Portugal’s Socialist Party filed comprehensive amendments to the government’s citizenship reform proposal on October 17, 2025, establishing a three-tier framework that would create a seven-year naturalization timeline for most foreign residents while providing extensive protections for existing Golden Visa investors from retroactive rule changes.
The 13-page legislative package represents the first concrete counterproposal to the center-right government’s June plan to double naturalization periods from five to ten years. The amendments now enter committee review in Portugal’s Assembly of the Republic, where the Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms, and Guarantees Committee will conduct three readings before any floor vote can occur.
A Three-Tier Citizenship Framework
The Socialist amendments would establish distinct residency requirements based on national origin. Nationals of Portuguese-speaking countries belonging to the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) and European Union member states would qualify for citizenship after five years of legal residence. Nationals of all other countries would face a seven-year requirement.
The government’s original ten-year requirement disappears entirely from the Socialist version.
Socialist MP Pedro Delgado Alves, the proposal’s architect, explained that the party seeks to “ensure that the specificity of citizens of the CPLP and the EU have adequate treatment” given “the existence of more intense connections with Portugal.”
The PS framed its intervention as necessary to ensure that nationality law “continues to be an instrument to value Portuguese citizenship and for the integration of citizens from other countries who have settled in Portugal.”
The differentiated treatment reflects Portugal’s historical ties to lusophone nations—Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Timor-Leste—and its obligations as an EU member state. Socialist parliamentary leader Eurico Brilhante Dias warned that the government’s original proposal “has raised great concern among some CPLP partners,” noting that citizenship reform is “a matter of State, with impact on bilateral relations, not only within the European Union, but particularly within the CPLP.”
Comprehensive Protections for Golden Visa Holders
The amendments provide layered protections for current Golden Visa holders that exceed what industry experts had anticipated. Article 5, Section 3 of the Socialist text specifies that anyone holding or having applied for residence authorization when the law takes effect would remain eligible under the previous five-year framework.
The transitional provisions create a grandfathering window extending through December 31, 2026. Anyone who meets the current requirements when the new law enters force can still apply under the existing five-year rule until that date.
Varied Responses to the Proposed Change
This protection addresses concerns raised in a September 2025 legal opinion by Jorge Miranda, the constitutional scholar who helped draft Portugal’s 1976 democratic constitution. Miranda’s 82-page analysis, commissioned by Liberty Legal on behalf of Golden Visa investors, argued that retroactive application of citizenship rule changes would violate fundamental legal certainty principles enshrined in the Constitution.
Madalena Monteiro, founder of Liberty Legal, characterized the PS submission as “a good and reasonable proposal” that “keeps predictability for long-term residents and avoids punishing people for delays that are not their fault.” She described it as “much more balanced and legally coherent” than competing versions.
Portugal issued a record 4,987 Golden Visas in 2024—a 72% increase from 2023—according to data from the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA). The Socialist amendments would protect these investors’ citizenship pathways regardless of when they actually complete the naturalization process, as long as they hold residence permits or have applied for them before January 1, 2026.
The Administrative Delay Protection Battle
One of the most significant aspects of the Socialist proposal concerns how residency time is counted. Article 15, Section 4 would preserve the existing administrative delay rule, specifying that residence time counts from “the moment when the legally established deadline for granting residence authorization has been exceeded, provided it is subsequently approved.”
This provision protects applicants from Portugal’s notorious administrative backlogs. Under current AIMA processing delays, residence card issuance can take up to two years even after applications are complete. The Socialist counting mechanism means the citizenship clock starts after the 90-working-day legal deadline for residence permit decisions, as long as the permit is eventually approved.
The government’s Social Democratic Party (PSD) has modified its position in response to criticism, but problems remain. The PSD version changes the counting mechanism so the citizenship clock only starts once the residence card is physically issued. Given current delays, this could mean two years of residence time “completely lost for residents who’ve already met all other requirements,” according to Monteiro.
The difference is substantial for Golden Visa investors who typically submit citizenship applications as soon as legally eligible. Under the Socialist framework, administrative delays wouldn’t extend their pathway beyond the statutory period. Under the government’s approach, those same delays could add years to the naturalization timeline.
Government and Opposition Amendments
The governing coalition parties—PSD and CDS-PP—have retreated from some of their most controversial positions. Most significantly, they eliminated the retroactivity provision that would have applied new rules to pending applications, addressing a concern that multiple constitutional scholars identified as potentially unconstitutional.
