Portugal’s President has just signed the new Nationality Law on May 3, 2026. It will be published in national gazette. After the publication it will become a law after 90 days. The approved law reinforces criteria of effective ties to the national community, extends residence periods
Pending processes cannot be affected. Administrative delays cannot penalize applicants either. Government will have 90 days to issue the updated Regulation. That means time and room for interpretation.
Nationality Law Changes
The new law introduces several changes that may impact your cases, the main ones being the following:
- Applications for citizenship will only become possible after 7 or 10 years of legal residence, depending on whether the applicants are nationals of Portuguese-speaking countries or third countries, respectively;
- The starting point for calculating the above-mentioned period will be the date of issuance of the first residence card;
- No transitional period or grandfathering provision has been included for ongoing residence processes;
- No special provisions or protection provided to golden visa holders.
- The rule allowing the waiting period following the residence application to be counted for citizenship purposes has been revoked.
Those who are still collecting the documents required to submit a citizenship application, only a few days remain.
