Portugal · Citizenship by naturalisation
Naturalisation (Lei da Nacionalidade, as amended by Organic Law 1/2026)
This was fundamentally reformed by Organic Law 1/2026, published in Diário da República no. 95 on 18 May 2026 and in force from 19 May 2026. The residency requirement rose from 5 years to 7 years for EU and Portuguese-speaking countries, or 10 years for all others.
This is the most consequential immigration change in Western Europe in 2025–26, and it is widely misreported. The Constitutional Court struck down retroactive application in December 2025. Parliament then re-passed the law with a narrow saving clause. Article 7(2) preserves the old five-year rule only for administrative procedures already pending on 19 May 2026. A residence permit is not a pending procedure. Tens of thousands of residents who assumed they were protected are not.
Qualifying routes
This requires 7 years of legal residence (Article 6(1)(b)). The figure given is an approximate government fee.
This requires 10 years of legal residence (Article 6(1)(b)). The figure given is an approximate government fee.
This requires 4 years of legal residence. The procedure itself is free of charge (Article 6(3), 6(12)).
Article 6(8) waives the residency-period requirement, but 5 years of legal residence in Portugal is still required.
Article 3 requires 3 or more years of marriage, or 3 or more years of a de facto union with a court declaration of recognition. This is acquisition by declaration, not naturalisation.
The facts
- Minimum
- €250
- Total landed cost
- Expect EUR 250–400 in government fees per applicant, plus EUR 2–6k in legal and document costs. The real cost, though, is the ten-year residence itself.
- Route type
- By residence
- Timeline
- 1–3 years (IRN processing happens after the residence period. Historically this has taken 12–24 months, and the 2026 rule change is expected to add friction.)
- Physical presence
- Legal residence is required throughout. Article 15(3) allows periods, continuous or interrupted, to be aggregated, provided they fall within a window of 6 years for stateless applicants, 9 years for EU or CPLP nationals, or 12 years for other nationalities.
- Family
- Minor children of a naturalising parent may acquire citizenship by declaration (Article 2)
- Permanent residency
- Not applicable
- Citizenship
- 7 or 10 years from the issuance of the first residence permit.
- Language test
- Article 6(1)(c) requires applicants to demonstrate, by test or certificate, sufficient knowledge of the Portuguese language and culture, as well as national history and symbols. CPLP nationals are presumed to satisfy the language requirement unless a manifest lack of Portuguese is evident (Article 6(10)). The exact level required is currently being reset by regulation.
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- Adult under Portuguese law7 or 10 years of legal residence, depending on nationalityPortuguese language test, plus a culture, history and national symbols test or certificateSufficient knowledge of fundamental rights, duties and the political organisation of the Portuguese stateA solemn declaration of adherence to democratic rule-of-law principlesClean criminal record, in Portugal and in any country of nationality or residenceNo national security threat, and no UN or EU sanctionsCapacity to support yourself financiallyBiometric data collection
- The clock now starts at the issuance of the first residence permit. Article 15(4), which allowed counting from the date the residence-permit application was submitted, has been expressly revoked by Article 5 of Organic Law 1/2026. Combined with AIMA's multi-year backlog, this quietly adds two to three years to every timeline.
- Article 7(2) grandfathering is narrower than the marketing suggests. It protects pending nationality applications. It does not protect pending residence applications, and it does not protect residence permit holders who had not yet filed for nationality.
- New substantive bars now apply. Applicants must make a solemn declaration of adherence to democratic rule-of-law principles (Article 6(1)(e)). They must have no conviction with an effective prison sentence over 3 years for terrorism, violent or highly organised crime, crimes against state security, or aiding illegal immigration (Article 6(1)(f)). They must pose no threat to national security (6(1)(g)), be free of UN or EU restrictive measures (6(1)(h)), and be able to support themselves (6(1)(i)).
- The culture, history and symbols test in Article 6(1)(c) is new, and it goes well beyond the old A2 language test. Its format and level are supposed to be set by regulation due within 90 days of 18 May 2026. As of mid-July 2026, that regulation still has not appeared. In practice, clients cannot prepare for a test that has not yet been defined.
- Article 12(B) now requires 10 years of good-faith holding before nationality can consolidate against a nullity declaration. That protection never applies if the nationality was obtained through fraud.
- Litigation risk runs in both directions here. Golden Visa investors have already challenged the law at the Constitutional Court, and further changes are plausible. A client should not assume today's rules are the final word.