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On April 1, 2026, Portugal's parliament voted 152-64 (with one abstention) to extend the residency requirement for citizenship from 5 to 10 years for most non-EU nationals, and to 7 years for citizens of EU/EEA/Swiss and CPLP countries. President António José Seguro, inaugurated only weeks earlier on March 9, 2026, promulgated the decree on May 3, 2026. AIMA, meanwhile, has continued rolling extensions of renewal certificates as it works through the residual SEF backlog — the most recent extension pushed the deadline for one cohort to around June 14, 2026.
Here's where things stand, what the law actually changes, and what residents and prospective applicants should do now.
What the New Nationality Law Changes
The text that cleared parliament with a two-thirds majority is a substantive rewrite of the path to a Portuguese passport:
Residency requirement: The timeline to naturalization rises from 5 years to 10 years for most third-country nationals — the bracket that includes Americans, British, Canadians, and most non-EU investors. EU/EEA/Swiss nationals and citizens of CPLP countries (Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe, East Timor) face a 7-year requirement.
Clock reset: Under the previous regime, the residency clock started from the date the application for residence was filed. The new law resets it to the date the first residence card is actually issued. For anyone who waited through AIMA's notorious backlogs before receiving their card, this is a material difference — potentially adding a year or more to the baseline.
Children born in Portugal: Automatic birthright citizenship for children born in Portugal to foreign parents is tightened. Going forward, a child born in Portugal will only acquire citizenship if at least one parent has held legal residency for five years. Previously, a single year of parental residence — sometimes even less — sufficed.
Criminal threshold tightened: The disqualifying criminal threshold drops from a 5-year sentence to 3 years.
New civic knowledge test: Applicants will be required to pass a test covering Portuguese culture, history, institutions, and constitutional values — in addition to the existing A2-level (CIPLE) language requirement.
No transitional regime in the law itself: The law contains no statutory grandfathering clauses. The absence of a transitional regime was the direct result of the political deal between the ruling PSD and Chega, which sidelined the Socialists. The PS had pushed for grandfathering protections for people already in the system — that position lost.
How the Law Got Here: A Compressed Timeline
December 16, 2025. The Constitutional Court struck down several provisions of an earlier version of the law. Notably, the Court did NOT strike down the extended residency periods themselves; it ruled against the criminal-threshold framing, the "non-adherence to the national community" opposition ground, the fraud-based reversal rule, and the provision that pending applications would be judged on rules in force at the time of decision rather than at the time of filing. President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa subsequently vetoed the decree.
April 1, 2026. The Assembly approved a revised text 152–64, supported by PSD, Chega, IL and CDS-PP. The new version corrected the provisions the Court had struck, but came without a transitional regime.
May 3, 2026. President Seguro promulgated the law. In a public statement on signing, he noted that "a reinforced-value law of such importance should also be based on greater consensus around its essential principles" and stressed that pending applications must not be adversely affected by the legislative change. The political weight of that statement is unsettled — it is a presidential reading of how AIMA and the courts should treat pre-promulgation files, not a statutory grandfather clause.
What remains to be confirmed: the precise Diário da República publication date and the entry-into-force wording, plus how AIMA's implementation guidance handles the gap between Seguro's pending-applications statement and the law's silence on transitional rules. Until that guidance lands, the practical treatment of any file already in motion is partly a legal interpretation question.
What This Means for Golden Visa and Residence Permit Holders
The headline change is significant; the scope is narrower than the social-media panic suggested. A clean breakdown:
Your residence permit is not affected. D7, D8, Golden Visa, and all other Portuguese residence permits remain valid and fully renewable under existing rules. Nothing in this law changes the permit itself.
Permanent residency at 5 years is unchanged. After five years of legal residence, Golden Visa holders can still apply for permanent residency (PR) in Portugal. The investment PR route waives the minimum-stay obligation and remains available. This pathway is now more strategically relevant than ever for investors who want to lock in long-term rights.
The change affects citizenship only. The path to a Portuguese passport is what extends. The path to living, working, banking, and traveling on a Portuguese residence permit is unaffected.
If you already filed under the old rules: The Constitutional Court's December 2025 ruling reinforced the principle that pending procedures are governed by the rules in force at the time of application, and President Seguro publicly underlined the same point when promulgating the new law. AIMA's actual interpretation in implementation is the practical question now — if your citizenship file was submitted before May 3, 2026, get a Portuguese immigration lawyer to flag your case under tempus regit actum if AIMA tries to apply the new clock.
