Portugal citizenship overhaul: 10-year wait proposed

Hundreds of conversations in cafés from Braga to Faro have suddenly shifted from house prices to passports. A government plan to overhaul Portugal’s nationality rules—complete with longer residency waits, a retroactive start date and tougher language and civics tests—has injected urgency into applications that once felt routine. While constitutional scholars see a courtroom clash coming, foreigners who already tick the five-year box must now decide whether to sprint for the finish line or prepare for a marathon.

Why the rush?

Many expats assumed their path to a crimson-red passport was locked in once they hit 5 years of legal stay. The new proposal, Bill No. 1/XVII/1.ª, restarts the stopwatch at the moment the first residence card is issued and pushes the finish line to 10 years—7 years if you hold a passport from another Portuguese-speaking nation. Even more unsettling, the draft states that all files lodged on or after 19 June 2025 must follow the stricter playbook, even though Parliament will not vote until September at the earliest. That retroactive twist has left lawyers scrambling and applicants refreshing AIMA’s online portal at dawn.

What exactly is changing?

The bill rewrites the 1981 Nationality Act on multiple fronts. Beyond the headline doubling of residency time, officials want an expanded integration checklist: proof of Portuguese-language proficiency, a civics exam covering constitutional rights and duties, and a signed pledge of allegiance. A criminal-record tweak bars anyone with any prison sentence, not just convictions of 3 years or more. Naturalisation would also become an "administrative discretion" rather than an automatic right once criteria are met, granting the Interior Ministry wider latitude to refuse. Finally, courts could strip nationality from new citizens sentenced to 5-plus-year terms within their first decade as Portuguese.

Who stands to lose—or wait longer?

Brazilians make up roughly 30 % of foreign residents, so the extra 2 years for Community of Portuguese-Language Countries (CPLP) nationals hits them hardest. Digital-nomad visa holders from the United States and India will see the bar leap from 5 to 10 years. Families whose children were born in Lisbon maternity wards may also be caught: under the blueprint, parents must hold 3 years of prior legal stay for a newborn to gain jus soli citizenship, up from the current 1 year. Meanwhile, the once-popular track for Sephardi Jewish descendants is scheduled for extinction, and parents of adult Portuguese citizens who live irregularly could lose their pathway altogether.

The retroactivity battle

Constitutional heavyweights including Jorge Miranda, Inês Ferreira Leite and the Ordem dos Advogados argue the back-dated clause breaches Article 2 of the Constitution, which protects legal certainty and legitimate expectation. Left-leaning parties BE and PCP have demanded a detailed committee review, warning that the measure resembles an ex post facto penalty on immigrants who followed the rules in good faith. Government jurists counter that nationality is a sovereign concession, not an acquired right, and therefore exempt from the usual ban on retroactivity. Observers expect the issue to land before the Constitutional Court if Parliament approves the text unchanged.

Timeline: what happens next?

Parliamentary debate is pencilled in for late September. Should lawmakers pass the bill, it would move to Presidential promulgation—or a possible veto—by mid-October. Serrated along the way are opportunities for amendments, including a mooted "grace period" for residents who reached 5 years before the June cutoff. Until any transitional clause is inked, immigration attorneys advise treating 19 June 2025 as the line in the sand.

A practical playbook for expats

First, verify the issue date on your residence permit—this, not your entry stamp, now governs eligibility. Next, gather the staples: passport, residence card, language certificate (A2 or higher), criminal-record extracts from Portugal and your home country, plus proof of address. If you filed a manifestação de interesse but still await a residence card, consult counsel immediately; the proposal would erase that waiting time from your residency tally. Many applicants are booking language-exam slots and civic-knowledge courses this summer in case the tests become mandatory overnight.

Beyond passports: life without citizenship

Even if the bill passes intact, holding a residence permit will still grant access to Portugal’s public healthcare, the Schengen travel area and most labour rights. What citizenship changes is the freedom to work elsewhere in the EU, vote in national elections and sidestep tedious visa renewals. For retirees on D7 visas, the new law affects nationality only; their right to reside and receive healthcare remains untouched.

The bottom line

Portugal is unlikely to slam its doors, but it does want would-be citizens to prove deeper roots. Whether the courts endorse retroactivity or not, the safest harbour for anybody at the 5-year mark is to submit a complete file before Parliament votes. After that, the journey from sunny Algarve apartment to European passport may become a very different, far longer road.