For many estrangeiros who have made the move to Portugal, studying Portuguese and taking an A2 level exam (CIPLE) makes life a LOT easier. For example, UK nationals can apply for Portuguese nationality (and keep their British nationality) and so ‘become’ European again.
I have been running courses for exam preparation for many years, and the demand for exam courses is increasing. So far, the pass rate for my students is 100% :) The last group of 7 all passed the exam they did in May - well done to them. If you are interested in joining the next course there are details here.
I recently applied for and was given Portuguese nationality :) What did I do? (I was born in the UK - the process may be different depending on your country of origin)
1 Had residência in Portugal for 6 years.
2 Took and passed the CIPLE exam and got the certificate.
3 Found someone in the UK who would let me send documents to their address and then be responsible for putting things back in the post.
4 Requested a criminal record check from here. For this I needed to have an endorser – someone who has known you for a while and is employed in one of a certain list of jobs. This took about a month from applying to get the check back.
5 Requested a long version of my birth certificate from the local registry to where I was born (much cheaper than the other services on the internet). This came a few days later.
6 Booked and paid for both documents to be legalised at the same time here. I paid for the legalised versions to be posted to my address in Portugal.
7 Once I had the criminal record back and the birth certificate got them sent by registered post to be legalised as arranged in point 6. Then I got the two documents translated into Portuguese and notarised as being authentic translations.
8 Printed out and filled in this form. I DID NOT sign it. Add in the comments anything relevant show you have ties to Portugal – children born here, at school, your work, community ties…
9 Gave the legalised birth certificate, criminal record check, CIPLE pass certificate and the form above to a solicitor, signed it in her presence and she handed it all in.
10 Waited about 5 months and received a letter in the post to say I had nationality.
Then I booked online at a conservatoria to go there to apply for cartão de cidadão. All I needed to take with me was the letter above and my passport. It can take up to a few months to get an appointment, depending on the area you go to. You can book here.
It can be more complicated if you are divorced, or have any complications with anything. It is worth speaking to a solicitor before you start if that is the case.
Area to area changes the length of time to get the paperwork done - up to 2 years in some areas due to backlogs and staff shortages.
It seems to be a lot quicker getting a solicitor to hand in the papers as they are seen a lot quicker than the general public.
It is recommended to have everything (apart from the exam certificate) not more than 3 months old when you hand it in, so timing can be important in terms of organising things…
Send originals of everything and don’t expect anything back (so even if you already have a birth certificate, it is worth getting another for the application) , although I did get my exam certificate back, which I was not expecting.
If you are in central Portugal and would like the details of the solicitor I used, get in touch and I will give you her details.