Do children have to take Portugal's citizenship test?
Short answer: in most of the routes by which a child becomes Portuguese, there is no test at all. The knowledge requirement was created by point (c) of the adult paragraph in the article that governs naturalisation, in Law 37/81, and that paragraph opens by limiting itself to applicants who are «maiores de idade» — of full age under Portuguese law. Children born in Portugal apply under the next paragraph, which imports only sub-paragraphs (e) to (h) of the adult list. Sub-paragraph (c) is not among them.
The useful part of this article is not that headline, though — it is the two things around it. There is one route where a minor is caught by the knowledge requirement, and there is a timing trap: turning 18 on the wrong side of your filing date moves you out of the child regime and into the new seven- and ten-year residence rules, which is a different application entirely. For the general map of who is exempt, see who is exempt from the test — this page is only about what age changes.
- On the most common route — a child born in Portugal — the law imports only sub-paragraphs (e) to (h): no knowledge test.
- The exception is stateless children: the law does not spare them sub-paragraphs (c) and (d), and it sets no age condition at all.
- Turning 18 before you file changes everything — the young person moves from the bound regime for minors into the discretionary adult regime, test included.
One institutional point, because it saves a wasted trip
Nationality applications for children, like all others, are handled by the IRN — the Institute of Registries and Notaries, under the Ministry of Justice — through civil registry offices and its online platform. AIMA handles residence permits. They are separate bodies with separate files, and a pending AIMA case for the parents is not a pending nationality case for the child.
What the law says, paragraph by paragraph
The whole answer lives in which sub-paragraphs each numbered paragraph cross-refers to, so it is worth being literal. In Law 37/81 as republished by Organic Law 1/2026:
| Paragraph | Who it covers | Test required (points c and d)? |
|---|---|---|
| Paragraph 1 — adults | General naturalisation requirements, from the age of majority | Yes |
| Paragraph 2 — children born in Portugal | A parent with 5 years of legal residence, and the child in compulsory schooling | No — only points (e) to (h), once the child is 16 |
| Paragraph 3 — stateless people | 4 years of legal residence; no age condition | Yes |
| Paragraph 4 — children in institutional care | Government decision in the child's best interests, brought by the public prosecutor | No |
Paragraph 4 breaks from the other paragraphs' logic of sub-points: it is not a list of requirements, it is a discretionary power of the Government, with its own standard:
pode conceder a nacionalidade, designadamente ponderando o superior interesse da criança [...] cabendo ao Ministério Público promover o respetivo procedimento
All these paragraphs belong to the same article — the one that governs naturalisation — and a further paragraph makes the procedure free of charge for everyone covered by paragraphs 2, 3 and 4. So: of the four doors a minor can use, three carry no knowledge requirement and one does.
Most children never reach Article 6 in the first place
If you are a foreign family living in Portugal, check this before anything else, because naturalisation may be the wrong instrument entirely. The attribution part of the statute grants original nationality — not acquired, original, effective from birth — to children born in Portugal where at least one parent was also born here and lives here (sub-paragraph e); to children born in Portugal to foreign parents where one parent had been legally resident for five years at the time of the birth, by declaration (sub-paragraph f); and to anyone born in Portuguese territory who holds no other nationality (sub-paragraph g).
None of those requires a test — except sub-paragraph (d), the grandchildren-of-Portuguese route, which now carries the same knowledge requirements as naturalisation and is a different conversation. For an expatriate family on a D7 or a work visa whose child was born in Lisbon after the parents had five years of legal residence, this is the route that matters, and it is both faster and stronger than naturalisation.
Two more short doors sit outside attribution. One provision, in full: children who are minors, of a parent who acquires Portuguese nationality, may also acquire it by declaration. That is the entire provision — no conditions attached. Another: a person adopted by a Portuguese national acquires nationality by declaration. If a parent gets through, the minor children follow by declaration and prove nothing.
The exception nobody writes about: stateless minors
Read paragraph 3 again. It requires sub-paragraphs (c) to (h) and it does not say «of full age». Taken literally, a stateless minor with four years of legal residence falls inside the knowledge requirement, while a minor born in Portugal to foreign parents does not. That is an odd asymmetry and we are not going to pretend to know whether it is deliberate.
In practice most stateless children born in Portugal never need paragraph 3, because sub-paragraph (g) of attribution already gives original nationality to anyone born in Portuguese territory without another nationality. Paragraph 3 matters mainly to families who arrived stateless. For them, the honest answer is that the statute as written does not exempt the child — and that the test does not yet exist to be sat.
