| Current as of 26 August 2026
Lei Organica n.º 1/2026 has been in force since 19 May 2026. Article 4 of that law required the Government to amend the Regulamento da Nacionalidade Portuguesa within 90 days, a deadline that fell on 16 August 2026. At the date of writing, no amending decree has been published in Diario da Republica and the Ordem dos Advogados legal register still lists the amendment as pending. This article will be updated when the Regulamento is published. |
Portugal’s new citizenship law is in force. The regulation that explains how to actually apply it was due on 16 August and has not arrived. What that gap means in practice.
There is a deadline in Portuguese citizenship law that passed quietly on 16 August 2026, and almost nobody outside the profession noticed. Article 4 of Lei Organica n.º 1/2026 gave the Government ninety days from publication to amend the Regulamento da Nacionalidade Portuguesa, the regulation that turns the statute into a working procedure. Ninety days from 18 May lands on 16 August. That date has come and gone.
For anyone holding a Portuguese residence permit and thinking about citizenship, this matters more than it sounds. The law changed the rules. The Regulamento is what tells the conservatorias how to apply them. Until it is updated, several of the most consequential questions raised by the new law have no official answer, and the people most affected are the ones who cannot simply wait.
| The law is in force and the regulation is not. That gap is where most of the current uncertainty for applicants actually lives. |
What the Regulamento is, and why it is separate from the law
Portuguese nationality runs on two instruments rather than one. The Lei da Nacionalidade, Lei n.º 37/81, sets out who may become Portuguese and on what terms. The Regulamento da Nacionalidade Portuguesa, approved by Decreto-Lei n.º 237-A/2006, sets out how the process works: which documents are accepted, how evidence is assessed, what a test looks like, how a conservatoria should treat a given fact pattern.
The distinction is not academic. A statute can create a requirement without saying how it is proved. That is precisely what happened in May. Lei Organica n.º 1/2026 introduced a requirement to demonstrate knowledge of Portuguese culture, history and national symbols, alongside the existing language requirement. It did not specify the format, the pass standard, or the documents that would satisfy it. Those details sit in the Regulamento, and the Regulamento has not been updated to include them.
Worth noting alongside this, the law itself was corrected on the day it was published. Declaracao de Retificacao n.º 17/2026/1 appeared in the same edition of Diario da Republica, Serie I n.º 95 of 18 May 2026, rectifying the text of Lei Organica n.º 1/2026. Anyone reading an early copy of the statute should make sure they are reading the rectified version.
The questions the statute left open
Three gaps matter most, and each of them was expressly left for the Regulamento to close.
The first, and by a distance the most consequential for existing residents, is how residency already accrued is counted toward the new period. Lei Organica n.º 1/2026 extended naturalisation by residence to ten years for most nationals and seven for those of EU and CPLP countries, and shifted the start of the clock to the issuance of the first residence permit. What it did not settle is how that recalculation applies to someone who has held a permit since, say, 2022. Portuguese legal commentary has repeatedly identified the counting method, particularly in cases involving manifestacao de interesse and permits under renewal, as dependent on the regulation still to be updated, and as the point where the largest number of files run into difficulty.
The second is the integration requirement itself. The A2 language level derives from the Regulamento rather than the statute, which means the level applicable under the new regime is itself subject to whatever the amended Regulamento says. The culture and history component has no regulatory shape at all yet. Practically, that means nobody can tell you today what the test will consist of, who will administer it, or what evidence will be accepted in place of sitting it. Our guide to the A2 Portuguese language test covers the CIPLE exam as it currently operates, which remains the established route for the language element.
The third concerns the reduced period for third-degree descendants. Under the new Article 6.º(8), a great-grandchild of an originally Portuguese citizen who has been legally resident in Portugal for at least five years may naturalise on a five-year period rather than the general seven or ten. The evidentiary standard for establishing that descent, and the level of language and cultural knowledge required, again falls to the Regulamento.
Where things actually stand
As of the date of this article, no decree amending the Regulamento da Nacionalidade has been published in Diario da Republica. The Ordem dos Advogados legal information register, which tracks every amendment to the Regulamento, continues to list the Article 4 obligation as forthcoming, with the most recent completed amendment still being Decreto-Lei n.º 26/2022 of 18 March 2022.
