Portugal denies over 3,000 residency-based nationality applications

The Portuguese Ministry of Justice and the Institute of Registries and Notary (IRN) reported that over 3,000 nationality applications based on residency were preliminarily denied in the last two months. Data indicates that a significant portion of these applicants are Brazilian nationals.

Since July 1, a special task force comprising 41 professionals across the Central Registry Office in Lisbon and the Central Archive in Porto has been working to process hundreds of thousands of pending cases. This intervention has reportedly accelerated the processing timeline by approximately four months, moving the treatment period from late 2025 to March 2026.

While the reported decisions are preliminary denials that may be reversible, the task force has also finalized 1,240 decisions and prepared 623 cases regarding the children of Portuguese citizens.