Judges scrapped four key nationality provisions and an attached penal rule but upheld the 10-year naturalization timeline, deepening uncertainty for Golden Visa holders and thousands stuck in AIMA backlogs.

Portugal’s Constitutional Court has struck down four controversial provisions of the country’s revised nationality law while preserving a 10-year naturalization horizon for most non‑EU, non‑CPLP applicants, leaving core timing questions unresolved for would‑be citizens and investors. The ruling, delivered by Court President José João Abrantes, follows two constitutional challenges brought by the Socialist Party in November.​

What the court overturned

In a decision that was unanimous on most counts, the court dismantled several of the reform’s toughest and vaguest elements. Judges rejected the automatic denial of citizenship for anyone with criminal convictions carrying sentences of more than two years, finding the measure incompatible with constitutional guarantees.​

The court also erased ambiguous fraud language that could have blocked the consolidation of nationality on loosely defined grounds, as well as provisions allowing authorities to revoke nationality for behaviors interpreted as “rejection of the national community.” In addition, it invalidated rules that would have required pending citizenship applications to be assessed under the legal criteria in force at the time of decision, rather than at the time of submission.​

Separately, the judges unanimously struck down a Penal Code decree that would have made the loss of Portuguese nationality an accessory penalty for serious crimes, closing the door on what critics saw as a powerful new tool of banishment.​

Ten-year timeline stands

Despite these setbacks for lawmakers, the court left intact one of the most consequential pillars of the reform: the extension of the standard naturalization period from five to ten years for most non‑EU and non‑CPLP nationals. That change had been approved by Parliament on October 28 with 157 votes in favor, mostly from PSD, Chega, IL, CDS‑PP, and JPP, against 64 votes opposed.​

The overwhelming majority backing the bill exceeds the two‑thirds threshold required to reaffirm legislation even in the face of constitutional court objections, effectively securing the longer timeline unless lawmakers reverse course in future sessions.​

Golden Visa investors in the dark

For Portugal’s Golden Visa community, the ruling offers little immediate clarity. Investor groups had filed an amicus curiae brief in December, accusing the state of unconstitutional delays and warning that the reforms would arbitrarily penalize applicants already in the pipeline.​

The court did not overturn the controversial absence of grandfathering rules for existing residence holders, a silence that leaves open whether those already in Portugal’s residency system will be shielded from the new 10‑year clock. Multiple Portuguese outlets, including ECO and RTP, have since published differing interpretations of the decision’s scope, particularly around when residence time should start counting toward citizenship eligibility.​

When does the citizenship clock start?

At the heart of the confusion lies a technical but critical question: Does the path to citizenship begin when an applicant submits a residence request or only once Portugal’s Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) issues the residence permit? Parliament’s text leans toward the latter, tying eligibility to the date of permit issuance.​

Given AIMA’s chronic delays—residence processing often takes two to four years—this approach could stretch the effective wait for citizenship to between 12 and 14 years for many applicants if the mechanism is ultimately upheld. More than 20,000 investors are currently waiting for AIMA appointments extending into 2026, with some cases pending since 2021. For these applicants, every month of procedural backlog potentially adds a month to an already lengthy naturalization journey.​

Next steps and a growing backlog

The full impact of the ruling will only become clear once the written verdict is released, which is expected to detail exactly which applicants receive transitional protections and how residence time must be counted. Until then, lawyers, investors, and long‑term residents face a legal landscape in which headline reforms are partly neutralized, yet the core citizenship delay remains firmly in place.​

With political support strong enough to uphold the 10‑year rule and administrative delays already stretching into mid‑decade, Portugal’s nationality debate is likely to intensify as affected migrants and investors weigh whether the country still offers a predictable route to citizenship.

Source: Ahmad Abbas, “Portugal’s Constitutional Court Strikes Down Four Nationality Law Provisions”, IMI Daily