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Immigration

Immigration policy, visa changes, and the expat experience in Portugal.
More Than 500 Golden Visa Holders Prepare a Collective Lawsuit Against the Portuguese State Over the New Nationality Law — Liberty Legal, Fresh Portugal and Prime Legal Argue Breach of Legitimate Expectations as the Five-Year Path Doubles to Ten

More Than 500 Golden Visa Holders Prepare a Collective Lawsuit Against the Portuguese State Over the New Nationality Law — Liberty Legal, Fresh Portugal and Prime Legal Argue Breach of Legitimate Expectations as the Five-Year Path Doubles to Ten

More than 500 ARI holders, most of them North American, are coordinating a class action against the Portuguese State after the new Nationality Law pushed the citizenship clock from a five-year submission count to a ten-year residence-card count. Liberty Legal, Fresh Portugal and Prime Legal lead.
The Portugal Brief
MAI Suspends 11 Beja Police Officers Implicated in Operação Safra Justa Six Months After the November 2025 PJ Raid — 10 GNR Plus 1 PSP, the 500-Migrant Cabeça Gorda Network and the Disciplinary Channel Finally Catches Up With the Criminal Channel

MAI Suspends 11 Beja Police Officers Implicated in Operação Safra Justa Six Months After the November 2025 PJ Raid — 10 GNR Plus 1 PSP, the 500-Migrant Cabeça Gorda Network and the Disciplinary Channel Finally Catches Up With the Criminal Channel

MAI confirmed on Tuesday it has suspended 10 GNR militares and 1 PSP agent — all from Beja — implicated in Operação Safra Justa, the November 2025 PJ-led human-trafficking case targeting a Cabeça Gorda network that controlled 500 foreign agricultural workers in the Alentejo since 2023.
The Portugal Brief
President Seguro Signs the New Nationality Law Into Force — Naturalisation for Non-EU Residents Doubles to 10 Years, CPLP and EU Citizens Move to 7, and Birth-Right Citizenship Tightens to a Five-Year Parental Residency Test

President Seguro Signs the New Nationality Law Into Force — Naturalisation for Non-EU Residents Doubles to 10 Years, CPLP and EU Citizens Move to 7, and Birth-Right Citizenship Tightens to a Five-Year Parental Residency Test

President Seguro signed the new Lei da Nacionalidade on 3 May 2026, doubling naturalisation residency to 10 years for non-EU/CPLP applicants, raising it to 7 years for EU and CPLP citizens, and tightening birth-right citizenship to a 5-year parental residency test.
The Portugal Brief
Polícia Judiciária Searches AIMA's Ponta Delgada Office in Operação Linha Direta — Public Servants Suspected of Selling Appointment Priority and Case-Processing Speed Inside the Loja AIMA dos Açores

Polícia Judiciária Searches AIMA's Ponta Delgada Office in Operação Linha Direta — Public Servants Suspected of Selling Appointment Priority and Case-Processing Speed Inside the Loja AIMA dos Açores

PJ executed nine warrants on 29 April in Operação Linha Direta — three residences and three premises including the Loja AIMA in Ponta Delgada. Crimes: abuso de poder, recebimento indevido de vantagem, corrupção. AIMA opened an internal inquiry; STM union responded 2 May.
The Portugal Brief