On January 5th 2024 the Portuguese Parliament has approved amendments to the Portuguese Citizenship Law.
The groundbreaking amendment is the one according to which the time that has passed since the application for a residence permit will also be taken into account in the calculation of the 5 years period of legal residence required for the Citizenship request. Before, this 5 years period would start counting from the issuance of the first card and therefore the waiting time between the permit request and the first card issued would not be considered.
Also the Portuguese citizenship by Sephardic descent was amended, being now established two cumulative requirements: (i) a document proving the tradition of belonging to a Sephardic community of Portuguese origin, such as having Portuguese surnames, language or descent, and (ii) having legal residence in Portugal for a minimum period of 3 years, consecutive or interpolated. The verification of the first requirement is subject to approval by an evaluation committee appointed by the member of the government responsible for the area of Justice.
CMS will send a more detailed information once these amendments are ratified and published. We remain available for any necessary clarification.
