If you’re living outside Portugal while waiting for approval, then no.
If you are spending time in Portugal while you wait for your approval (some GV applicants have moved here based on a pre-approval certification letter), then it depends.
If you are a Portuguese tax resident (meaning in Portugal >183 days in the year and/or maintain your primary home here), then even if you have no Portuguese-sourced income you still need to file if you have any foreign sourced income and report any foreign bank accounts.
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Asked my lawyer. He said while we live abroad and have no Portuguese income, we don’t have to file.
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I thought that, as well. However, I received notification from: Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira info@at.gov.pt
SUBJECT: Apoio ao cumprimento voluntário relativo à residência fiscal
Quem se considera residente fiscal em Portugal?
As pessoas que no ano em causa:
Permanecem em Portugal mais de 183 dias (seguidos ou não) ou
quando permanecem por menos tempo, disponham em Portugal de habitação em condições de ser ocupada como residência habitual. A comunicação da alteração da residência fiscal é obrigatória no prazo de 60 dias.
I contacted my attorney who told me that because I own an apartment, deed finalized early 2023, that I need to prove I am a taxpayer in the US and send proof by June 30, 2024. I had not spent more than a month (total) in Portugal last year.
Form 8802 needs to be filed with the IRS to obtain certification to satisfy the tax authority.
**Form 8802 to request Form 6166 - a letter of U.S. residency certification for purposes of claiming benefits under an income tax treaty or value added tax (VAT) exemption. You cannot use Form 6166 to substantiate that U.S. taxes were paid for purposes of claiming a foreign tax credit.
Form 8802 can be faxed or mailed, not submitted online. However, I spoke with an IRS rep in Philly who told me they are working on December, 2023 applications, so…there’s that.
Also, if you file an extension (which I did for 2023), you can still request the certification as you need to complete a penalty of perjury statement when submitting.
But the internal revenue service will promptly cash your $85 check. On the website I think they say 6 to 8 weeks. So disappointing to hear it is now 16 weeks. This is up there with writing to SSA to establish your status under the totalization agreement.
If fact, while people complain about Portuguese bureaucracy, the US might be worse: the IRS, SSA, US Dept of State and the city/state of New York all routinely now take months to do anything.
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@ elorimerlogin - You can add California to that list!!!
Reports that citizenship applications are being accepted for people who are residents for 5 years which are counted since the manifestation of interest, so the law is being applied.
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where did you get the reports ?..
That doesn’t mean anything for us yet, still need regulations to come out. The ARI process doesn’t legally have a “manifest of interest”, so we don’t know how this will be interpreted in the context of our process.
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I agree I just indicated that is in regard to people who applied through MoI, however if the law is being applied then it should somehow be applicable to ARI.
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Thanks for sharing. Obviously, it is an improvement. And the regulation has not been published yet!!! 
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I sure hope it is - letting us all count time to citizenship from application day, would go a long way to righting the wrong that has been the rest of the process.
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I do hope so but we should keep it in mind that it just postdates the waiting time if there is no substantive change.
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Can someone explain me please when will know that exactly count time to citizenship starts from?
I follow this thread and others for a long time but I do not remember when someone stated exact time to learn this eternal truth.
From post 477 above…
Hopefully they will remember to address GV applicants in those new regulations. To this point they seem to have forgotten about us, focusing (of course) on the hundreds of thousands of immigrants already resident but in limbo.
Hopefully the regulations will also be unambiguous - perhaps too much to ask?
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The law came in to effect April 1 so its also possible the regulations will be release at the end of June -90 days from April 1
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In all likelihood, none of us will “know” until we’ve applied for citizenship and either been approved or denied.
The regulations are unlikely to specifically address GV Applicants because the law was not created for us—it was written for “expression of interest” applicants.
How it applies to GV Applicants will almost certainly be case-by-case because Portugal does not have a common-law system, so the precedent of other cases is not binding.
And of course the rule could be repealed or amended before it would become relevant to your application.
I sure love a lottery based legal system /s
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Right? Next time I try to expatriate, I’ll look into the legal system first.
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I would recommend Russia: the time you spend waiting for your release from a Siberian prison camp - about 8 to 10 years - might count towards your citizenship, not to mention enabling you to establish deep roots with the country.
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