Portugal's Cabinet Signs Off on the Rules for Its Stricter Nationality Law, but Their Text Is Not Yet Public
The Council of Ministers adopted the decree-law that puts the amended Nationality Law fully into practice. Its text is not yet public, it still needs the President's signature, and pending applications stay under the old rules.
Portugal's Conselho de Ministros (Council of Ministers) approved on Thursday the decree-law that rewrites the Regulamento da Nacionalidade Portuguesa (Portuguese Nationality Regulation), the rulebook the Instituto dos Registos e do Notariado (IRN, the registry institute) applies to citizenship applications. The Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro, said after the meeting that it allows the "full application" of the amended Nationality Law, Lusa reported in copy carried by Notícias ao Minuto.
The decree-law's text has not been released, and by Thursday evening the Government had not posted a communiqué on the meeting. The details applicants most need, such as how the new tests will work and which documents will be accepted, are therefore not yet public.
What the minister said
"The great pillars of this reform were decided in the Nationality Law; it fell to us now to approve the regulation for its full application, and that is what we did, while seeking to simplify some aspects of procedure so it is less bureaucratic," Leitão Amaro said, according to Lusa. He did not say which procedures change.
According to ECO, he listed the requirements the law added: knowledge of the language, history and culture, adherence to constitutional values, and a solemn declaration accepting them. "We made the granting of Portuguese citizenship more demanding," he said.
The law these rules put into practice
The amended law is Lei Orgânica n.º 1/2026 (Organic Law 1/2026), published in the Diário da República (official gazette) on 18 May and in force since 19 May. For naturalisation by residence, it requires:
- seven years of legal residence for nationals of Portuguese-speaking countries and for EU citizens, and ten years for everyone else, up from five;
- a test or certificate proving sufficient knowledge of Portuguese language and culture, history and national symbols;
- sufficient knowledge of the fundamental rights and duties of citizenship and of how the Portuguese state is organised, plus a solemn declaration of adherence to the principles of the democratic rule of law;
- the ability to support oneself.
Separate periods of legal residence can be added together, with or without gaps, provided they fall within a window of 9 years for Portuguese-speaking and EU nationals or 12 years for others. The law also repealed the 2024 rule that counted the time spent waiting for a temporary residence permit, as long as the permit was later granted.
The law gave the Government 90 days from publication to amend the regulation, a deadline that passed in mid-August.
Pending applications and the next steps
Under article 7 of the amending law, applications already pending when it took effect are decided under the previous version of the Nationality Law. The IRN told Público in May that the date an application was submitted on its platform is the date that counts. The registry had more than 690,000 nationality files waiting at the end of June, as we reported on 21 October. Nothing said on Thursday indicates that the regulation changes the rules applied to those files.
Like any decree-law, the regulation must be promulgated by the President of the Republic, António José Seguro, and published in the Diário da República before it applies. No date was given for either step. Seguro promulgated the law itself on 3 May, saying he would have wished it to rest on "a broader consensus".
For anyone preparing a residence-based application under the new rules, the published decree-law will be the first official word on which tests and documents the IRN will accept.
