At this point, we should all be making shrines to Jorge Miranda.
IMI Daily’s analysis:
21 Likes
As someone who applied for a GV last month, what are my chances of being eligible for a 5-year naturalization timeline? Can someone knowledgeable about this topic weigh in? My lawyers say my application should be grandfathered, but I’d like to hear your opinions, since I’m sure many of you have also discussed this with your own lawyers.
1 Like
If there is anyone who has the slightest idea, it isn’t someone who is reading and posting on this forum. Certain cabinet ministers probably have an inkling of what the government will propose next, but only time will tell how it plays out in the committee hearing, plenary debate, parliamentary vote, and presidential + potential TC review.
However, that doesn’t mean we have to be passive and fatalistic. I welcome you to contact committee members through the parliament web site, and make a respectful appeal for a transitional regime for current participants (or whatever other relief you propose).
4 Likes
Oh man, welcome to the journey;) 
You can get a feel for what people have been saying by reading through the last month or so of convo on this forum, but to recap: things were looking pretty bleak, although just very recently Jorge Miranda, one of the original authors of the Portuguese constitution, published his opinion that changing the “wait time starts from when you first apply” would be unconstitutional, and that increasing the number years from 5 to 10 would be unconstitutional without a transitional period. Who knows if the constitutional court will agree, or how long the transitional period will be, or who will be grandfathered, or what the government will do. If your lawyer promised you you’d for sure get grandfathered in, he’s full of shit tbh. Nobody can say that with confidence, although there is a real hope after the Jorge Miranda opinion. Most of us have had to learn the hard way that most lawyers in this industry are salespeople and regularly paint a wayyyy rosier view of the situation, especially before taking your money. That said, there IS a real chance for a 5 year timeline, its just very much not guaranteed.
11 Likes
From early July…
If that schedule still holds - and yes I know the forest fire fracas flared up in the interim - then the time for talking and studying this issue is soon drawing to a close.
1 Like
Well, we’re already in the fourth week of September, with no sign of the committee report, the legislation and or any debate scheduled. Going to be an interesting few weeks ahead …
2 Likes
I don’t think anything related to immigration runs on-time in Portugal, so no surprise 
Maybe they’re secretly hoping André Ventura will succeed on his 2nd try for President? Then Senhor “This is not a country of burqas” will happily approve the most jingoistic and unconstitutional legislation they can offer him.
2 Likes
Live look at Jack watching the political action while waiting to apply for citizenship next month:
5 Likes
How did you hack my webcam?
14 days to go now … after reading that Miranda opinion, I’m a little more relaxed, but anything could happen.
5 Likes
While there is an apparent delay in the parliamentary proceedings regarding the matter, I would suggest anyone who have a few spare minutes on their hands prepare a letter to the Committee members, Government, and President, just in case we’d need to fire a salvo.
The summary of the demand should be very clear - full grandfathering of all existing ARI holders and applicants (including those converted to “special D2”) into the current regime on both counts:
a) 5 year residence to citizenship;
b) count of term from the date of application.
The rationale for demanding the grandfathering provision:
- unique nature of the ARI program as opposed to any other immigration category, ie. it being a specially designed package by PT government to attract foreign investors, who in turn trust PT government to hold their end of the bargain;
- explicit advertisement of clear path to citizenship in 5 years for ARI applicants by both SEF before and AIMA now on the respective public websites (see links in the thread above)
What's the potential impact of the 2025 Portuguese election on the Golden Visa program and pathway to citizenship? - #920 by tommigun - huge investments (min €200k+) and costs incurred by ARI applicants (i.e. the only category requiring explicit investment, x20 times permit fees as compared to ‘normal’ categories)
- massive delays up to 4+ years between initial application and granting of permit (again, unlike any other category which were all processed x20 times faster)
Embellish the wording a bit with your own context and translate to Portuguese before hitting send.
But again, I suggest we only hit ‘send’ at the right moment.
