How to Get Portugal Citizenship in 2026: Naturalisation After 7 or 10 Years

Portuguese nationality law is the Lei da Nacionalidade (Lei n.º 37/81, de 3 de outubro). Naturalisation is granted by the Government and processed by the civil registry agency, the Instituto dos Registos e do Notariado (IRN). Residence permits, including investor permits, are issued by a different body, the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA). The two systems are linked only through one variable: years of legal residence.

The nationality law was rewritten in 2026. Lei Orgânica n.º 1/2026 was approved by Parliament on 1 April 2026, promulgated by President António José Seguro on 3 May 2026, published in the Diário da República on 18 May 2026 and entered into force the next day, 19 May 2026^[1][2]. A first version had been approved on 28 October 2025 and partly struck down by the Constitutional Court on 15 December 2025 (see below)^[7][3].

• No investment buys citizenship. Investment buys a residence permit; the passport needs 7 or 10 years of legal residence, tests and a clean record.
• Clock starts at permit issue. The 2024 rule that counted time from the date you applied for residence was revoked^[1].
• Dual citizenship is allowed. Portugal does not ask you to give up your current nationality^[13].

No. Despite heavy search demand for “Portugal citizenship by investment”, Portuguese law contains no provision that grants nationality in exchange for a donation, a fund subscription or a property purchase. Article 6 of the nationality law lists the naturalisation requirements, and none of them is financial apart from the ability to support yourself^[1]. The product marketed under that name is the investor residence permit (the Autorização de Residência para Investimento, ARI), covered in detail on our Portugal golden visa guide. It gives you a residence permit; the passport is a separate decision, years later, under the ordinary naturalisation rules.

If you need a passport through investment in a shorter time, the realistic options lie outside the EU: compare the Caribbean programmes on the citizenship hub or read how citizenship programmes differ from residence-by-investment. Since the EU Court of Justice ruled against Malta's scheme in April 2025, no EU state runs a passport-for-investment programme, as explained in our Malta citizenship page.

Article 6(1)(b) now requires legal residence in Portugal for at least seven years for nationals of Portuguese-speaking countries and EU citizens, and 10 years for nationals of other countries^[1]. The CPLP group is Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe and Timor-Leste^[10]. EU citizens rarely need Portuguese nationality for residence rights, so in practice the 7-year track matters mostly to Brazilians and other CPLP nationals.

How residence time is counted

Two counting rules changed:

• From permit, not application. Lei Orgânica 1/2024 had inserted article 15(4), under which time counted from the date the first residence permit was applied for, provided it was later granted. The 2026 law revokes article 15(4)^[1]. The Constitutional Court looked at this revocation specifically and did not find it unconstitutional^[3]. Time now runs from the date you actually hold a valid residence title. For investor permit holders this matters: AIMA's processing now takes roughly 18–36 months from submission to first card (late-2025 filers were waiting 10–12 months for biometrics and a further 6–12 months for the card)^[29][30][31], and that wait no longer counts.
• Interrupted residence. Article 15(3) adds up all periods of legal residence, continuous or not, as long as they fall within a window of 9 years (EU/CPLP) or 12 years (others); 6 years for stateless people^[1]. The text draws no line at 19 May 2026, so on its face legal residence held before that date is added in. Some advisers nevertheless describe how pre-reform residence is treated as disputed: it has not been addressed in guidance from AIMA or the Government, and it is the subject of a collective lawsuit against the Portuguese State and a complaint to the Ombudsman^[32].

Article 7 of Lei Orgânica 1/2026 is short: the new law applies from its entry into force, except that administrative procedures pending on 19 May 2026 continue under the previous wording of the nationality law^[1]. In practice that means:

• Protected: anyone whose naturalisation application had been submitted to the IRN before 19 May 2026. Their file is assessed on the 5-year rule. Keep the submission receipt.
• Not protected: residents who had completed 5 years before 19 May 2026 but had not applied. They now need 7 or 10 years^[10][9]. Under article 15(3) their past legal residence is summed toward the new total^[1], although some advisers describe this as disputed (see below).
• Not protected: people who applied before reaching 5 years under the old rules.

