’d be something new, but it just sounded like more of the same tbh, with no obviously discernable litigation strategy. Still, I get why people are taking a shot at it.

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Is this for Article 2? I thought that, so long as your child was a minor when it was filed, it could still be granted later even if your child turned 18 while it was processing? Is that not true?

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It is true. In their case there were other factors that made turning 18 a critical moment, beyond which there would be irreparable harm.

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Yes, the OP mentioned that:

…but will they, or as @Lala posted above will they just do their usual and send it back 'round the same bureaucracy and end up with the same response?

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So true — every word of this.

I’ve been waiting on my biometrics for four years now. Finally got an appointment, but for myself only, and in the meantime all the rules have changed. A real setback to what I’d originally hoped for.

Honestly, I don’t see much merit in going down the legal route either. A lawsuit — win or lose — doesn’t give back the years already lost. And the hardest part to swallow: the country already has our money working in its economy, without much regard for the investors who put it there in the first place.

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Here’s what I find confusing: why should one do any of these things (and thereby incur expenses) NOW when the legal situation is uncertain? Why not wait for a few people to pursue these remedies to get a better sense of what the law actually is? Is there some advantage to being first/early? If not, is this just lawyers collecting fees and stringing people along?

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In response to your question, there is a class of people (I am in that group) who have residence cards in hand now and are coming up on a renewal. Renewing is pretty costly at a time when I have little interest in sinking another dollar into the Portugal economy based on all that has transpired. It also means another 2-week trip with the whole family there, which is not an easy feat with kids in university. But if I miss my renewal, I think that basically ends my involvement. So someone like me would need to decide now if I was going to take legal action. (For me at least, the answer is clear, I have already decided not to throw any more good money after bad money and pull out. Others may be acting differently…)

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Makese sense thanks! Every case is indeed different. I know people who have been offered this who are much earlier in the process thogh, so I’m still scratching my head for those cases!

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i started the process 3 years ago, and did my biometrics in Feb this year. If i had known three years ago, that it will take 10 years to citizenship i would never have started. as far as i can see it is a material change of the facts on which based my initial decision. So, i’m out. and i want my money back.

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If you’ve invested in equities, I’d consider exiting while you still have a decent CAGR, even after accounting for any penalties and capital gains tax. Historically, the PSI was around 8,000–9,000 nearly 16 years ago, and it remains in roughly the same range today. Over that period, it has dipped and crashed several times. Even now, it has merely recovered to its 2009 level rather than delivering any real growth. I wouldn’t be surprised if it dips a lot, especially if you’re waiting 15 years for citizenship.