The changes in the law that extend the original nationality to the grandchildren of Portuguese explain the growth. Concessions rose 35% from 100,000 to 135,000. Brazilians lead the table of those who become Portuguese.
The number of applications of Portuguese nationality increased by about 50% in two years, reveal data provided by the Ministry of Justice to the PÚBLICO. In 2016, around 117,629 foreign citizens applied for Portuguese nationality, but in 2018 this number rose to 176,285, or 59,000 more. There were over 138,000 in 2017.
Not all the requests correspond to concessions, but there was also a significant increase in this chapter: in these two years the growth was 35%. Last year, 135,424 citizens were granted Portuguese nationality, which is equivalent to 35,000 more than in 2016. Most of the applications were made by Brazilians. Although the data disaggregated by nationality are not yet worked by services for 2018, the trend of previous years continues, they ensure. In 2017, for example, Brazil topped the top five countries that most requested Portuguese nationality with three times as many requests as the second country in the table, Cape Verde - followed by Ukraine, Angola and Guinea-Bissau.
This increase results from the legislative changes that have been introduced since 2015 and particularly from the extension of the original nationality to grandchildren of Portuguese born abroad. As a result, nationality applications made by grandchildren of Portuguese rose from 163 in 2016 to 6348 in 2018, with Brazil again leading the table on a large scale. The country accounted for more than 85% of all such requests in 2018.
Sephardic Jews return after 500 years
Also in relation to applications for Portuguese nationality made by Sephardic Jews, the increase was significant between 2016, when 5,100 citizens formally expressed this will, and 2018, when there were more than 14,000 cases filed at the Institute of Registration and Notary Services. The overwhelming majority of these Sephardic people have Israeli nationality (about ten thousand), followed by Brazilians with more than a thousand and Turks with almost a thousand.
It was in 2015 that the law changed to allow the descendants of Jews who had been living in Portugal for about 500 years, when they were persecuted and expelled from the country, to become Portuguese. In total, since that change, 7187 Sephardic people have obtained Portuguese nationality, four times less than the total number of applications (around 30 thousand) - not all cases have been completed and the data show that the number of refusals has been small.
In 2017, in a document from the Migration Observatory that compiled data from the last 10 years, it was noted that in that period Portugal had gained more than 400 thousand new citizens.
Born in Portugal. Easier to apply for nationality
The amendments to the law of July last year also include the hypothesis that the children of foreigners who have lived in Portugal for two years are considered Portuguese nationals, unless they declare that they do not want to be Portuguese, "inverting the current rule". Until then, parents were required to have been living in Portugal for at least five years.
Parents can acquire nationality for their children
Another significant change was the request for nationality via ancestry: parents of Portuguese of origin may have access to the nationality of their children as long as they have resided for at least five years in Portugal, regardless of their legal situation. Those who are Portuguese of origin have full rights, for those who become naturalized the rights shorten. Naturalised persons are prevented, for example, from running for the Presidency of the Republic or for the Presidency of the Assembly of the Republic.
Source: Jornal Público
