Even before our initial lawsuit, we were in PT for at least a week almost every month - I think that qualifies as often. We had other “urgency” evidence like selling our UK place and needing to live in our PT home - judge didn’t care. Meanwhile our GV peer with same lawyer had none of this evidence and won with a different judge. So it’s totally based on a judge’s mood, not logic.
Our appeal is contesting the lower judge’s “you don’t live in Portugal” argument with “um, that’s because we can’t live in Portugal without a valid visa.” (Yes I know GVs who are living there pre-visa, but it’s tenuous and travelling out of PT is always iffy.) It will soon be a year since our appeal was accepted by the higher court, yet it just sits there rotting with thousands of other ones.
…so getting back to the topic of this thread: If we all have to start suing to protect our rights to citizenship based on 5 years, it will be the same random judgements and another massive backlog of lawsuits all over again.
Well there is one obvious impact, approvals of 6.1 nationality applications seem to be have been also stopped. All the credible approval reports from Porto IRN are from May 2023 or earlier - there were few reports stating that once the government program is declared (approved) on Jun 17-18, things will go back to normal. So far we have not seen much action, except for few may 23 applications getting approved.
It is the same party and even the minister of justice has not been changed, so hopefully the disruption will be ended pretty soon.
The change in new nationality law and how it will be implemented is a complete other story, yet we’ll have to wait for the wording for. From what I read, there is a consensus around increasing the years requirement to 10. I won’t be surprised if the expression of interest is dismissed and the clock will start from the issue date of the first residency card. The big question on the table is what will happen to current GV investors and I’m not getting into without seeing the approved legislation.
As explained by the governor, these deadlines will begin to count from the moment the residence permit is obtained, and not from the moment the citizen expresses this desire.
On the other hand, Leitão Amaro explained that, in this naturalization process, knowledge of the Portuguese language and culture will also be required, in addition to knowledge of the fundamental rights and duties inherent to Portuguese nationality.
The government approved this Monday in the Council of Ministers the extinction of the extraordinary naturalisation regime for descendants of Portuguese Sephardic Jews. This is one of the measures included in the proposal to revise the nationality law, which will have to be discussed and voted on in Parliament.
Do those by chance include the requirement of the Portuguese government to adhere to the timelines of the published laws in processing our applications within +/- 180 days from the date of the application?..
This has got to be the biggest scam executed on the state level. Everyone has lied to me so far from the fund managers that are at a loss to the lawyers and now the government.
This is insanity. Never thought the worst case would be this worse. Unless there is a relief for Golden visa applicants, this practically a rug pull for Golden visa applicants.
It should be illegal, if I market a product and then after taking your money I don’t deliver it would be considered fraud in most part of the world but not in Portugal apparently.
I understand everyone is rightly upset about this proposed change, but I’d just caution that we haven’t seen any actual legislation yet. We don’t know whether there will be grandfathering provisions for current GV holders. We also don’t yet know what constitutional or legal challenges might be on the horizon.
There is precedent for the government walking back changes that unfairly impacted applicants already in the system after a backlash eg. they reversed the 2024 decision to eliminate the manifestação pathway for people who had already applied or contributed to social security under the old rules.
Write to your lawyers and get proper advice. The game ain’t over yet.
