Portuguese Citizenship Now Takes 10 Years — What Changes in 2026 & Who’s Affected

 

Portuguese Citizenship Now Takes 10 Years — What Changes in 2026 & Who’s Affected

On May 3, 2025, Portugal’s President António José Seguro signed the country’s revised Nationality Law, doubling the residency requirement for most foreign nationals from five years to ten. The law passed parliament on April 1 with a 152-64 vote and now awaits formal publication in the Diário da República before taking effect.

https://www.portugalist.com/portuguese-citizenship-10-years/

 

For anyone who moved to Portugal — or was planning to — with citizenship in mind, this is a significant change. For some people already in the process, it’s a genuinely painful one.

 

What the Law Says

The key changes under the revised Nationality Law:

 

Most non-EU nationals (Americans, Brits, Canadians, and others): residency requirement increases from 5 years to 10 years

EU citizens and CPLP nationals (citizens of Portuguese-speaking countries): requirement increases to 7 years

The residency clock starts when AIMA issues your residence permit — not when you submit your application

A civics knowledge test will likely be introduced as part of the naturalization process

The law was signed with reservations. President Seguro noted that the revision of a law of this importance “should also be based on greater consensus,” and specifically flagged two concerns: that pending applications should not be adversely affected by the change, and that citizenship timelines should not be undermined by administrative delays caused by the state itself. These are presidential statements, not binding legal provisions — but they may carry weight if the law is challenged in court.

 

A separate decree that would have allowed courts to strip naturalized citizens of nationality upon criminal conviction remains suspended, pending a ruling from the Constitutional Court.

 

Portugal Isn’t the Only Country Doing This

Portugal tightening its citizenship rules isn’t happening in isolation. Across Europe, the direction of travel is consistent.

 

Spain scrapped its Golden Visa program entirely. Germany abolished its three-year fast-track naturalization route. The Netherlands has proposed extending naturalization from five to ten years. Italy has significantly restricted citizenship by ancestry.

 

Portugal’s stated rationale is straightforward: attract people who genuinely want to live here, rather than those treating residency as a transit route to an EU passport.

 

That’s a defensible position. And even with these changes, Portugal’s residency routes remain more accessible than most of its neighbors.

 

That said, it’s important to be realistic.

 

“10 Years” Is the Optimistic Version

The headline number is 10 years. The reality, for most people, is longer — sometimes considerably longer.

 

Here’s why. The new law resets the residency clock to the date AIMA issues your residence permit, reversing a 2024 amendment that had moved the start date to when applicants submitted their application. That earlier change was introduced specifically because AIMA — Portugal’s immigration agency — had developed significant backlogs, and it was unfair to penalize applicants for delays outside their control.

 

The new law undoes that protection.

 

Let’s say you’re applying for the D7 or D8 visa. If you submit your application today, you might be able to move to Portugal within around 6 months (optimistically-speaking) but it might take another 6 months before you have your residency card in hand. That means the clock starts ticking from that point.

 

The Golden Visa typically takes a little longer — around 18 months.

 

Then there’s the delays in the citizenship process. Right now, it takes around 2-4 years for a citizenship application to process.

 

All of these processes may improve. However, even if they do, 11 years from the point of application submission is probably the most optimistic timeline. 12-15 is more realistic.

 

The Grandfathering Problem

This is the part of the law that is hardest to defend.

 

If you submitted a citizenship application before the law takes effect, you should be processed under the rules that existed when you applied. That much is clear.

 

But if you moved to Portugal three years ago — or two years ago, or four — having planned your life around a five-year citizenship timeline, you are not protected. You will need to complete ten years from your permit issuance date. Your existing time does not count toward the new requirement.

 

This affects a wide range of people. D7 and D8 visa holders who did everything right and are now partway through a process that has changed without warning. And, particularly, Golden Visa investors who committed €500,000 or more specifically because Portuguese citizenship was part of the value proposition. These people made major financial decisions in good faith, based on rules that existed at the time.

 

There is currently no clarity on whether any transitional provisions will be introduced. It’s likely there will be lawsuits. Let’s see what happens.

 

What This Means for You

If you’ve already submitted a citizenship application: You should be processed under the old rules. Keep records of everything.

 

If you’re one to four years into your residency: This is the hardest position to be in. There’s no grandfathering protection as the law stands, and no clarity yet on whether any will be introduced. Document everything, take legal advice, and watch this space.

 

If you’re a Golden Visa investor mid-process: Get specific legal advice. A challenge to the law filed by Golden Visa investors at the Constitutional Court in December 2025 is still unresolved. There may be legal avenues worth exploring.

