Speaking at a hearing before the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees regarding the new nationality law, Jorge Rodrigues da Ponte admitted that legal changes always create a greater demand for services.
Therefore, to avoid an "avalanche of nationality requests under the current legislation," the president of the IRN has asked that the law come into effect "the day immediately following its publication" or as soon as possible.
This has been a concern of the executive branch, which has already sought to provide for the nationality law to be retroactive to June 19 (the date of approval of the government program), a move that has been criticized by the opposition and constitutionalists.
"I don't want to limit citizens' legitimate expectations, but I do intend to safeguard the capacity of services, which have been relying on overtime to catch up on current backlogs," explained Jorge da Ponte.
The IRN director noted that previous legal changes led to an increase in requests for services and that news on the topic has led to increased demand in recent weeks.
"Between 2018 and 2024, the IRN received an average of 277,000 nationality applications per year," with 2022 being the year with the highest volume (367,000) of such applications.
The majority of cases (62%) concern children of Portuguese parents born outside the country, followed by naturalisations by length of residence (16%), by marriage (6%), grandchildren of Portuguese citizens (4%), and citizens born in the country but children of foreigners (4%).
There is "sustained, and sometimes intense, growth" that "exceeds the response capacity of customer service departments, causing constraints for those seeking services, long wait times, and frustration for both users and staff," he admitted.
Despite this, "the completion rate, measured by dividing the number of completed cases by the number of incoming cases, has averaged 82%.
"With each change in nationality law, services have become increasingly overwhelmed, both by the influx of applicants and by the challenges of objectively validating applications," he concluded.
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Português (Brasil)
"In order to avoid an avalanche of passengers, the captain of the ship--already safely evacuated by helicopter--has called for breaking up the remaining lifeboats, slashing all lifejackets, and scuttling the fully-laden ferry with torpedoes."
By Immigrant in Lisbon from Lisbon on 12 Sep 2025, 22:01
Dear Portugese people, don't be fooled by right tended politicians and the big players of Eu like Germany regarding the so called easy nationality. Today the easiest nationality to get is the German nationality. They have an expedited nationality path of 3 years only (normally 5 years) and just look how many new nationalities they approved in last 7 years. They are filling Europe with new Germans and making pressure on Portugal or Malta to stop paths like Golden Visa or make it harder to become nationality. This is pure Hypocrisy and be sure that people asking for nationality in Portugal are bringing more wealth and readiness for integration than new Germans which are mostly refugees. So before you decide to be an enemy of people investing in your country, try to think from this perspective too. First Germany should overthink their strategy of Nationality law then make pressure on Portugal. So these changes have no sense. Your nationality law is one of the best in Eu and not the fastest by the way because the burecracy in PT is so slow and has a huge backlog right now the average time to become Portuguese is at least 8-9 years. This is the truth.
By Ozan Zee from Other on 13 Sep 2025, 15:36
I don't understand that if a foreign resident has residency approved, why is Portuguese citizenship necessary? It's not! I know the reply I will hear - so we can travel freely and for as long as we wish in the Schengen zone. In other words, it's more convenient! But citizenship is much more than easy travel and an open ticket to Europe. Your decision has enormous consequences on the Portuguese people. Please just use your own passport!
By Alan Weed from Porto on 14 Sep 2025, 09:09
It is incredibly frustrating for people who have followed all the rules to residency, with the intent of Portuguese citizenship , to be told they might move that goal from 5 years to 10 years. It's galling to see that they want to immediately implement this rule if it passes. We have lived here for five years, and we're due to spply for citizenship next year. This is just wrong. We pay our considerable taxes and are good neighbors. This is very disappointing.
By Deb from Lisbon on 14 Sep 2025, 18:49