The PSD-CDS amendments now propose seven-year pathways for both CPLP and EU nationals, equating the two groups based on “cultural, political, and geographic proximity,” according to PSD MP António Rodrigues. Citizens of other countries would still face the ten-year requirement under the government’s revised framework.
Chega Party Proposals
The far-right Chega party has proposed its own amendments that legal experts consider constitutionally problematic. Chega’s version would allow citizenship revocation for naturalized citizens who commit serious crimes but would apply this power only to naturalized citizens—not those who acquired Portuguese citizenship by birth.
Monteiro characterizes Chega’s proposal as “one of the most constitutionally complex, because it allows for revocation of citizenship for serious crimes but applies only to naturalized citizens.” She argues that “that distinction would create two classes of Portuguese citizens, something the Constitution simply does not allow.”
New Civic Integration Requirements
The Socialist amendments introduce formal civic integration requirements across multiple sections.
Article 6, Section 1 would require that applicants demonstrate “sufficient knowledge of the Portuguese language” and “sufficient knowledge of the fundamental rights and duties inherent to Portuguese nationality and the political organization of the Portuguese State.”
Applicants would also need to “solemnly declare their adherence to the fundamental principles of the Democratic Rule of Law,” representing Portugal’s first formal democracy pledge requirement for naturalization. These provisions appear in all major party proposals, suggesting consensus that some form of integration testing will become part of Portuguese nationality law regardless of which version ultimately passes.
The Socialist text would also introduce United Nations and European Union sanctions screening, barring citizenship for those subject to restrictive measures approved by these international bodies. This provision would apply even to grandfathered applications.
Eliminating Citizenship Revocation Powers
The Socialists would delete the government’s controversial nationality revocation provisions entirely. Article 3 of the PS amendments revokes multiple sections of the government’s proposal that would create post-citizenship probationary periods, allowing nationality withdrawal for naturalized citizens who commit crimes within ten years of acquiring Portuguese status.
The PS memorandum explains that the government’s revocation framework “carries numerous risks” because it “can generate situations of inequality between national citizens” and presents an “excessively extensive catalogue of offenses that can result in loss of nationality, contrary to both national tradition on the matter and comparative law.”
The deletion reflects concerns about creating different classes of Portuguese citizens based on naturalization versus birth—a distinction that would violate both constitutional principles and Portugal’s obligations under the European Convention on Nationality.
On criminal record thresholds, the Socialists would maintain the existing three-year imprisonment bar rather than the government’s proposal to exclude anyone with any criminal conviction regardless of sentence length. Article 6, Section 1(f) maintains the bar for those “convicted, with a final judicial decision, to a prison sentence equal to or exceeding three years.”
The three-year standard aligns with European Union norms established under the Long-Term Residents Directive. The PS justifies this threshold as “a solution stabilized in the national legal order,” arguing the government’s proposal would “treat serious offenses and situations that are mere criminal trifles in an unbalanced way.”
Modified Heritage Pathways
The Socialist amendments would preserve some specialized naturalization routes while adjusting their timelines:
- Article 6, Section 7 would maintain the pathway for Sephardic Jewish descendants but extend the residency requirement to five years from the previous two years.
- Section 8 would allow ascendants of Portuguese-born citizens to naturalize after six years rather than five.
These adjustments reflect what the PS memorandum describes as properly adapting “the residency periods to the new longer periods and to the application of new requirements” while preserving routes “that the government’s proposal eliminated.”
The Sephardic pathway has generated intense debate. The Lisbon Jewish Community submitted testimony arguing that, rather than eliminating the system, the government should strengthen controls to prevent abuse while maintaining Portugal’s commitment to its historical ties with Sephardic Jewish communities. The PS compromise—preserving the pathway but extending its timeline—attempts to balance these concerns.
Temporary naturalization windows appear in Article 5-A, allowing applications through December 31, 2027, for specific categories. These include individuals born in Portugal whose parents resided there “regardless of legal status” at birth, provided the applicant has lived in Portugal for at least five years, and people who lost Portuguese nationality under post-1974 decolonization laws along with their Portugal-born children.
Legislative Timeline and Political Dynamics
The proposed entry into force date falls on January 1, 2026, giving Parliament, the government, and President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa approximately eleven weeks to negotiate, amend, approve, and promulgate the legislation before implementation.