 

If you haven’t moved yet: Portugal is still one of the most accessible routes into Europe for people without European ancestry or exceptional wealth. The D7 remains one of the most attainable visas for those with stable passive or remote income. Go in with realistic expectations — plan around thirteen to fifteen years to citizenship — and the fundamentals are still strong.

 

Is Portugal Still Worth It?

If you moved to Portugal, or are thinking about moving, because you genuinely want to live here, the quality of daily life hasn’t changed. Safety, climate, healthcare, cost of living, community — none of that was affected by what was signed on May 3rd.

 

During the First 5 Years: Temporary Residency

For the first five years, you’re on temporary residency. The name sounds precarious — it isn’t, for most people.

 

Temporary residency is renewable, and in practice, renewal is a formality for the overwhelming majority of residents who are living here legally and not doing anything to jeopardize their status. “Temporary” describes the card, not your life in Portugal.

 

During this period you have access to the public healthcare system, Portuguese educational institutions, and the same day-to-day legal protections as a permanent resident or citizen. You can work, run a business, open bank accounts, sign leases, and build a normal life. The main thing you don’t have is voting rights in national elections — but in terms of how daily life actually feels, temporary residency is closer to full membership than most people expect before they get here.

 

So while the citizenship timeline has lengthened considerably, the clock doesn’t start at zero in terms of quality of life. You’re not waiting ten-plus years to start living properly in Portugal. You’re doing that from day one.

 

Years 5-10: Permanent Residency

After five years of legal residence, you can apply for permanent residency.

 

And here’s the part that surprises most people: you’re allowed to spend up to 30 non-consecutive months outside Portugal in any three-year period without losing your permanent residency status.

 

You can be absent for up to 24 consecutive months

Or up to 30 months total within any 3-year period

That’s a lot of flexibility. For people who split their time between Portugal and another country, or who travel extensively, permanent residency is genuinely workable in a way that temporary residency isn’t.

 

It’s not citizenship. A passport is more secure — harder to lose, and it doesn’t depend on a government that has now demonstrated it’s willing to change the rules. But permanent residency covers most of what matters in daily life, and for many people it’s enough.

 

Years 10+: Waiting for Citizenship

As with the previous period, you have permanent residency. In practical terms, your life in Portugal doesn’t look very different from a citizen’s. You’re not in limbo — you’re settled, you have your rights, you have your stability.

 

You’re just waiting for the paperwork to catch up.

 

As things stand, citizenship applications are taking around two to three years to process. That could improve by the time most people reading this reach that stage — there’s no particular reason to assume it won’t. But it’s worth knowing that applying at the ten-year mark doesn’t mean receiving citizenship at the ten-year mark. Factor in another two to three years on top.

 

It’s a frustrating final stretch, mostly because there’s nothing to do but wait. But it’s also the least disruptive part of the process. Your life is already here. The passport, when it comes, is confirmation of something that’s already true.

 

Final Thoughts

This is an unfortunate development — there’s no way to dress it up otherwise. For people already here, already planning, already invested, the rug has been pulled. That deserves to be said clearly.

 

At the same time, Portugal isn’t an outlier. This is the direction most EU countries are heading, and the underlying reasoning — that citizenship should mean something, that residency shouldn’t simply be a transit lounge for a passport — is one we can respect, even if we disagree with how this particular law was implemented. What we can’t condone is the absence of any grandfathering protection for people who were already in the process. That’s not a policy position — it’s a basic matter of good faith toward people who trusted the system. We’ll be watching what happens in the courts closely.

 

Portugal will remain one of the most popular destinations in Europe for people looking to relocate. The D7, the Golden Visa, the D2, the D8 — taken together, Portugal’s visa options are still stronger than almost anywhere else in the EU. That hasn’t changed.

 

But it’s no longer the no-brainer it was a few years ago. There was a time when Portugal was the obvious answer for almost anyone asking “where should I move in Europe?” Now, people will weigh it more carefully — against Spain, Greece, Malta, Albania, and others. The calculation is more complicated than it used to be.

 

That said, we expect most people who do the research will still end up here. Spain doesn’t recognize dual citizenship. Albania is not in the EU yet. Malta is more isolated than Portugal. Other countries, like Ireland or Germany, don’t offer the same attainable visas that Portugal does.

 

Portugal still offers a fantastic deal for those wishing to move to Portugal — it just won’t be quite as straightforward a decision as it once was.