Portugal’s 2026 Nationality Law: What Changes for Residents

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If you hold a Portuguese residence permit and did not have a naturalisation application pending on 19 May 2026, your path to citizenship now runs under the new rules: 10 years of legal residence (7 if you are a national of an EU Member State or a Portuguese-speaking country), a broader knowledge test, and several new conditions. Your residence permit itself is not changed by this law. Several practical details, including how the knowledge requirements will be tested, still depend on regulation that we could not find published as of 11 November 2026.

What the law changed, in brief

Lei Orgânica n.º 1/2026 was published in the Diário da República on 18 May 2026 and amends the Nationality Law (Lei n.º 37/81). Under its own Article 8, it took effect the day after publication, and the Ministry of Justice confirms 19 May 2026 as the start date. A correction notice (Declaração de Retificação n.º 17/2026) was published the same day and adjusted one criminal-record provision.

Point	Before 19 May 2026	From 19 May 2026
Legal residence needed	5 years	7 years (EU and Portuguese-speaking countries) or 10 years (everyone else)
Window in which residence periods must fall	15 years	9 years (EU and Portuguese-speaking countries) or 12 years (everyone else)
Time while first permit application was pending	Counted, if the permit was later granted	That rule was revoked
Knowledge requirement	Portuguese language	Language, culture, history, national symbols, plus rights, duties and the political system

The “before” figures come from the text of Lei Orgânica n.º 1/2024 and the Ministry of Justice guidance for residents; the “after” figures from the 2026 law as published.

If your application was already filed

Article 7 of the 2026 law says administrative procedures pending when it entered into force stay under the previous wording of the Nationality Law. The Ministry of Justice summary puts it the same way: the new rules apply only to applications submitted after the start date.

The test is whether a procedure was pending, not whether you had already reached five years. Someone who passed the five-year mark in early 2026 but had not filed by 18 May now falls under the new requirements. Confirm the filing date and status of your own case with IRN.

How the residence period is counted now

Three provisions in the republished Nationality Law matter most for anyone on a Golden Visa, D7, D8 or D2 route.

What counts as legal residence. Article 15(1) treats a person as legally resident when their stay in Portugal is regularised under any title, visa or authorisation from the foreigners’ entry and residence regime or the asylum regime.
Interrupted periods can be added up. Article 15(3) adds together all periods of legal residence, continuous or not, provided they all fall within a maximum window: 9 years for EU and Portuguese-speaking nationals and 12 years for others (6 for stateless people). Someone in the 10-year group therefore needs 10 years of legal residence inside a 12-year window.
The “pending application” credit is gone. The 2024 amendment had added Article 15(4), which counted the time from the date a temporary residence permit was requested, provided it was later granted. Article 5 of the 2026 law revokes Article 15(4).

The law does not say from which date IRN will start the clock for each type of residence document, and it does not explain how the window in Article 15(3) is measured. If your first permit took months to be granted, the removal of Article 15(4) may change your qualifying date. Until the regulation or official guidance addresses this, treat any start date as unconfirmed and ask IRN directly.

All requirements must be met at the time of the application (Article 6(1)). The law sets no minimum number of days of physical presence per year; it speaks only of legal residence. How IRN will assess residence for permit types with low stay requirements, such as the Golden Visa (ARI), is not addressed in the text.

New conditions beyond residence

Article 6(1) of the amended law lists the requirements for naturalisation of an adult resident. In addition to residence, applicants must:

prove, by a test or a certificate, sufficient knowledge of the Portuguese language and of Portuguese culture, history and national symbols;
have sufficient knowledge of the fundamental rights and duties attached to nationality and of how the state is organised politically;
make a solemn declaration of adherence to the principles of a democratic state under the rule of law;
not have a final sentence of effective imprisonment of more than three years for terrorism, violent or highly organised crime, crimes against state security, or assisting illegal immigration;
not pose a threat to national security or defence, and not be subject to UN or EU restrictive measures;
be able to support themselves.

Nationals of Portuguese-speaking countries are presumed to meet the language requirement unless a clear lack of Portuguese is shown (Article 6(10)).

What the test will look like

The law does not say who will run the knowledge test, what level it will require, or how the rights-and-duties requirement and the means-of-support condition will be proven. Article 4 of the 2026 law gave the Government 90 days from publication to amend the Regulamento da Nacionalidade Portuguesa (Decreto-Lei n.º 237-A/2006). We could not locate a published amendment on the Diário da República or Ministry of Justice sites as of 11 November 2026.

Note that some official guidance has not caught up. The Ministry of Justice service page for naturalisation of residents, marked as updated on 28 July 2026, still describes the five-year route and language-only proof. The law published in the Diário da República prevails over a service page. For the current language certificate options, see our guide to the Portuguese language test, but expect requirements to widen once the regulation appears.

What did not change

The 2026 law amends only the Nationality Law. Article 1 defines its object as amending Lei n.º 37/81, and the text does not mention the Golden Visa, investment permits or Lei n.º 23/2007, the act that governs residence permits. Your D7, D8 digital nomad, D2 or ARI permit keeps its existing renewal rules. Those rules can be changed by other legislation, so check AIMA before each renewal.

Permanent residence remains a separate route. The government portal gov.pt (page updated 1 September 2026) states that holders of a temporary residence permit for at least five years can apply for a permanent residence permit, in person at an AIMA office by appointment. The same page warns that its content may be outdated and points to AIMA for current information. Permanent residence is not citizenship and does not shorten the 7 or 10-year naturalisation requirement.

For many residents in the 10-year group, a sensible sequence is now permanent residence after five years, then naturalisation at ten, with legal residence kept unbroken throughout. That is a general observation, not legal advice for your situation.

Still undefined

The start date IRN will use for counting residence on each permit type, now that Article 15(4) is revoked.
How the 9 or 12-year window in Article 15(3) is measured.
The format, provider and level of the language, culture and civics test.
How means of support and the solemn declaration will be documented.
Whether the amended Regulamento da Nacionalidade Portuguesa has been adopted; we found no published text as of 11 November 2026.

Before planning a filing date, confirm the current position with IRN (Linha Justiça, listed on the Ministry of Justice nationality page) and, for your residence permit, with AIMA.