A missed deadline of this kind does not invalidate anything. The statute remains in force and applications continue to be received. What it does is prolong a period in which the substantive rules are known and the procedural rules are not. For an applicant, that is an awkward combination, because it means the answer to a reasonable question can legitimately be that nobody knows yet.
It also means one thing worth saying plainly. Any adviser telling you today exactly what the civic knowledge test will contain, or exactly how your accrued residency will be counted, is telling you what they expect rather than what has been decided. Treat confident answers on those two points with caution until the Regulamento is published.
What this means for Golden Visa holders right now
Start with what has not changed, because it is more than people assume. The Golden Visa residency programme itself is untouched by any of this. The qualifying investment, the seven-day annual minimum stay, the renewal cycle and family inclusion all operate exactly as before. The Regulamento concerns nationality procedure, not residency.
Permanent residency is also unaffected. Eligibility to apply still arises after five years of legal residence, and that milestone is governed by the immigration framework rather than the nationality regulation. For a significant number of Golden Visa families, permanent residency at five years is the actual objective, and it remains reachable on the same timeline it always was. Our read on permanent residency versus citizenship sets out the difference in full.
What is affected is the citizenship application at the far end. If you are approaching eligibility and preparing to file, the sensible course is to keep the elements that are settled moving and hold the elements that are not. The language certification is settled, so there is no reason to delay starting it. Document gathering, apostilles and criminal record certificates are settled. The civic knowledge component is not, so there is nothing useful to prepare against yet.
The legal challenge running alongside
There is a separate thread worth knowing about. A collective legal action brought by Golden Visa holders is testing the treatment of residency accrued before the law changed. The argument, in essence, is one of legitimate expectation: that people who entered a programme on a five-year citizenship horizon should not have that horizon doubled retrospectively.
We take no position on how that will resolve, and no applicant should plan around a hoped-for outcome. It is mentioned here because it is part of the current picture and because it bears directly on the same counting question the Regulamento was supposed to answer. If the regulation resolves the point favourably, much of the litigation falls away. If it does not, the courts become the route. Either way, the position is live rather than settled. Our earlier piece on the Constitutional Court decision covers the legal chapter that preceded this one.
What to watch, and where
Three sources are worth checking directly rather than relying on secondary commentary. Diario da Republica publishes the amending decree the moment it exists, and is the only definitive confirmation. The Instituto dos Registos e do Notariado handles nationality applications and updates its guidance when procedure changes. AIMA governs the residency side and issues separate guidance on permits and renewals.
Beyond the Regulamento itself, two further clarifications are still expected. AIMA guidance on how residence permit issuance dates will be evidenced for nationality purposes, given that the clock now runs from issuance rather than application. And practical direction to the conservatorias on handling files that straddle the 18 May cut-off. Neither has appeared.
One point of certainty in all of this. Applications formally submitted to the IRN on or before 18 May 2026 continue to be processed under the previous five-year rules, by virtue of the transitional provision in the statute itself. That protection attaches to filed applications, not to residency held, and no amount of regulatory delay changes it in either direction.
Where to start
If you are working out how the current rules affect your own position, our guide to the Portugal citizenship law as it stands sets out the substantive changes in plain terms, and our read on permanent residency versus citizenship covers the decision most Golden Visa holders reach first. Because the procedural position is genuinely unsettled, an individual nationality application should be assessed by a qualified Portuguese immigration lawyer tracking the regulation in real time. When you would like to talk it through, get in touch for a relaxed, no-pressure conversation.
Elite Golden Visa provides immigration case management for Portugal’s residence-by-investment route. We are not a law firm or a regulated financial adviser. We do not provide investment, legal or tax advice; where appropriate, we introduce clients to independent, regulated professionals. Information on this site is general and subject to change. Capital at risk.
This article is current as of 26 August 2026 and will be updated when the amended Regulamento da Nacionalidade is published. Nothing in this article constitutes legal advice. Individual nationality applications should be assessed by a qualified Portuguese immigration lawyer.
