Portugal's Nationality Law Returns to Parliament Tomorrow with Three Competing Visions — What It Means for Expats

Portugal's Assembly of the Republic will reconvene on Wednesday to revisit the nationality law decrees that the Constitutional Court struck down in December. Three of the country's largest parliamentary blocs have filed competing amendment proposals, and the outcome could reshape the path to Portuguese citizenship for tens of thousands of foreign residents.

The stakes are unusually high. The original bill, approved by parliament last October, proposed doubling the residency requirement for citizenship from five to ten years for most foreign nationals, and to seven years for EU and Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) citizens. The Constitutional Court returned the legislation after ruling four key provisions unconstitutional, including the retroactive elimination of transitional protections for existing residents.

Three Proposals, Three Philosophies

The governing coalition of PSD and CDS-PP has filed amendments that largely preserve the original structure. The seven-year and ten-year timelines remain untouched. Critically, the coalition's text eliminates the grandfathering provisions that would have allowed current residents to apply under the old five-year rule. For foreign residents who moved to Portugal years ago expecting citizenship eligibility within five years, this is the hardest version on the table.

The Socialist Party (PS) has taken a more moderate approach, proposing six years for EU and CPLP nationals and nine years for everyone else. More importantly, PS has built in a layered transitional framework: anyone already meeting the old five-year requirement when the law takes effect could still apply under the previous rules until mid-2026, and graduated timelines would apply for those reaching the threshold in 2027 and 2028.

Chega, the right-wing populist party, has focused its amendments on criminal bars and a new self-sufficiency requirement rather than the residency timelines themselves. The party is also the only one to have filed amendments to the separate penal code decree that would create loss of nationality as a criminal penalty — a provision both PSD and PS have avoided addressing directly in their filings.

The Residency Clock: A Hidden Battleground

Perhaps the most consequential disagreement lies not in the headline residency numbers but in when the clock starts ticking. Under a 2024 reform, residence time was counted from the date a person applied for a residence permit, not from when AIMA issued it. Given that AIMA routinely takes two to four years to process permits, this distinction can add years to the effective wait.

The PSD/CDS-PP proposal revokes that provision, meaning the clock would restart from permit issuance. Only the PS proposal preserves the application-date counting method, and only until December 31, 2028. Legal experts have argued that reverting to the issuance-date rule effectively puts all the control in the public administration's hands and could raise constitutional questions of its own.

What This Means for Foreign Residents

For the estimated 20,000-plus Golden Visa investors awaiting AIMA appointments, and the broader community of foreign residents who relocated under the five-year citizenship framework, the outcome of Wednesday's debate will determine whether years of residency still count toward their citizenship timeline.

Under the PSD/CDS-PP version, a non-EU resident who moved to Portugal in 2022 expecting citizenship eligibility in 2027 would instead face a ten-year wait from the date of receiving their residence permit. Under the PS framework, that same resident would benefit from transitional protections and a shorter nine-year timeline.

The current five-year citizenship law remains in effect until new legislation is passed. However, the direction of travel is clear: all three major parties support extending the residency requirement in some form. The question is how far, how fast, and whether existing residents will be protected during the transition.

Wednesday's session comes amid a broader tightening of Portugal's immigration stance, with enforcement actions intensifying and 23,000 deportation orders issued in 2025. At the same time, the government continues to seek migrant labor for key sectors like tourism, highlighting the tension at the heart of Portugal's immigration policy.

For expats considering or already on the path to Portuguese citizenship, the advice from immigration lawyers is consistent: the current rules still apply, and those who can file applications now are in the strongest position regardless of which version parliament ultimately approves. Those still navigating the bureaucratic maze of Portuguese administration would do well to stay informed as the debate unfolds.