12 Likes
Tommigun do we know when the parliamentary proceeding will take place? In the past when there was a discussion, the processing of 6.1 was paused till there was clarity, I recall reading about the pause then. Since end of July, we don’t see new cases getting approved, things seem to be paused for all application which’s submission date is Sep 2023 or newer - at least for the online applications that now mostly sit with Porto IRN.
Supposed to be any day now, as I posted earlier today. But obviously things are not going to plan, and soon the Annual Budget needs to be the focus of Parliament’s attention.
PS. I’m told PT Budgets sometimes have implications for GVs, given that the GV is an investment programme after all. Anybody’s guess if this will be one of those years.
1 Like
ohh no fudge!
It looks as though the attempt to overcome the veto of the immigration law has come out:
It seems to bode well for us that the government is accepting defeat on constitutional grounds and watering the bill down substantially. Hopefully this means that the nationality law will make similar concessions.
4 Likes
What I can find so far re: “the new version of the law, amended after the Constitutional Court’s (TC) rejection… presented this morning, September 24th, by Minister António Leitão Amaro” in Diario de Noticias and Portugal Resident:
TBH this seems only a very slight “watering down” from the original 
Note this is NOT the new proposed Nationality Law changes - only the Foreigner’s Law ones.
- Family reunification applications: Couples in “legal and unforced” marriage (and only those with minor children? not sure!) must have lived together 1 year (instead of the earlier proposed 2) prior to entering PT, unless their child is disabled. Also some leeway for “member of the government responsible for migration” to waive this wait in exceptional cases.
I don’t know if the reporter is adding their own bias, but it’s written as “Husband comes to Portugal, can bring wife and children after a year” - as if there are no other types of families, or the wife can’t be the primary?? - Knowledge of Portuguese, Portuguese culture etc.: not expected prior to arrival for family members… but still expected for the primary?
- AIMA still has 9-month period to decide on the immigrant’s application: with possibility of extending this decision period.
- AIMA lawsuits: lot of weasel words here that seem to make lawsuits pointless, given AIMA is forever under “abnormal pressure and short of resources” -
“summons for the protection of rights, freedoms and guarantees”, will only be possible if “the action or omission of AIMA, IP, compromises, in a demonstrably serious and direct manner, the exercise, in a timely manner, of personal rights, freedoms and guarantees, whose protection cannot be effectively ensured through the available precautionary measures”. If the court accepts the case, “the judge must consider, if required, the number of administrative procedures that are underway with that entity, in the face of possible abnormal pressures of requests and requests, the human, administrative and financial resources available, which it is reasonable to expect”.
“The text has now been submitted to Parliament and will undergo voting procedures. Once approved, the next step is for President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa to sign it into law.”
3 Likes
Is not the same as
By definition if one spouse is in Portugal and one outside, they are not “living together” during that time.
Have to read the whole sentence
Chega already complaining about the new version of the Foreigners’ Law:
2 Likes
I don’t understand why the revised version is again presented by the government. What was the Committee doing then? Were they not supposed to audition the ‘stakeholders’ who they agreed to hear at least, and then somehow contribute to the revision of the returned law? Why is it again the government doing the edits somewhere in the basement of PSD, with no one in the Committee (full of Chega people) being aware of the revised content?
Sounds like some chaotic mess of a parliament.. No wonder they keep electing and ejecting each other every half year or so..
Rant is over 
1 Like
It’s the Government that proposes legislation… presumably with input from the Committee they formed.
But as Jack said earlier today:
…yet the (barely) revised Foreigner’s Law was presented this morning, and will be submitted to Parliament for a vote. Was the whole committee thing just a pretend “listening exercise?” (those of you in the corporate world will be familiar with these pointless things)
EDIT:
ok, to be fair, for the most part it was the Nationality Law that was postponed until September to allow for parliamentary committee discussion. So let’s see if any of that feedback gets acknowledged in the coming days…
3 Likes