Portugal
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Two significant developments have landed in the same week for foreign nationals living in or moving to Portugal. On April 1, 2026, Portugal's parliament voted 152-64 to double the residency requirement for citizenship from 5 to 10 years. The decree is now sitting on President António José Seguro's desk. Forty-eight hours later, AIMA announced that renewal certificates due to expire on April 15 are getting a 60-day extension, keeping tens of thousands of permit holders in legal status while the agency works through its backlog.
These two stories are connected by a single thread: Portugal's immigration system is under pressure from multiple directions at once, and the decisions being made right now will define the citizenship and residency landscape for years.
What the New Nationality Law Changes
The law that cleared parliament with a two-thirds majority represents a fundamental shift in how Portugal defines the path to a Portuguese passport. Here is what the approved text contains:
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 nationals and citizens of CPLP countries (Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, and others) face a 7-year requirement.
Clock reset: Under existing law, the residency clock starts from the date of application. The new law resets it to the date the first residence card is 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 is ending. Going forward, a child born in Portugal to foreign parents 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 language requirement.
No transitional provisions: This is the detail that has prompted the most urgent concern. The law contains no grandfathering clauses. If promulgated as written, it applies immediately, regardless of how long someone has already been building their residency history under the old rules.
The absence of a transitional regime was the direct result of the political deal struck between the ruling PSD and Chega, which sidelined the Socialists. The Socialist Party had pushed for grandfathering protections for people already in the system — that position lost.
Three Scenarios: What the President Could Do
The decree now sits with President António José Seguro, who was inaugurated on March 9, 2026 with a Socialist Party background and who has previously called for broad cross-party consensus on legislation of this sensitivity. He has 20 days to act. His options:
1. Sign and promulgate. The law takes effect immediately. Given his PS background and stated concerns about constitutional rigor and consensus, this is considered the least likely outcome in the short term.
2. Political veto. Seguro returns the law to parliament without promulgation. Parliament can override a political veto with a simple absolute majority — 116 votes. The PSD-Chega bloc commands more than that, so an override is highly probable. This scenario delays but does not stop the law.
3. Referral to the Constitutional Court. A previous version of this law was struck down by the Constitutional Court in December 2025, with several provisions ruled unconstitutional. The President can refer the new version for preventive review, which gives the Court 25 days to issue a ruling. This is widely considered the most likely scenario. If the Court finds new unconstitutionalities, the process loops back to parliament for revision.
A realistic timeline for full entry into force — assuming a Constitutional Court referral, a clean ruling, and parliamentary implementation of any required fixes — puts the effective date somewhere in mid-to-late 2026. The current 5-year citizenship law remains in force until the moment of promulgation.
What This Means for Golden Visa and Residence Permit Holders
The headline change is significant, but the scope of what it affects matters enormously. Here is a clear 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 before any further legislative changes.
The change affects citizenship only. The path to a Portuguese passport is what doubles. The path to living, working, banking, and traveling on a Portuguese residence permit is unaffected.
For those close to 5 years of residency under the old law: The window before promulgation may be short — weeks, not months. If you are approaching 5 years of legal residency and believe you meet the current naturalization criteria, the time to speak with an immigration lawyer is now, not after the President signs. Filing under the current rules before promulgation is the only way to potentially preserve access to the shorter timeline. Note: the Constitutional Court's December 2025 ruling confirmed that pending procedures are governed by the rules in force at the time of application, so filing before promulgation carries real legal weight.
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 or were submitted when processing was at its slowest.
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 deadline, 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 in a system.
Why the backlog persists: Cultural mediators — the subcontracted workers who form nearly half of AIMA's effective 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, with some offices reporting significant service interruptions. The underlying dispute — integration of subcontracted mediators into AIMA's permanent staff — remains unresolved, raising the risk of further stoppages in May and June.
Adding to the pressure: AIMA fee hikes of up to 33% took effect March 1, the agency's first fee adjustment since its creation. Families and investor applications feel it most.
What You Should Do Now
The situation is moving quickly on two tracks simultaneously. Here is a practical checklist for Golden Visa and residence permit holders:
Find your first residence card issue date. This is the date that will define your citizenship timeline under the new law. It is printed on your original card and recorded in your AIMA online portal account.
If you are approaching 5 years of residency, speak to an immigration lawyer immediately. The window before promulgation may be your only opportunity to file a citizenship application under the current 5-year rule. Do not wait for certainty about what the President will do — that process could conclude within weeks.
Verify your AIMA renewal certificate status. Log into the AIMA online portal and confirm the validity date of your renewal certificate. 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. 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 is tightening the rules around citizenship while simultaneously extending a lifeline to tens of thousands of permit holders stuck in the renewal backlog. Both of these things are true at once, and both require action from different groups of people.
The nationality law is not yet final. President Seguro has until approximately April 21 to act, and a Constitutional Court referral remains the most likely immediate outcome. But the direction of travel is clear, and waiting for certainty is itself a decision — one that may cost some residents the benefit of the old timeline.
Movingto Intelligence will continue monitoring developments as they unfold. When the President acts, we will update this coverage immediately.
Sources: Portuguese Government announcement of parliamentary approval | 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