The Constitutional Court shaped this outcome. In its preventive review (Acórdão 1133/2025, 15 December 2025, requested by 50 Socialist MPs) it struck down a provision of the first decree that would have required pending applicants to meet the old requirements on the date they applied, finding it a breach of the protection of legitimate expectations. It did not strike down the narrower rule that protects only pending procedures^[3][7]. Investor permit holders have since turned to the courts and the Ombudsman: on 26 June 2026 a consortium of nine law firms complained to the Provedoria de Justiça on behalf of 1,260 golden visa investors, and a collective lawsuit against the Portuguese State is also under way. Those advisers describe the treatment of residence accrued before 19 May 2026 as disputed^[32][8]. No ruling on such claims was available at the time of writing, so treat the statutory reading of article 15(3) as the working basis but follow the litigation.

Under the amended article 6(1), the Government grants naturalisation to applicants who, at the time of the application, meet all of these requirements^[1]:

1. Are adults under Portuguese law (18+).
2. Have legally resided in Portugal for 7 years (EU/CPLP) or 10 years (others).
3. Prove, through a test or certificate, sufficient knowledge of the Portuguese language and culture, history and national symbols.
4. Have sufficient knowledge of the fundamental rights and duties of Portuguese citizens and of the political organisation of the Portuguese State.
5. Make a solemn declaration of adherence to the fundamental principles of the democratic rule of law.
6. Have not been convicted with a final judgment and an effective prison sentence of more than 3 years for terrorism, violent or highly organised crime, crimes against State security or aiding illegal immigration. The Public Prosecutor weighs the case (rebuttable presumption, art. 6(14)).
7. Pose no danger to national security or defence.
8. Are not subject to UN or EU restrictive measures (sanctions).
9. Can support themselves financially (new requirement).

The criminal-record rule was narrowed after the Constitutional Court held that the first decree's bar, covering any conviction carrying a prison sentence of 2 years or more, was unconstitutional^[3]. CPLP nationals are presumed to meet the language requirement unless their lack of Portuguese is manifest (art. 6(10))^[1].

Language test: the A2 level

The law itself does not name a level. A2 comes from the Nationality Regulation (Decreto-Lei 237-A/2006), which accepts proof such as the CIPLE exam, an IAVE test or a Portuguese school qualification^[13]. The CIPLE exam fee at CAPLE, the University of Lisbon centre that sets it, is €95; some other exam centres charge different amounts^[22]. Lei Orgânica 1/2026 required the Government to amend that regulation within 90 days of publication, which meant by mid-August 2026^[1]. That deadline passed without a published regulation^[12][21], so the civic-knowledge test has no official format, provider or pass mark yet, and no threshold has been set for the new self-sufficiency requirement, and it is unconfirmed whether A2 will stay the language level. Plan on A2 as the minimum and expect a separate civics component.

Legal residence and minimum stay

Article 15(1) counts residence under any valid residence title^[1]. Investor permits require only 7 days in Portugal in the first year and 14 days in each following two-year period, consecutive or not, under article 65.º-C of Decreto Regulamentar 84/2007, which is checked at each renewal^[28], and those years have historically counted as legal residence for nationality. The new law does not change that definition. However, its stronger emphasis on integration, civic knowledge and self-sufficiency, and the still-unpublished regulation, mean that low-presence applicants should keep evidence of real ties: tax residence, a home, school enrolment and language study.

For a non-EU investor, the fastest legal route to a Portuguese passport is still the investor residence permit, held for 10 years and followed by naturalisation. The permit is regulated by article 90.º-A of the Foreigners Act (Lei n.º 23/2007). Since the 2023 Mais Habitação reform, real estate and plain capital transfers no longer qualify, and no route may invest in real estate, directly or indirectly^[5]. The qualifying activities, each held for at least five years, are^[5]:

The investment is only part of the bill. AIMA's investor-permit fees are set in point III.3 of Portaria 307/2023 and are indexed to consumer prices every 1 March (art. 3); applications filed through a digital channel, as ARI applications are, get a 25% reduction (point XIV)^[26]. After the 1 March 2026 update^[27], the 2026 figures per person are €632.10 reduced (€842.80 standard) for receiving and reviewing the application, €6,314.20 reduced (€8,418.90 standard) for the permit grant and €3,157.80 reduced (€4,210.30 standard) for each renewal, plus the analysis fee again^[26][15][16]. Permanent residence for an ARI holder costs about €8,840 reduced (€11,786.70 standard), from a 2023 base of €10,822.14^[26][16]. The naturalisation application itself costs €250 for an adult at the IRN (€200 for a minor)^[23].

