Portugal's new nationality law: what changed in 2026

If you are applying through residence, the answer is: nearly everything. Since 19 May 2026 you need 7 years of legal residence if you hold an EU or Portuguese-speaking (CPLP) passport and 10 years if you don’t — it used to be 5 for everyone. The years count from the day your residence permit was issued, not the day you applied for it. And on top of basic Portuguese you now have to show knowledge of culture, history, national symbols, rights and duties and how the state is organised. The residence maths has its own guide: the 7 and 10-year rules of the new nationality law.

The law is Lei Orgânica n.º 1/2026 (an “organic law” — the category Portugal uses for nationality, which needs an absolute majority in Parliament). Anyone who filed a citizenship application by 18 May 2026 is judged under the old rules, whatever the route. This page is the map of everything else that moved.

What changed for the residence route?

This is the route most expats use — D7, digital nomad, work permit and golden visa holders all end up here. The old law asked for five things. The new one asks for nine, and every one must be met on the day you file.

The one expats most often misread is the clock. Under the old law, if you applied for a residence permit in 2022 and AIMA issued it in 2024, your five years ran from 2022. Under the new law they run from 2024 — and there are seven or ten of them. For many people on long AIMA queues that moves the finish line by several years at once.

The second is the knowledge requirement. Portuguese-speaking nationals, Brazilians included, are still presumed to speak the language unless it is obvious they don’t, but that presumption covers the language only. History, symbols and how the state works apply to everyone. If English is your working language, read whether the test can be taken in English before planning around it.

Which routes closed, and which got harder?

Two routes are gone. The Sephardic route — naturalisation for descendants of Portuguese Sephardic Jews after 3 years of residence — was repealed. So was naturalisation for the parents of a Portuguese-born child after 5 years in Portugal with or without a permit; the full story is in the route through your child that closed.

For the grandchild route this is the change that matters most. It is still “attribution” — you become Portuguese from birth, and you still do not need to live in Portugal — but the paperwork now looks like a naturalisation file: language certificate, criminal records from your countries of birth, nationality and residence, and the civic knowledge requirement.

Marriage kept its core: no minimum residence and no test. After six years of marriage, or with Portuguese children in common, lack of connection to the community stops being a ground for objection. What doubled is the public prosecutor’s window to object: two years from registration instead of one.

What changes once you are Portuguese?

Nationality held in good faith for 10 years still becomes unchallengeable, but the shorter 18-month period for registered minors is gone and fraud is never covered. Registration now makes you Portuguese — the entry in the civil register, not the decision letter. And declarations made at a consulate need you there in person, unless you prove you physically cannot travel.

One thing people expect to find here and won’t: stripping nationality as a criminal penalty. That was a separate bill amending the Criminal Code, not part of this law. What can make you lose Portuguese nationality today is set out in can Portugal take your nationality away.

What did not change?

After a reform this size it is worth listing what stayed exactly where it was. Children born abroad to a Portuguese parent still become Portuguese from birth by registering, with no residence, language or test. Spouses married to a Portuguese citizen for more than three years still apply by declaration. Portugal still does not ask you to give up your other passport: you only lose Portuguese nationality if you hold another one and declare that you do not want to be Portuguese. And the file still goes to IRN, not to AIMA. If dual nationality is your worry, the question is really what your other country says — covered in dual nationality: what your home country allows.

How did the law get here?

The road explains why the final text treats pending applications so generously and why criminal records are now weighed rather than applied mechanically: both follow from the Constitutional Court striking down the first draft.

1. 28 October 2025

   Parliament passes the first version.
2. 15 December 2025

   The Constitutional Court strikes down four provisions, including an automatic bar for any sentence of 2 years or more and the transitional rule for pending applications.
3. 19 December 2025

   The President vetoes the bill and sends it back.
4. 1 April 2026

   Parliament passes the revised version.
5. 3–4 May 2026

   Signed by the President, countersigned by the Prime Minister.
6. 18 May 2026

   Published in the Diário da República, with a correction notice the same day.
7. 19 May 2026

   In force.
8. 16 August 2026

   The 90-day deadline for the government to update the Nationality Regulation — the text that will organise the civic test — passes without an update.

That is why “is the new law already in force?” and “can I take the test yet?” have different answers. The law has applied to every new application since 19 May.

Does the new law apply if I already applied?

No. What counts is the filing date. Filed by 18 May 2026: old law — five years, no civic test, and routes that have since closed stay open for that file, however long IRN takes to decide. Filed from 19 May: new law, with no transition period. Note that the application goes to IRN, the registry service under the Ministry of Justice — not to AIMA, which only handles residence permits. What waiting under the old rules looks like is covered in pending applications.

Where to go from here

Find your row in one of the two tables and follow its link — each page answers the “and in my case?” a table cannot. If you are on the residence or grandchild route, the new requirement that takes longest to meet is the knowledge one; the ground it covers is laid out in the five themes of the test. To see where you stand today, try the free practice quiz: twenty questions on history, symbols and the state, each with the reasoning behind the answer.