A Portuguese friend sent me this recently if it is any use:
“There’s already talks about a carve out of GV investors from the base law. My learnings from the past is that law in Portugal is like a pendulum, first goes to far one side, then super hard on the other side and slowly gets to a more fair and sustainable path. It’s stupid and takes time, but I truly believe they’ll have to carve out the GV investors from the immigrant base law and both are completely different situations.”
I personally think it’s completely unreasonable and unfair to only except GV applicants. All people who applied before the new law took effect should be included.
What’s reasonable and fair and what’s realistic don’t always align. I’ll believe the GV carve out when I see it, but right now there are massive legal actions being prepared against the Portuguese state, one of which focuses on international investment protections. I think everyone who applied for any residency card before the new law should be grandfathered into the old one, but the ARI and some of the D programs have the best legal arguments in favor of special treatment. Grandfathering them would head off the most damaging court cases.
I agree. The context of my discussion was GV investors though, so his response was only really about them..
Is this just a personal opinion from your friend? Any reason we should give any weight to this? As much as I would love to give that view any credence it just sounds like speculation
Please don’t take it too seriously. It’s just an opinion, but one I hold high when it comes to Portugal. But as we have seen even lawyers have been wrong on the recent changes, so we won’t know anything for sure until we have reached a final conclusion.
Today (5-June)… long after the new Nationality Law took effect… I finally received a response to my 14-April letter to the President. It’s just a regurgitation of what he wrote when he promulgated the decree, and didn’t address any of my specific questions, like:
…either they just don’t get it, or they just don’t care.
His Excellency the President of the Republic has instructed me to thank you for your communication, which has been given the utmost attention by this Office of the President.
The President of the Republic’s decision to promulgate Assembly of the Republic Decree No. 48/XVII, amending the Nationality Law, was taken after careful consideration, bearing in mind that the new legislation aims to address the unconstitutionalities declared by the Constitutional Court in Judgment No. 1133/2025, in the context of a preventive review of a previous version of the text.
Nevertheless, the President of the Republic made a point of publicly emphasising that the revision of a law of such significance as the Nationality Law should be based on a broader parliamentary and social consensus, moving away from short-term ideological considerations and ensuring lasting legal stability.
The decision to promulgate the law was also influenced by the view that the new criteria and time limits do not hinder the necessary humanitarian protection or the integration of children and minors born in Portugal to immigrant parents.
The President of the Republic also highlighted the need to ensure that pending cases are not adversely affected by the legislative amendment, and that the calculation of the legally established time limits for obtaining nationality is not affected by the slowness of State services.
Confident that your concerns have been duly taken into account, I send my best regards.
The Chief of Staff, Cláudia Ribeiro
Received the same reply. I wonder how many they sent?
Got the reply a week or so ago. I plan to reply back saying that the end result of what he approved is deeply disappointing - with examples of what it has meant for me and my family. Don’t think anyone is really going to care but is not much of an effort from my side as well.
Got below message from my lawyer. Please have a look and take appropriate action (if interested).
Petition for the Adoption of a Transitional Regime for the Nationality Law.docx (14.3 KB)
There were similar petitions while the law was being drafted and PSD + Chega ignored them. Since the government in power hasn’t changed, they will ignore this one too.