However, Monteiro notes timing uncertainties. “If the Assembly fails to vote before October 22, the discussion will probably roll over to January, because the state-budget calendar takes precedence,” she explains. The budget process traditionally dominates parliamentary attention in late October and November.
The political arithmetic presents challenges for any proposal.
The bill requires 116 votes in Portugal’s 230-seat Assembly for passage because nationality law is an organic law under the Constitution.
The PS holds 58 seats, the governing Democratic Alliance controls 91 seats, Chega commands 60 seats, and smaller parties hold the remaining 21 seats.
This distribution means any successful bill needs agreement across at least three parliamentary groups, forcing substantive compromise regardless of which party authored the initial text. Monteiro observes that “the real question is whether there will be enough cross-party support to approve any version.”
PSD parliamentary leader Hugo Soares has indicated willingness to negotiate, stating the party is available to dialogue “with all parties about this matter, inclusive with the PS,” despite blaming the Socialists for immigration policy problems stemming from their 2018 citizenship law reforms. Chega leader André Ventura indicated that his party would not “constitute an obstacle” to nationality reform but wants measures that “go even further” in restricting access.
Presidential Review Expected
President Rebelo de Sousa’s role becomes critical if Parliament approves any version of the citizenship reforms. Under Article 278 of the Constitution, the president can request constitutional review before signing legislation into law—a power he has used previously on immigration-related matters.
Monteiro expects presidential action regardless of outcome. “Regardless of which text passes, I fully expect the President to refer the law to the Constitutional Court,” she explains, noting that “several articles, especially those on revocation powers and residence definitions, are constitutionally sensitive.”
If the president refers the bill to the Constitutional Court, the court has 25 days to rule on constitutionality, potentially delaying implementation beyond the January target date. Monteiro views this as beneficial: “Constitutional review gives me hope that the final outcome will be balanced, fair, and legally sound, safeguarding the rights of long-term residents and investors who trusted Portugal’s framework.”
What This Means for Portuguese Citizenship Seekers
The Socialist proposal creates several practical implications for people pursuing Portuguese citizenship.
For Golden Visa Holders
Anyone who holds a residence permit or has applied for one before January 1, 2026, would lock in the five-year citizenship pathway regardless of when they actually naturalize. Those who delay applications until after that date would face the new seven-year standard for non-CPLP/EU nationals.
For CPLP and EU Nationals
The five-year pathway would continue, representing no change from current law. This stability reflects political consensus that Portuguese-speaking countries and EU member states deserve preferential treatment.
For Other Nationalities
The seven-year requirement represents a middle ground between the current five years and the government’s proposed ten years. While it extends the timeline, it remains substantially shorter than what the center-right government originally sought.
For Pending Applications
Portugal’s approximately 400,000 pending citizenship applications as of January 2025 would be processed under existing rules if the PS framework passes. The amendments specify that changes “apply to procedures requested after its entry into force.”
The administrative delay protection becomes particularly important given AIMA’s processing challenges. The agency faces massive backlogs, with some residence permit applications pending for over two years. Under the Socialist counting mechanism, these delays wouldn’t extend citizenship eligibility timelines. Under the government’s approach, they could add years to the process.
A Compromise in the Making
Industry experts predicted this outcome. Vanessa Rodrigues Lima, co-founder of Prime Legal, anticipated at the IMI Connect Rome conference in October that “parties will reach an understanding that will basically compromise with all the proposals on the table” and that “the bill will not pass as it was proposed.”
The Socialist amendments exceed what Rodrigues Lima described as the hoped-for outcome. She had suggested lawmakers might extend protective clauses or implement seven-year timelines, but the PS proposal provides a full five-year pathway preservation for current residence permit holders while establishing a seven-year standard for future applicants that’s three years shorter than the government wanted.
The framework balances competing objectives: maintaining Portugal’s attractiveness for investors and integration-focused immigration while responding to political pressure for stricter naturalization requirements. Whether this balance proves acceptable to enough parliamentary groups to secure passage remains uncertain.
What’s clear is that Portugal’s citizenship law will change substantially. The only questions are how much it will change, when those changes will take effect, and whether existing investors will be protected from retroactive application—questions the Socialist amendments attempt to answer in ways that preserve legal certainty while accommodating political realities.
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Written by Daniel Atz, Citizenship.EU Founder.
Sources
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