A typical sequence for a non-EU investor under the 2026 law:

Portugal accepts multiple nationality. You do not have to renounce your existing citizenship to naturalise^[13]. Whether you keep it depends on your home country: India, China and several other countries end their own nationality when a citizen naturalises elsewhere, while the US, UK, Canada, Brazil and South Africa generally allow it. Check your home country's rules before you apply. Under article 8, Portuguese nationality is lost by a voluntary declaration from someone who holds another nationality; the 2026 wording adds “without prejudice to the law”^[1]. A separate decree amending the Penal Code, which would have let courts strip naturalised citizens of nationality as an accessory penalty for certain crimes, was struck down by the Constitutional Court on 15 December 2025 and, in a revised version, again on 8 May 2026^[7][20]. The President returned it to Parliament, and on 3 July 2026 a vote to confirm it failed to reach the required two-thirds majority, so no such penalty is in force^[24]. More on stacking passports is in our guide to holding three citizenships.

Two more protections changed. Nationality held in good faith for 10 years is consolidated (the period is unchanged), even if the act that granted it could be declared void; the 2026 law adds that consolidation does not apply where nationality was obtained fraudulently (art. 12-B)^[1][3]. For acquisition by declaration, such as through marriage, the Public Prosecutor now has 2 years from registration to file an opposition (art. 10)^[1].

A foreigner can hold a Portuguese passport only after becoming a Portuguese citizen. No residence permit, however expensive, comes with a passport. Once naturalised, you are an EU citizen with the right to live and work in all 27 member states and the wider EEA and Switzerland. Portuguese citizens have visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to about 185 destinations, and the passport ranked 5th in the July 2026 Henley Passport Index^[25][19]. The exact count changes with each index edition.

Article 6(7), which since 2015 let descendants of Portuguese Sephardic Jews naturalise without living in Portugal, was revoked by article 5 of Lei Orgânica 1/2026^[1][2]. The route had already been tightened in 2022. Applications pending on 19 May 2026 continue under the old law^[1]. The Jewish Community of Lisbon reportedly stopped accepting new certification requests on 4 May 2026^[13]. No new Sephardic applications are possible.

Naturalisation itself has no tax consequence. Tax follows residence. Investor permit holders who spend little time in Portugal usually stay non-resident for tax. Those who move become taxable on worldwide income. The Non-Habitual Resident regime closed to new entrants from 1 January 2024. Its successor, IFICI, offers a 20% flat rate on qualifying employment and professional income and exempts most foreign-source income for 10 years, but only for eligible research, innovation and highly qualified roles^[18]. Portugal has no net wealth tax. Gifts and inheritances are taxed through stamp duty at 10%, with an extra 0.8% on gifts of property^[17]. Exemptions for spouses, children and parents are widely applied, but confirm them with a tax adviser.

It suits investors with a long horizon (10–15 years), families who want EU residence for their children's schooling, and CPLP nationals, especially Brazilians, who face 7 years and a presumed language pass. It also suits people who will actually move to Portugal and build ties, since the new law rewards integration.

Look elsewhere if the passport is the main goal and you need it within a decade. Several EU residence schemes reach citizenship sooner or on clearer terms. The Italy investor visa leads to naturalisation after 10 years of real residence, so it is no faster, while the Greek residence programme leads to Greek citizenship after 7 years of genuine residence. Our ranking of residence routes by speed to citizenship compares timelines across countries.

• Portugal's investor residence permit: the €500,000 fund route covered on our programme page; the Azores low-density option reduces some thresholds by 20%.
• Spain's naturalisation route: 10 years' residence for most nationalities (2 years for Ibero-Americans). Its investor visa closed in April 2025.
• Malta's permanent residence programme: immediate permanent residence, no passport route.
• Cyprus permanent residency by investment: property-based, from €300,000.
• European residence programmes compared side by side and what is left of EU passports through investment.