Turning 18: before you file, and after you file
This is where real money and real years are at stake, and it turns on four words that recur through the legislation: «no momento do pedido», at the moment of application. They appear in paragraph 1 of Article 6, they appear in paragraph 2, and they appear again in the Nationality Regulation (Decree-Law 237-A/2006). Requirements are assessed as at the filing date.
Two opposite consequences follow. The reassuring one: if the application went in while your child was still a minor, paragraph 2 is the frame, and the State's slowness should not change that. This matters, because the slowness is severe — how long a nationality file actually takes is measured in years, and a 16-year-old who files can comfortably turn 18 while waiting.
The warning is the other side. Let the eighteenth birthday pass without filing and paragraph 2 closes. The application becomes an adult one under paragraph 1: seven or ten years of legal residence in the young person's own name, capacity to support themselves, the solemn declaration of adherence to the principles of the democratic rule of law, and — once it exists — the test. Note the verb, too: paragraph 2 says the Government «concede», grants, while paragraph 4 says it «pode conceder», may grant. The route for minors born in Portugal is a bound decision, not a discretionary one, and that is what gets lost. If there is a 17-year-old in the house, the filing date is probably the most consequential decision on your desk.
The limit of what we are claiming: the reading that requirements freeze at the filing date comes from the text of the statute and the Regulation. As of this publication we have not found a published IRN instruction or a known decision dealing expressly with majority reached while a file is pending. If that is your situation, ask in writing and keep the reply.
At 16 something changes — but not the test
Sub-paragraph (c) of paragraph 2 bites on a child who «tenha completado a idade da imputabilidade penal». That age is not in the Nationality Law; it is in the Penal Code, whose entire text on the point reads: «Os menores de 16 anos são inimputáveis» — those under 16 lack criminal capacity. From 16, then, a minor's application additionally requires sub-paragraphs (e) to (h): the solemn declaration and the three security and criminal record clauses.
In practice this means paperwork. A provision of the Regulation requires criminal record certificates from Portugal and from the countries of birth, nationality and residence «sempre que o menor tenha completado a idade de imputabilidade penal». Below 16 they are not requested. What does not arrive at 16 is the knowledge requirement — (c) and (d) stay out.
The Regulation in force no longer matches the statute
Here is a mismatch anyone can verify, and it has not been fixed. The Regulation grants nationality to minors born in Portugal who meet «uma das seguintes condições» — one of the following: a parent resident here for five years «independentemente de título» (regardless of legal status), or a parent with legal residence, or the child having attended at least one year of schooling in Portugal. Alternatives, one of which expressly waives any residence title.
The new paragraph 2 of Article 6 says something different: the requirements must be met «cumulativamente», the parent must reside legally for five years, and the child must be in compulsory schooling. What used to be alternative is now additive, and de facto residence no longer counts. Which text gives way is not a matter of opinion: Organic Law 1/2026 itself ordered the Government to amend the Regulation — the Regulation is what has to follow the statute. Except that the deadline for doing so expired on 16 August 2026 and no amendment appeared, so this mismatch, which everyone expected to be temporary, is what registry offices face for no stated length of time.
The language exam has a minimum age. The civic test may not.
Do not merge the two exams — for minors the difference is visible in the text. The language requirement already exists and already has machinery, and that machinery has an age floor: Article 25(4) of the Regulation says candidates for the Portuguese language exam «não podem ter idade inferior à idade legal exigida para a conclusão da escolaridade obrigatória» — they may not be below the legal school-leaving age on the day of the exam. Law 85/2009 sets compulsory schooling to age 18 or completion of secondary education. A minor, as a rule, does not sit that exam.
A further paragraph of that same provision offers the alternative: for a minor who has not completed the first cycle of basic education in a Portuguese-curriculum school, language knowledge may be evidenced by a declaration from the school the child attends. A letter from the school, not an exam. If you want the adult version, what A2 actually demands is covered separately.
And the caveat that makes this honest: that provision governs the language exam. You cannot infer from it that the new civic test will carry the same age floor, or the same school-declaration route. It would be reasonable. It is not written anywhere.
What to do, depending on your case
- Child born in Portugal to foreign parents. Check sub-paragraph (f) of attribution before considering naturalisation: if one parent had five years of legal residence at the time of the birth, the child is entitled to original nationality by declaration. Better route, no test, no argument.
- Child aged 16 or 17. Treat the filing date as the priority. Filing before the eighteenth birthday keeps them in paragraph 2; missing it moves them to the adult regime.
- A parent already has a file in progress. If the parent's application succeeds while the child is still a minor, the law handles the rest by declaration, with no further requirements.
- Child in institutional care. The public prosecutor brings the application and it is free of charge; the family does not have to initiate it.
If it is the adult in the household who will face the test, our free practice quiz is a way to see where you stand — without pretending it mirrors an exam that does not yet exist.
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