Here are some key points of the proposed law:
Tightened rules for nationality access
The Government’s first legislative initiative, Bill No. 1/XVII/, includes changes to the Nationality Law to counter what it claims to be an “immigrant magnet effect” and the perception that Portugal offers “easy citizenship” to foreigners.
The amendments to the legal regime of nationality attribution and acquisition aim to refute the externally spread notion that Portuguese nationality is “easy,” which has intensified the magnet effect with multiple unprecedented access routes.
Under the current law, “Portuguese nationality is used as a nationality of convenience,” frequently with the primary purpose of accessing European citizenship, making Portugal a transit point to more economically prosperous EU states with stricter immigration and nationality policies, notes the proposal.
The new bill introduces new residency periods for obtaining Portuguese nationality: four years for stateless people, seven years for citizens from Portuguese-speaking countries, and ten years for citizens from other countries.
Instead of one year, the minimum residency period for parents wishing to naturalize a child born in Portugal increases to three, shifting to a non-automatic process requiring a “positive declaration of will, naturally by the parent.”
Besides the Portuguese language requirement, applicants must now demonstrate “knowledge of the fundamental rights and duties associated with nationality and the political organization of the Republic” and make a “personal and solemn declaration of adherence to the fundamental principles of a democratic rule of law as constitutionally configured.”
Further, “the standard of criminal record requirements is raised, disallowing naturalization for those sentenced to effective imprisonment terms,” rather than the three years in the current version, according to the bill.
The introduction recalls the 1981 law changes, including modifications in 1994 and 2018, establishing rules for foreign naturalization or recognizing the rights of Portuguese descendants.
The bill references the “ancestral vision of nationality not just as a legal translation of a true belonging and cultural identification between a person and a state, but as a bond of true loyalty and thus inherently exclusive in nature.”
The 2018 nationality law amendment led to “a sharp increase in nationalities granted to those without (and who will potentially never have) a firm connection to the political community, alongside a massive rise in pending requests, heavily burdening competent public services.”
Furthermore, it caused “a completely destabilizing effect on already fragile public immigration policies,” states the current Government, emphasizing the “abrupt and unregulated migratory surge” in the short term, combined with “a rise in original nationality registrations and naturalization requests, often not backed by regular residence, much less real integration of the applicant in the national community.”
Constitutional doubts cast shadow on the Nationality Law proposal
Proposed changes to the Nationality Law are raising significant constitutional doubts due to the retroactive effect from June 19 (the Government program approval date) and provisions for citizenship revocation from naturalized individuals on legal grounds.
The Government justifies the retroactive effect in the amendment to address mass requests filed post-legislative elections.
The bill generally suggests applying the new nationality regime for future procedures, with an important exception: pending regime-rule naturalization processes initiated after June 19, 2025, the date the 25th Constitutional Government Program was enabled.
According to the bill’s text, the Government argues that since the electoral period, the winning Coalition’s intent to demand greater rigor in the Portuguese nationality regime to ensure effective and genuine ties to the national community was known.
During that time, it became apparent to all — citizens and immigrants — that, among other important changes, the naturalization’s temporal and material requirements were to be elevated in density and expanded in number. As a result, following the parliamentary enabling of the executive program, a massive submission movement of nationality acquisition requests through naturalization occurred, states the bill.
The Government considers these requests as more of a last-minute attempt to benefit from the highly permissive requirements of the outgoing legal regime, which stipulated a five-year residency period in Portugal to access citizenship.
Regarding nationality loss through naturalization, the bill proposes a ten-year period during which the beneficiary may lose this right, “should they blatantly breach this commitment by committing certain severe crimes (carrying a relatively heavy five-year penalty according to Portuguese legal standards).”
However, “considering Article 30, paragraph 4 of the Constitution, even recently granted nationality loss must always be individually weighed and applied by a judge, in accordance with criteria defined by law,” the bill further states, facing accusations of unconstitutionality from opposition parties.
These two issues have garnered criticism from the left-wing opposition and constitutional experts, anticipated as key topics in Friday’s parliamentary debate.
Government insists on Foreigners and Borders Unit after PS and Chega rejection
The Government seeks to create the National Foreigners and Borders Unit (UNEF) within the PSP to enforce immigrant expulsion and ensure compliance with new regulations.
