Recent legislative reforms in portuguese immigration and nationality law have reshaped several procedural pathways. Concurrently, administrative and judicial backlogs continue to affect processing times. This briefing outlines key regulatory developments, expected delays and strategic considerations.
Key Legislative Amendments
Foreigners Law (Lei n.º 23/2007, de 04 de Julho)
On October 22nd the new Foreigners Law came in effect, altering mais elements of the past version. The job seeker visa was limited to “highly qualified” professionals, a category that hasn´t been explained to the general public nor specialists what it means.
Different political actors have manifested different perceptions of this category, varying greatly on the definition of what it stands for. The Secretary of State for Labor, Adriano Rafael Moreira, gave signals that manual professions, that don´t require diplomas or qualifications, could be considered “highly qualified”.
Regarding the family reunification, new criterias were added, such as at least 15 months of residency in Portugal to be requested for childless couples. This change, although accepted by the Constitucional Court of Portugal, is very likely to be disputed in European Courts, where the precedent´s proved themselves more in favour of immigrant´s rights.
The judicial protection, granted by the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic to nationals and foreigners it its articles 20º and 15º, reassured by the Constitutional Court on it´s 785/2025 ruling and by the Supreme Administrative Court on its ruling 11/2024, from 11 of july, seems to be weakened, as the new text grans more autonomy for the judges to deny a ruling in favour of immigrants by taking in consideration AIMA´s lack of human resources. It is a very controversial provision, that ought to be object of legal dispute.
Nationality Law (Lei n.º 37/81, de 03 de Outubro)
Following Chega Party´s agenda, the Nationality Law was also object of change, being approved a new text that also limits the right to obtain the Portuguese nationality as well as imposes a penalty of loss of nationality.
Regarding the new requirements for naturalization, the time of residency in Portugal of five years was increased to ten years. For members of “Comunidade dos Países de Lingua Portuguesa”, the time of residency was set to seven years, as a way of prioritizing the cultural and historical ties with those nations. It is important to notice that as of today, 18th of November, the new law is still not in effect. The Socialist Party used a special procedure for constitutional review, only used twice in the past 50 years, sending the new law directly to Constitutional Court.
The President of Portugal cannot promulgate the law until the Constitutional Court has ruled on Socialist Party´s request. This creates a limbo stage where the new law is not in effect and there is no stablished deadline for when it comes in effect. There is reason to believe that, if the new text comes in effect eventually, it will again be disputed in court, specially by the “Golden Visa” applicants – although it is not possible to foresee the outcome of this at the moment, there are arguments to be made regarding the counting of the time for residency, the date of entry in the country as well as a transitional regime for applicants that were on the break of cmpleting five years but it was changed last minute. Any rulling in those circumstances could benefit dozens of thousands of applicants. For all citizenship applications already made via Conservatória or online through legal representative, there shall be no alterations.
Current Judicial Delays at the Lisbon Circuit Administrative Court
The Lisbon Circuit Administrative Court is the competent court to rule lawsuits against AIMA according to the Código de Processo nos Tribunais Administrativos (CPTA). A huge number of lawsuits were filed against AIMA in the past 3 to 5 months. As of october 11th, the official number by the Court was 133.000 – an increase of more than 200%, that shall be even more, as the data is from over a month ago. The Court´s structure has proved itself insufficient to handle such an increase, repeating AIMA´s administrative shutdown over an immense demand. The urgent nature of those lawsuits seems to be ignored by court, with a sensible increase of time for normal procedures – subpoenaing AIMA, sending notifications for lawyers, registering the lawsuits.
On top of that, on 20th october a new computer system was implemented to the Administrative Courts in Portugal – Lisbon Circuit Administrative Court included – contributing to what has been called a complete chaos by Court members. Tehre are reports of lost files, of impossibility of acces to files already submitter and the complete inability of clerks, officials and lawyers in the new platform. For two entire weeks, there have been no new notifications over the platforms, attibuted to the new system. Daily contact to the Lisbon Circuit Administrative Court are being made, ober e-mail, since the landline is permanently off. We can inform that all lawsuits filed and being hels by our lawfirm are up to date and none is absent, but the delays in response from AIMA and from Court have impacted our timelines like everyone else.
The Portuguese “ICE” Raids – UNEF (Unidade de Estrangeiros e Fronteiras)
Although promised by Minister of the Presidency Leitão Amaro as “not a Portuguese ICE”, the UNEF has started operations in the past month, and we have witnessed an increase of raids oon the streets, at homes and workplaces. The Unit´s officials have shown great attitude and skill on handling the situations with documented and undocumented foreigners but nonetheless have created huge discomfort for immigrants on the approaches. The nature itself of the approaches are very unpleasant. AIMA and the Lisbon Circuit Administrative Court´s inoperability have created an extraordinary situation where immigrant´s lawsuits are pending while they are approached by UNEF and invited to leave Portugal in 20 days. Tehre are cases of direct referral to criminal court, although it is verifiable that there is an administrative lawsuit pending in Lisbon´s court. We recommend that you keep all court documents as well as personal information and lawyers contact with you at all time, as the UNF approaches have been happening at homes, workplaces and in the streets.
