In a statement, the IRN stated that the new desk "will concentrate all in-person services," previously provided at the Central Registry Office on Rua Rodrigo da Fonseca and at the Expo Registos Space in Lisbon.

"This reorganization of in-person services aims to offer more space, better facilities, greater convenience, and greater accessibility, seeking to improve the quality of service provided to citizens," the IRN statement emphasised.

At the new desk, the IRN "will be able to handle in-person services (both walk-ins and by appointment)."

Citizens with appointments already scheduled at the previous locations are being contacted by the IRN to confirm the date and inform them of the new address.

The new counter, at Alameda dos Oceanos, No. 67-L, will be open from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM, for walk-in and walk-in services, and until 7:00 PM for appointment only.

The IRN continues to recommend, however, the use of non-face-to-face channels, namely mail, with citizens being able to submit their nationality application and corresponding documents by mail to a nationality counter.

An online channel is also available at justica.gov.pt, "which allows the submission of all types of nationality applications and corresponding documents."

This online service "is exclusive and mandatory for representatives (lawyers and solicitors registered with their respective Bar Associations in Portugal) who represent foreign citizens in their nationality applications," the IRN statement states.

Queues

On its first day of operation, the new counter in Lisbon exclusively for nationality applications served more than a hundred people by early afternoon, but was unable to avoid lines at the door.

At around 2:30 pm on 1 September, when the Secretary of State for Justice, Ana Luísa Machado, arrived to visit the new space, there were dozens of people divided into three lines at the door of the new counter, without a ticket and with no guarantee that they would still be served.

When asked about the apparent relocation of lines and hours of waits from the two previous service stations, now concentrated in a single one in Parque das Nações, Lisbon, which aims to streamline service, the minister said she regretted the situation but considered it normal, given the "novelty factor" of the new service.

"I'm sorry. Unfortunately, we'd like to be perfect and we'd like to have perfect systems. There are no perfect systems; we're doing our best," said the Secretary of State.

By early afternoon, the new counter had already served around 160 people, and the daily average is expected to exceed 200, said Jorge da Ponte, president of the Institute of Registries and Notaries (IRN), who accompanied the Secretary of State for Justice on the visit.

Pending cases

When asked about the more than 500,000 nationality applications pending analysis, the Secretary of State said that "a huge effort is being made to recover all pending cases."

Jorge da Ponte postponed an update on pending cases soon, adding, without elaborating, that there had been "some successes" in reducing the number of pending cases, the latest official figure, released in June, being around 515,000.

On the day she opened the new in-person service desk, Ana Luísa Machado reinforced her call for people to use digital means and the mail to submit applications and documentation, check the status of their case, or even schedule an appointment. However, in the lines outside the door, there were people who had been trying to schedule an appointment online for weeks, without success.

The other two lines—for those who simply wanted to attach documents to their existing process or for those who simply wanted information about the status of their process—didn't seem to be moving, and some people gave up waiting.