Portugal News

Lisbon, 22 October 2025 – The Portuguese Parliament’s relevant committee begins discussions today on a new draft law on nationality, aiming to change how foreigners become Portuguese citizens. 

The proposed law is part of a broader reform, responding to concerns about fairness and integration. Under the new framework, the time a foreign resident must live legally in Portugal before applying for citizenship could be shortened for some, and rules on how that time is counted may change.

The Partido Socialista (PS) has submitted formal amendments to the Portuguese nationality bill, proposing five years of legal residence for citizens of the European Union and CPLP nations, and seven years for nationals of other countries — replacing the government’s earlier ten-year proposal. 

Lisbon, 20 October 2025 — The Partido Socialista (PS) has tabled a decisive amendment to Portugal’s proposed citizenship reform, introducing a seven-year pathway to nationality for most foreign residents, while maintaining five years for citizens of the European Union and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP).

In response to immigrant appeals, the agency facilitates the inclusion of the Social Security number in online processes, allows computer systems to speak and tries to reduce queues at the Anjos post.

Residence permits that expired until June 30 will be valid until April 15, 2026. Those due from July 1 are worth another six months.

After October 15, and without being able to complete all the renewals of the residence cards, the Government of Portugal gave a new deadline for the documents: another six months of validity. However, the extension is only valid for those who have requested the renewal of residence permits.

Candidate for Belém rejects a link between immigration and crime, arguing that the “keyword” in this area should be “integration”

Belém candidate Henrique Gouveia e Melo has completely distanced himself from anti-immigration rhetoric, even if it means losing votes in the presidential race.

In an interview with Lusa news agency, when confronted with the possibility that his anti-immigrant rhetoric might win him votes, the former Chief of Staff of the Navy responded: “Then I’ll lose votes.”

Indians become the second nationality

At the end of 2024, 1,543,697 foreign citizens were registered in Portugal. This is the final number given by the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum in the report released this Thursday, which thus "removes" the figure released in April of almost three thousand immigrants and misses the estimate of 1.6 million.

The President had indicated that he would send the legislation back to the Constitutional Court, but this Thursday he ended up giving the green light to the law that regulates the entry, exit and removal of foreigners.

The President of the Republic has promulgated the legislation approving the new regime governing the entry, stay, departure and removal of foreigners from the national territory, one day after indicating that he would send the legislation back to the Constitutional Court.

New legislation will therefore not interfere with long-standing citizenship processes. The proposal will be discussed this Wednesday.

The Government will drop the application of retroactive effects in the Nationality Law, but maintain the loss of citizenship for those who commit very serious crimes.

Since the creation of the new website for online renewal, the introduction of the NISS has been a problem for those who have a degree without a NISS requirement, such as digital nomads, retirees and students.