[LISBON: 10 NOVEMBER 2020]

As of 11 November 2020, children born to foreigners who have been resident in Portugal for longer than 12 months will be eligible to obtain Portuguese citizenship at birth.

This new amendment to Portugal’s nationality law was promulgated on 3 November 2020. Previously, children born to foreign parents living in Portugal were already eligible to obtain citizenship by birth, however only if one of their parents had been living in the country for a period of over 2 years.

The change applies to both legal and illegal residents. Portuguese citizenship will hence also be available to newborn children of Golden Visa holders, provided that they have been resident under the program for a minimum period of 1 year, and met the 7-day minimum stay requirement.

For D7 Visa based residents, the one-year requirement is similarly applicable, provided that the resident has maintained the minimum stay requirement of 6 months associated with this particular Portuguese residency program.

The announcement is a very encouraging development which is expected to raise the appeal of both the D7 Residency and Golden Visa Programs. 

This is a developing story and we’ll update this article as and when new official information becomes available.