Details about the changes in the law – Spouses

In view of the change in the nationality law, voted on July 24, 2020 by the Portuguese Parliament, we have verified that the approved text does indeed bring several changes, some of which are related to the processes of Acquisition through Marriage or Civil Partnership.

In this sense, it is important to highlight three new points:

– When there are children in common between the Portuguese and the spouse, it will no longer be necessary to wait for the three-year period to apply for nationality.

For the spouses of Portuguese nationals who do not have children, it is necessary to wait for the six-year period, in order to then be able to apply to the Portuguese authorities.

As for the processes via acquisition through Civil Partnership, it is important to highlight that they will no longer need to be processed through the judicial route in Portugal if there are children in common with Portuguese nationality, which will speed up and make the processes carried out through this route less expensive. Regarding this legal provision, unless I am mistaken, it may be legally questionable because it is contrary to other legal norms, provided for in the Portuguese Civil Code.

Although the aforementioned changes bring numerous benefits to the grandchildren and spouses of Portuguese citizens, it is important to clarify that there are still pending stages of the regular legislative process, since the approved text will then be forwarded to the President of the Republic for evaluation, who may:

– Approve it;
– Veto it;
– Forward it to the Constitutional Court, if he believes that any point of the law may constitute a violation of the Constitution;

If it is approved directly by the President, the text will be published in the official press.

Once published, it will still require regulation, which, in principle, will take 90 days after the date of publication (it is important to note that the legal deadline was not met in the last three amendments to the Nationality Law).

Therefore, it is important to highlight that these changes are not in force and do not have immediate effects, so they will not impact the processes already underway, which are analyzed based on the current legislation in force.

Only after all the above-mentioned steps have been completed will the established guidelines come into effect, at which point we will be able to initiate new processes.

For this reason, we will continue to monitor developments on a daily basis in order to keep you informed of the progress of this process.