Suddenly I am hoping my application isnt processed for 4 more yearsā¦think of the $avings!
Actually that is one reason my cynicism wont believe this applies to ARI. Revenue is the only reason the program exists, so why would they reduce that?
Portugalās courts have shown (not entirely unreasonably) they donāt care about you if you arenāt there, so it wouldnāt surprise me if there were no special exceptions for ARIās requirements.
IIRC from what our lawyer said years ago, the citizenship application is submitted based on a document of proof of legal residence requested from SEF (now AIMA) which mentions the start date of legal residence. I think itās the CertidĆ£o de Contagem do Tempo. Not your entire dossier of stays documented with NIFs and air tickets. That appears to have been checked only in the previous offline renewal process which required fresh biometrics and documentation. I think the current nationality process assumes that if you have a valid card at the time of application and the Certidao mentions a start date > 5 years before the application date, you must have legally resided for > 5 years.
(This does appear too good to be true, but then online renewal of GV without any documentation was also too good to be true and it did turn out OK)
@Mr.E can hopefully corroborate with more details: Path to citizenship after 5 years on GV - #19 by Mr.E
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I donāt see how legally there could be a requirement to count days in Portugal before issuance of the first card.
The 7/14 day requirement comes from the Regulations, Article 65-C, and itās about renewals.
For the purposes of renewing a residence permit, the applicant citizens referred to in Article 90-A of Law no. 23/2007, of 4 July, amended by Laws 29/2012, of 9 August, 56/2015, of 23 June, and 63/2015, of 30 June, must comply with the following minimum periods of stay:
a) 7 days, consecutive or interpolated, in the 1st year;
b) 14 days, consecutive or interpolated, in the subsequent two-year periods.
Up to now, this has meant in practice that you maintain five years of 7/14 day count up until citizenship application, given that you renew the card for the third time at the five year mark.
Thereās nothing in the Law 23/2007 (relating to ARI issuance) or in the Nationality Act, that talks about the 7/14 days. The Nationality Act doesnāt mention ARIs at all, it just requires a valid residence title for the five years (and the language requirement etc). With this new change to the Nationality Act, the period from application to first card will be deemed to be valid residence.
So suppose someone applied in Oct 2021, had biometrics in Feb 2023 and is finally approved in, say, June 2024. The first renewal would be June 2026, at which point the question would surely be āduring the period of validity of the first card, did you meet the day count test? If so, hereās your new cardā. Because as far as the ARI Regulations are concerned, thatās all that matters.
And then if this person applies for citizenship in Oct 2026, the analysis is: you had valid residence from June 2024 to Oct 2026, but the law says we also take the period Oct 2021** to Jun 2024 as valid too.
Usual not-a-lawyer disclaimer applies.
** Lawyer opinion differs about whether the start date is Oct 2021 or Feb 2023 in this case.
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This seems a reasonable interpretation.
Some context may be in order to understand the reasoning for this law. Any country that is in consistent population decline cannot thrive or grow economically.
The current population of Portugal in 2024 is 10,223,349 , a 0.24% decline from 2023. The population of Portugal in 2023 was 10,247,605, a 0.23% decline from 2022. The population of Portugal in 2022 was 10,270,865, a 0.19% decline from 2021. The population of Portugal in 2021 was 10,290,103, a 0.08% decline from 2020.
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I think this sounds like a very good explanation. Thank you.
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Wow! This is really excellent news. Potentially just shaved almost two years off our path to citizenship.
I thought of this as well. Iām pretty sure Iāve met those requirements, but not sure my family did during the first two years waiting for the official card. Itād be great for at least myself to go through the process and get my passport if we can do it separately.
Yes, thatās the point I had made - if you havenāt spent the required time in Portugal since your GV submission, this doesnāt help. For those that applied recently, if they can squeeze in their 7 days, the clock can start ticking on their āresidencyā. For those that have spent 2-3 years waiting but havenāt spent any time in Portugal, this doesnāt help as much I think.
We submitted our GV application in the first week of March 2023. Just pure luck - I happened to book a Christmas trip (and luckily I booked for 7 days) to Madeira this past December, so weāve clocked 7 days in the āfirstā year already (provided the interpretation of the law turns out to be what Prime Legal just posted yesterday).
When counting the 7 days, do they need to be a full 24 hours? I submitted my application in June 2023, but I had to go to Portugal for a conference in October 2023. I didnāt anticipate getting my visa by then, but I landed on a Monday (coming from another EU country) and left the following Monday. Do they consider that 7 days? What do you typically do to prove the 7 days?
Same here. I went twice last year, my kids came with me once, but my husband didnāt come at all. This year weāll all go.
But at least now people who otherwise wouldnāt be getting their card for another couple of years and were waiting can now start coming and have those trips count.
Pretty sure someone on these forums asked their lawyer once about that, and they said it was 24 hours, ie part days donāt count. (Although I wouldnāt rule out the lawyer responding like that just to be on the safe side.)
Yes, that should constitute 7 days. Youāll need āpresenceā on both Mondays in question, by my count thatās 8 days (and 7 nights). I read someone reference that it doesnāt have to be 24 hours, best to check with your lawyer. Iām going to be cross-checking on Monday as well with our lawyer.
Key thing is to have kept your boarding passes / hotel invoices/ spend receipts.
As @cj807 eloquently explained above - the ā7 days per yearā do not matter for the citizenship application in PT. So if this law passes it would help everyone regardless of the time spent or not spent in country while waiting for the GV issuance.
If someone still thinks none of it makes sense, I can tell you 100% there is another country in this world with two different sets of stay-in-country requirements for PR vs. citizenship, with the former being much stricter than the latter, despite naturally one would think they should have been the same as citizenship follows PR.
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Thanks, so the 7/14 day thing is to ensure the GV can be renewed and maintaining residence for the 5 years prior to citizenship eligibility. And I think itās 14 days in the first two years. ???
Interestingly, I am now just past two years from initial submission (November 2021) but was pre-approved (and family) in Sept 2022. So think my holidays this year need to be in Portugal.
Extremely exciting news, I care more about the citizenship than the ability to stay longer than 3 months at a time (Iām from the US) so this is perfect. Saves a renewal or two maybe too.
My interpretation of the law is the same as above, no stay requirements while your visa is pending, but I would still absolutely encourage everyone to go visit portugal, itās gorgeous. Lisbon is a great city, very easy to get around in and everyone is super friendly.
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Letās hope. I have already mentally allocated the fees for this process so if it turns out I donāt need to renew and I save the fees I am going to donate they money to a charity in Portugal.
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1/2 of GV holders are Chinese and they do need the Schengen Visa to enter the country. It is impossible for them to meet the requirement 7/14 days while awaiting their resident cards. Not only Chinese, there many more from Russia, South Africa, India,ā¦Hence the total applicants that need visa for Schengen Access is indeed higher. Those people need the resident cards to fulfill the physical requirement.
So if the new citizenship laws does need the physical requirement, then maybe some Americans and British will be able to satisfy. When calculating to number, maybe only less than 3% of total GV applicants.
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A lot of people need Schengen visa just to enter Portugal. Not granting residence permit and then asking them to be present 7/14 days a year regardless, sounds against the spirit of this improvement.
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