Portugal · Citizenship by descent
Portuguese citizenship by descent
Reformed by Organic Law 1/2026 in force 19 May 2026. The parent and grandparent routes survive but grandchildren are now expressly subject to the language, culture, security and rule-of-law tests of Article 6(1)(c)–(h).
The 3rd-degree route is new and is being widely mis-sold as an armchair great-grandparent claim. It is not: Article 6(8) waives only the length-of-residence requirement, and still demands five years of actual legal residence in Portugal. Meanwhile the grandparent route quietly got harder — a language and culture test now stands where none did before.
Qualifying routes
Article 1(1)(c): originary nationality by registering the birth in the Portuguese civil register or declaring the will to be Portuguese. No residence, no language test, no effective-ties test.
Article 1(1)(d): originary nationality by declaration, but requires effective ties to the national community AND — new in 2026 — the Article 6(1)(c)–(h) requirements including the language and culture test
Article 6(8): naturalisation with the residency-period requirement waived, but 5 years of legal residence in Portugal is mandatory. This is not a route for someone living abroad.
The facts
- Qualifying figure
- €250
- Total landed cost
- EUR 175–400 in government fees per applicant plus EUR 2–8k in legal, genealogical, translation and apostille costs; Brazilian and other overseas record retrieval is the main variable
- Timeline
- 12–36 months — Conservatória dos Registos Centrais processing; historically 12–24 months and lengthening
- Physical presence
- none for 1st and 2nd degree; 5 years of legal residence for 3rd degree
- Family
- minor children may acquire by declaration once a parent's nationality is registered
- Permanent residency
- not applicable — direct to citizenship
- Citizenship
- immediate on registration; registration has constitutive effect (Article 19(2))
- Language test
- none for 1st degree; language/culture test now applies to 2nd degree via Article 1(3); level pending regulation
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- documented unbroken descent from a Portuguese originary nationalancestor must not have lost Portuguese nationality before the relevant birthfor 2nd degree: effective ties to the national community plus Article 6(1)(c)–(h) requirementsfor 3rd degree: 5 years of legal residence in Portugalcriminal record clearance for adult applicantsapostilled and translated civil registry documents
- Grandchildren (2nd degree) now face the Article 6(1)(c)–(h) battery. Anyone who was told 'no test for grandchildren' was correct before 19 May 2026 and is wrong after it.
- The great-grandparent (3rd degree) route requires five years of legal Portuguese residence — it is a residency programme with a genealogical discount, not a descent claim.
- 'Effective ties to the national community' for 2nd degree remains a discretionary, evidence-heavy test: language, visits, property, family and community involvement all matter, and refusals are common.
- The ancestor must have held Portuguese originary nationality and must not have lost it — a surprisingly frequent failure point for families whose ancestors naturalised elsewhere before the descendant's birth.
- The implementing regulation is outstanding as of mid-July 2026; the reported B1 requirement for the 3rd-degree route appears in advisory commentary but is not stated in the statute itself.
- Documentary standards are high: apostilles, certified translations, and unbroken civil-registry chains. Budget 12–36 months.