Hi all, assuming the clock begins from the date of GV application payment or in scenario 2 - pre approval, what is everyone’s opinion on the minimum stay requirements? For example if GV payment or pre approval was made/granted on 1 January 2023 and residence permit granted on 1 January 2026 (I read that too, 
) there would only be 2 years to fulfil the residency stay requirements but you’d be eligible to apply for citizenship. How would it work in this situation? Would the stays after GV payment and prior to GV pre approval count?
Stay requirements are for GV Visa renewal and have nothing to do with the Citizenship law. There is already and extenstive discussion on this in this thread above.
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Does it mean for those people whose ultimate purpose is citizenship,there was no need for them to renew the GV Visa or the residence card if they had succeeded to obtain the citizenship?
Once you obtain citizenship there is no need for a visa golden or otherwise
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It makes sense.Thank you
If you obtain the citizenship, GV is automatically cancelled. The first requirement of the GV is that applicant must be non-EU citizen.
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Gosh I think I read this thread while half asleep and grappling with jetlag. Thanks for making me go back through the thread again 
I certainly hope what was discussed earlier is the case!
My lawyer believes the date will be the date of filing the application, which to me makes perfect sense and matches what is written in the draft of the law.
Not sure why there are so many speculations. The current read of the law is pretty obvious, and literally says it’s a moment of filing the application, as follows:
4 - Para os efeitos de contagem de prazos de residência legal previstos na
presente lei, considera-se igualmente o tempo decorrido desde o momento
em que foi requerido o título de residência temporária, desde que o mesmo
venha a ser deferido.
To request the residence permit, you file an application. Filed application = request.
Another argument is that “requerido” = “Requested” means that it is your action to ask for the permit, not the action performed by an immigration authority, therefore it can not be pre-approval or biometrics appointment date. That would make zero sense and contradict what is written.
In my opinion, the biggest issue right now is not about the date when the clock starts ticking, but whether it will be promulgated by the President and whether it will be confirmed (if not promulgated) / reverted (if promulgated) by the new Parliament after the elections. As you know, the law was approved by the left majority without much support from the right wing. A lot will depend on the new configuration of political forces in the Parliament.
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Agree, if everyone either quoted their lawyers or only lawyers posted their opinions rather than have People with no expertise in the matter jabber their own conspiracy theories to make everyone anxious, there would be less but more meaningful chat here. 
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This is 
true. There is a lot of anxiety on this forum.
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the lawyers mostly don’t know what they are talking about either, they are all guessing.
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For good reason.
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My lawyer was clear, the president will sign it next month and we will yhen know the details. No need to speculate now 
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What if we enjoy speculating?
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If only Portuguese (or any) law were simply a matter of the president signing a document then everyone knowing the details … that is usually just the start of years of bureaucratic confusion 
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In my opinion, from a non-legal POV, it makes perfect sense to start counting the time from when an application for pre-approval was made in case of GVs (if ultimately the pre-approval was granted). The reason being, that the applicant at the time of pre-approval has already made the investment that is the very basis of the GV. It would be unfair to ignore this very important facet of the whole thing.
As far as I know,Japan is the at least one of the developed countries that immigrants can get citizenship before the PR.But bilateral nationality is not acceptable in Japan,which is different from Portugal.Portugal would be another country that immigrants can get citizenship before the PR once the new law was passed.
Does anyone know if there are any other countries with the same immigration law?
Probably very few. In fact many countries make PR a pre-requisite for applying to naturalize - at least most of the Anglosphere does. I was initially surprised they were independent in Portugal.
Argentina has very easy immigration laws, it’s carrying on the spirit of American immigration these days
3 years for permanent residency, 2 for citizenship
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Also Argentina doesn’t let you renounce citizenship. Once Argentinian, you and your descendants will be Argentinian forever (unless the law changes).
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