Portugal · Citizenship by descent
Citizenship for descendants of Portuguese Sephardic Jews
This route is closed to new applicants. Organic Law 1/2026 revoked Article 6(7) of the Nationality Law, effective 19 May 2026. The Jewish Community of Lisbon stopped accepting new certification requests on 4 May 2026, the day after promulgation. Applications filed before the cut-off continue under the prior rules.
This was one of the most significant heritage-citizenship routes in Europe. Over 250,000 applications and more than 75,000 approvals came through it since 2015. It closed permanently in May 2026, after a decade of progressive tightening. Combined with Spain's parallel Sephardic law, which closed in 2019, the entire Iberian Sephardic corridor is now shut.
Qualifying routes
Closed. Article 6(7) was revoked on 19 May 2026.
The facts
- Minimum
- €250
- Total landed cost
- Not applicable. This route is closed.
- Route type
- By ancestry
- Physical presence
- None, historically.
- Permanent residency
- Not applicable
- Citizenship
- Pending applicants only.
- Language test
- None, historically.
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- The route is closed. Any firm still taking Sephardic certification retainers for new files in 2026 is selling a provision that no longer exists. That kind of practice was already a hallmark of the sector before closure, and it remains one now.
- Pending files are not risk-free. The 2022 tightening (Decree-Law 26/2022) already added residence and property connection requirements, and pending applicants now face heightened documentary scrutiny along with criminal investigations into certification practices.
- Portuguese nationality already granted under this route can still be challenged if it was obtained fraudulently. Article 12(B)(3) expressly denies consolidation to nationality obtained through fraud, and consolidation now requires 10 years of good-faith holding.