It appears the election of the replacement TC judges (3 of 11) has finally been scheduled for April 16th. It is not yet clear which parties will be submitting the replacement candidates, but it it expected to be known later today. The outcome would determine if the PS ‘majority’ in the TC will be retained or not if CH enters its own candidate (1) replacing the PS’ outgoing judge. The other 2 are expected to be replaced like-for-like by PSD.
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The content/intent of the plenary session on April 1st remains a bit of a mystery still.
There is nothing substantially new posted on the Assembly website in relation to the previously vetoed LdN proposal. The records are pretty complete showing the full history of the legislation path so far, but the last update dated Jan 7th when the presidential veto was published.
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You are our eye in the sky, Tommy.
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It’s not gonna be known ‘later today’ as the submissions of the TC candidates will be made on April 2nd, and the elections on April 16th.
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@eljefe6a and @jim.ewel - thanks for your update yesterday on the lobbying efforts.
Beyond what you said re: “If the primary Law does not explicitly allow for the protection of ongoing residency applications, a Regulation may not have the legal authority to “fix” that omission later… [thus need to ensure] protections are integrated into the primary Law”
GV’ers also know from the past 3-4 years that Portugal:
- Sometimes ‘forgets’ to even mention GVs in legislation affecting them (e.g. wait time counting towards 5 years was intro’d with only Manifestação de Interesse in mind), which leaves us at the arbitrary discretion of whoever’s working our case.
- Sometimes never goes through with intended regulation. Again counting waiting time was never regulated by the current government.
…so 
it’s critical that the primary Law provides explicit protections. Otherwise PT will just weasel out of them like it’s done in the past.
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Just one question, does the election of 3 TC judges create any interdependency, e.g. once I read that TC was waiting for the election of vacant seats (the 3 judges) to write its full detailed official analysis but I recall we going through TC’s decision on 8 objection points in detail in November.
Or the election is more important in the sense of which sides maintains majority in TC.
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It’s the latter. And the dependency was that PSD/CH coalition did not want to re-vote the LdN until their own TC judges are in place.
But also I read there is a bigger game at stake as they allegedly want to change the Constitution itself in some ways to suit them better (I don’t know how).
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I have to say this is a bit scary in the sense that there might be a bigger game at stake.. This would also explain all of the arbitrary delays with regards to processing of existing applications and why nationality law has still not been finalized. My initial expectation was that PSD would immediately amend the law and pass it with the previous president so that the new law would come in force quicker. I always questioned why they wanted to wait for something which they were so keen on pushing. Now I can connect few dots.
I believe the discussion on 1st of April will give us a better visibility of what’s in the ruling party (parties) mind.
and just a note that Porto IRN still has not kicked off processing November 2023 applications, whereas we have seen October 2023 applications getting approved in last year December - Dec 2025. 4 months have passed and the processing doesn’t really progress into the next month… This doesn’t seem right.
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Wow! Massive update of the Assembly’s agenda, have not analyzed all of it yet, but!
That’s what is put for the LdN discussion on April 1st now:
Da iniciativa de Ilia Bobin e outros - Pela criação de um regime transitório que mantenha temporariamente o prazo de cinco anos para a naturalização dos estrangeiros residentes legalmente em Portugal, em caso de alteração à Lei da Nacionalidade (Lei n.º 37/81)
Da iniciativa de Juliet Cristino e outros - Alteração à Lei da Nacionalidade relativa à contagem dos cinco anos de residência legal em Portugal para naturalização
Da iniciativa de Priscila Santos Nazareth Correa e outros - Solicitam a alteração da Lei da Nacionalidade, no sentido de o prazo de residência, para efeitos de naturalização, continuar a contar-se a partir do momento do pedido da autorização de residência, por qualquer via formulado, e de ser estabelecida uma norma transitória para quem já reúne o requisito vigente da residência legal de 5 anos mas ainda não apresentou o seu pedido
So the Fools Day is not looking as ominous as it used to 
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Maybe try to pull off something like this: (this is crazy!!)
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Is this why they aren’t accepting any more applications (by not allowing folks to submit application fees?)
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Wait. What’s this now?
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How do you mean? Are you confusing AIMA vs. IRN perhaps?
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I was responding to the article about Denmark about freezing citizenship applications. We cannot submit GV applications because AIMA isn’t accepting payment right now for applications. Which is one way to slow down processing - if you don’t accept new applications, you don’t have to process them…If you start the clock starting at application, your client needs to have an application submitted. It becomes a very easy circle to close.
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In case you haven’t seen Michelle’s (and others’) posts over here…
Hmmm - spoken to Trump lately? Seen the H1 process and the endless wait for green cards. Pull the other one, lad.
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Guys can y’all focus on Portugal in this thread please. I don’t care what whoever is spoken to about in some god forsaken place in this world.
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Who is the person/party proposing this amendment? Will they have the numbers, incentive or leverage to get this through?
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These are not the amendments listed. These are petitions previously submitted by petitioners (members of public) that reached 7,500 signatures threshold at some point triggering consideration at the Assembly. At least two of these have gone through the Commission hearing already as far as I remember.
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Thanks Tommy - for keeping track of what is now part of the Nationality law portfolio to be debated.
I’ve only kept track of one of the petitions - but it reached the 7500 signatures (and required consideration in Parliament in January 2026) ie after the TC December decision. It is interesting that there are other formal submissions along the same lines that become part of what Parliament needs to take into account in its debate on the nationality law.
Re TC membership - At the last count, 3 TC seats were available to be filled, perhaps 4 as the President of the TC is retiring. There needs to be a consensus between the major parties on the candidates in order for Parliament to approve the names by a two-thirds majority - which is not achievable with only PS and AD agreement. Therefore, Chega must agree in order for Parliament to reach the two-thirds bar.
A lack of agreement on names has paralyzed the work of the TC as it cannot meet until candidates are approved.
Once the nationality law has been debated and approved in Parliament (to deal with issues brought up by the TC plus other points now up for consideration), it will go to the new President to sign. The new president made it clear during the election period that on issues of national interest (eg the nationality law) it is essential that there be agreement by all major parties on its content.
The President will also have the right to send it to the TC to check on its constitutionality before signing. As the new President is not a lawyer (unlike the previous president), he may choose to exercise this right.
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