Any new info regarding this topic tho? Have heard several versions of interpretation.
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So does anyone know if the official law has been published?
The law, yes. The regs, no.
excuse my ignorance, what does regs mean?
Sorry, regulations. The law provides that regulations are to be promulgated (by early July, I think, so they are overdue), which specify how the law is to be carried into effect. Until then, no one knows when the five year clock starts for GV, as opposed to MI.
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the inefficient portugese bureaucracy strikes agian
Living here, I’ve learned that all timelines, time estimates, deadlines, etc should be interpreted as “eventually”. Whatever it is you’ve ordered, or whatever document you’re owed, or whatever appointment you’re waiting for… they will all happen, but, eventually, and sometimes unpredictably. You just gotta roll with it.
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Eventually, yes, which I think is the idiomatic meaning of “na proxima semana”.
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Idiomatic or idiosyncratic?
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Received this from my consultant (Henley)
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Current delays: the GRP program continues to experience delays due to a backlog in the number of applications to be processed by the immigration office (AIMA). This applies to the stages of acceptance, biometrics, approval and issuance of residence cards. Although we as a firm cannot intervene with the internal backlogs of the Portuguese Government, we are systematically pressuring the Government and continue to monitor the different wait times. The backlog is expected to be improved but it is important to know that wait times are continually subject to AIMA’s inner progresses. On a positive note, it is now confirmed that a number of the Lisbon Immigration Office files are being sent to other Immigration Offices around the country (including the islands), to facilitate and speed up the processing of the total amount of files still to be reviewed.
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Subpoenas: applicants can choose to subpoena the Portuguese immigration office. Even though subpoenas based solely on the delay of the analysis of the applications were initially working because it was a new proceeding (the court had no option but to accept them and issue a decision in favor of the client), please know that the lawyers have been receiving a much larger number of rejections from the courts in this regard. This has to do with the enormous volume of subpoenas - one might say even an abuse of use of this proceeding; the court is now much more demanding on the fulfillment of the requirements to issue a favorable result. For this reason, most lawyers are only recommending this legal proceeding for cases of applicants who are living in Portugal or have actual plans of relocation to Portugal in the near future. Important to understand that this has also added to the pre-existing backlogs.
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Citizenship diploma: a new diploma has been added to the citizenship law which entails that, for purposes of citizenship application, the applicant will be able to count 5 years from the date of a) online submission of the application, or b) initial biometrics visit. The reason why it is not yet certain which of the moments will count is because the diploma has not yet been published. When this happens, there will be confirmation on which of the moments will be considered, as well as the paperwork requirement for such application. In any of the two possibilities, this is certainly favorable to you and all applicants who come in to the program. We will keep you informed as soon as there is final clarity on this.
This has been discussed ad nauseam in this forum, right?
The only new information that I could glean from this is that Lisbon bios are now being sent to other offices around Portugal for ‘faster’ 
processing.
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Yeah, has been discussed but this bit seems new. Or perhaps a return to how ARI used to be processed!
Can I use logic here and hope that my ARI application filed in Madeira - so that I can move to Madeira and live in the house that I bought two years ago in Madeira - is now being processed in Madeira?
And given that there’s far fewer of us Madeira applicants than mainland ones, I should be getting notified of progress any day now?
I hope AIMA/SEF has a good tool or system to track applications and documents that have been transferred to other offices for analysis and processing. There is a potential for misplacement and loss of documents when such a thing is done.
Yes, just one more thing to worry about
Thanks for the info. Does your consultant have any idea when the diploma is expected to be published?
É sempre na próxima semana.
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I think at this stage everyone’s guessing
Referring to the presentation presented by Your Excellency, we would like to inform you that it deserved our best consideration.
We hereby inform you that it is a requirement for the application for Portuguese nationality by length of residence that, on the date of submission of the application, the applicant:
a. be a legal resident in Portuguese territory; and
b. have been legally resident in Portugal for at least 5 years.
It is understood that individuals who are legally resident in Portuguese territory are those who are here, with their situation regularized before the Portuguese authorities, under any of the titles, visas or authorizations provided for in the regime of entry, stay, exit and removal of foreigners and under the right to asylum regime.
It follows from paragraph 4 of article 15 of Organic Law no. 1/2024, of March 5, that, for the purposes of counting the periods of legal residence provided for in this law, the time elapsed is also considered from the moment the temporary residence permit was requested, provided that it is granted.
It is the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum, IP that proves legal residence in Portuguese territory for at least five years, so upon receiving a Portuguese nationality application process based on legal residence in Portugal , a consultation is carried out with AIMA to certify whether the applicant has the necessary period of legal residence. We therefore recommend that you request information from the competent entity, using the following contacts:
Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum
20, Avenue Antonio Augusto de Aguiar
1069-119 Lisbon
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thank you for sharing. It is very useful information. At least we can see that AIMA know and follow the new citizenship’s law. Based on what they answered, it is very likely that 5 years counts from the submission of the residency application.
It helps that this seems to come from AIMA, but is that one person’s opinion there or actual policy?
I’m still waiting for a broadly published government diploma/regulation, instead of the PT lotto… “depends who processes your application” or “depends which judge hears your case.”
PS. That interpretation of Lei Orgânica n.º 1/2024 de 5 de março, Artigo 15.º Residência is the same as what our Advisors opined back in March, btw.
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The big “if” still is whether our first cards even get delivered 5 years post application submission. At the current pace of application processing, the starting line (no matter where it is), seems irrelevant.
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