Despite PS and Chega’s rejection of a similar bill in the last legislature, the government coalition maintains its stance on creating a specific unit within the PSP, following the dissolution of the Foreigners and Borders Service in 2023, whose functions were distributed between PSP, GNR, PJ, and the newly formed Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA), responsible for returns, a system the Government claims is ineffective and does not facilitate compliance with immigrant expulsion orders.
“Portugal needs a border police to control entry and oversee surveillance throughout the national territory, removing those who do not comply with rules,” stated the Minister of the Presidency during the measure’s presentation.
“Portugal needs a border police, and transforming AIMA into a police force is not the solution,” explained the official, highlighting that the PSP will receive “enhanced resources for the new foreigners and borders unit.”
The UNEF will now include AIMA’s duties in “removal, readmission, and return of citizens in an irregular situation,” according to the bill.
It will be UNEF’s responsibility to “monitor, oversee, and control airport borders, as well as people movement at these border posts,” and “administer the presence of foreign citizens within national territory, within the PSP’s jurisdiction.”
The new unit will also undertake roles in “administering and managing processes of coercive removal, expulsion, readmission, and voluntary return of foreign citizens, as well as crafting technical standards to standardize processes,” and initiating “administrative offense processes” under the “legal regime of entry, residence, exit, and removal of foreigners from national territory.”
The Government’s ultimate goal is to ensure the “reformation of the institutional, legal, and operational framework of foreign citizen presence control in Portugal, making the return system for citizens in an illegal situation more effective and injecting new momentum into monitoring mechanisms.”
New foreigner law restricts family reunification for immigrants
The third bill up for parliamentary debate — the alteration of the foreigners law — imposes new restrictions on family reunification, with applicants subsequently affected by new citizenship access rules.
If approved, this will be the 18th amendment to the 2007 law governing “Entry, Stay, Exit, and Removal of Foreigners from National Territory,” indicating that “foreign citizens can only request” the process after “two years of legal residence in Portugal, permitting requests for relatives already in national territory, as long as they are minors.”
Practically, this measure delays by two years the family reunification requests for over 300,000 immigrants who received residence permits following the legal concept of expressions of interest, which enabled regularization for those entering Portugal with a tourist visa.
As these requests can only be filed two years after residence certification, relatives will be subject to new nationality access deadlines.
“Regarding exceptional residency authorization for humanitarian reasons, foreign children and young people subject to promotion and protection measures are excluded from this scope, as they better fit the residency permission without a visa, given the importance of safeguarding these particularly vulnerable situations,” according to the bill.
Concerning family reunification, those legally residing have the right to regularize the status of “minors, who entered legally” into the country and who “reside here, cohabiting and depending on them.”
To finalize reunification, applicants must provide “accommodation, owned or rented, deemed normal for a comparable family in the same region and complying with general safety and health standards” and “means of subsistence corresponding to stable and regular resources sufficient for their maintenance and that of their relatives, without resorting to social assistance.”
Additionally, candidates “must comply with integration measures, including learning the Portuguese language and constitutional principles and values, as well as completing compulsory education for minors.”
Instead of the previous three-month period, each family reunification request “should be decided within nine months,” with denial possible due to “public order or safety,” as well as “public health” reasons.
Highly qualified immigrants and investors are the only beneficiaries
The only foreigners favored by this legislative package are highly qualified immigrants, who will be the only ones eligible for job-seeking visas, and those holding Investment Residence Permits (golden visas), who can request family reunification without the two-year wait required of others.
“The 25th Constitutional Government finds it imperative to reform the legal mechanisms available to foreign citizens to migrate to Portugal, adapting legislation to the country’s needs and welcoming capacity” and “it is necessary to reinforce the fight against illegal immigration routes and improve legal immigration channels, aligned with the need to attract talent and highly qualified human capital,” states the bill.
In this context, the executive aims to restrict the job-seeking visa for highly qualified activities and alter the conditions for granting residency permits to nationals of Community of Portuguese Language Countries Member States.
The job-seeking visa must have a scheduled appointment within 120 days and “grants the applicant, after starting professional activity during that period, the right to apply for a residence permit, provided general conditions are met,” states the bill.