Find your first residence card issue date. Under the new law, that date becomes Day Zero of your residency clock for citizenship purposes — not your application date, not your appointment date.
AIMA Extends Renewal Certificates by 60 Days
While the nationality law debate was unfolding, AIMA quietly issued a second piece of important news. On April 2, 2026, The Portugal News reported that the agency is extending renewal certificates by 60 days for a specific cohort of permit holders.
Who this covers: Residence permits that expired on June 30, 2025, for which renewal requests were already submitted. These certificates had been extended to April 15, 2026 under AIMA's existing blanket protection regime. The April 2 announcement pushes that deadline approximately 60 days forward, to around June 14, 2026.
Scale of the problem: An estimated 40,000 to 60,000 cases remain actively pending as of early April 2026. AIMA inherited over 400,000 pending cases when it replaced the former SEF in October 2023, and while the agency has resolved the majority, the cases that remain are often the most complex.
What AIMA confirmed: The extension is automatic for certificates in this category. AIMA also confirmed that certificates can be renewed again after the 60-day period if cases remain unresolved and no final decision has been issued — meaning further extensions are possible if the backlog persists. Treat June 14 as a hard date for your own planning, not a soft one.
Carry printed copies. AIMA has specifically instructed permit holders to carry printed copies of their renewal certificates at all times. Do not rely solely on the digital version or assume that a border officer will know to look up your status.
Why the backlog persists: Cultural mediators — the subcontracted workers who form a significant share of AIMA's effective frontline staffing and serve as the linguistic and operational bridge between migrants and the bureaucracy — went on strike in late March 2026 over precarious employment contracts. Appointment disruptions spread across the country. The underlying dispute — integration of subcontracted mediators into AIMA's permanent staff — remains unresolved, raising the risk of further stoppages.
Adding to the pressure: AIMA fee hikes of up to 33% took effect March 1, 2026, the agency's first fee adjustment since its creation. Families and investor applications feel it most.
What You Should Do Now
A practical checklist for Golden Visa and residence permit holders:
Find your first residence card issue date. This is the date that now defines your citizenship timeline under the new law. It is printed on your original card and recorded in your AIMA online portal account.
If you have a pre-May 3, 2026 citizenship file, get a lawyer reviewing it. The Constitutional Court's December 2025 ruling and President Seguro's promulgation statement both support the position that pending applications are governed by the rules in force at the time of filing. AIMA's implementation guidance has not yet caught up to that statement — so contested cases are likely. Get representation in place before AIMA reaches your file.
Verify your AIMA renewal certificate status. Log into the AIMA online portal and confirm the validity date. Do not assume the 60-day extension has been applied without checking your specific case.
Print a fresh copy of your renewal certificate. The physical document you carry may show the old April 15 date. Generate and print a fresh version that reflects the updated June 14 validity.
If your case has been pending 12 months or more, consider legal action. Portuguese administrative law allows applicants to file a judicial subpoena compelling AIMA to issue a decision (ação de intimação para um comportamento). Cases that have cleared the statutory decision period without a ruling are eligible for this route, which has consistently produced decisions within 2 to 3 months in administrative courts.
Do not panic about your residency rights. The permanence of your residence permit, your ability to renew it, and your path to permanent residency at 5 years are all unchanged. The new law lengthens the citizenship timeline — it does not shorten the residency rights you already hold.
The Bottom Line
Portugal's new Nationality Law is in force. The citizenship clock now runs 10 years for most non-EU nationals and 7 years for EU/EEA/Swiss and CPLP citizens, and starts from the date of the first residence card rather than the application. Residence permits themselves — D7, D8, Golden Visa — and the 5-year permanent-residency milestone are unaffected.
The open question is implementation: how AIMA handles pre-May 3 files in light of the Constitutional Court's December 2025 ruling and President Seguro's promulgation statement, both of which point toward governing pending applications under the rules in force at the time of filing. Until AIMA's guidance lands, contested cases are likely.
We will update this coverage when the Diário da República publication details and AIMA implementation guidance are confirmed.
Sources: Portuguese Government — parliamentary approval announcement | The Portugal News — what the new Nationality Law means | The Portugal News — AIMA certificate extension | The Portugal News — AIMA workers strike | Outbound Investment — vote breakdown and no transitional regime | Constitutional Court — December 2025 press release
