Brazilians Submitted Most Online Portuguese Citizenship Applications in 2023
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A total of 12,844 applications were submitted by Brazilian nationals out of 28,800 applications received since 2023.
Following Brazilians, Cabo Verdeans, Ukrainians and Angolans, were the next largest groups applying for Portuguese nationality.
The main reasons for application were attribution of nationality to residents born abroad and children of Portuguese parents (18 per cent, and legal residence in Portugal for at least five years (26 per cent).
Brazilians are the main nationality group to submit the most online applications for Portuguese citizenship in 2023, representing 45 per cent of all applications submitted online.
According to the Institute of Registries and Notaries (IRN) data, 12,844 applications were filed by Brazilian nationals out of a total of 28,800 applications submitted since 2023.
Brazil is the country that leads the countries that most requested Portuguese nationality, with 12,844 applications submitted online (around 45 per cent).
IRN
The majority of requests were based on the attribution of nationality to residents born abroad and to children of Portuguese parents – around 5,160 or 18 per cent, while 7,555 or 26 per cent of the total requests were made under legal residence in the country for a minimum of five years.
In addition, 4,878 applications were made by grandchildren of Portuguese citizens, and another 4,682 were based on naturalisation through marriage. Portuguese Sephardic Jews represented 11.6 per cent of all applicants for Portuguese citizenship in 2023.
In terms of nationality groups, Cabo Verdeans are the second largest nationality to acquire Portuguese nationality, with 3,922 applications, followed by Ukrainians (3,249), and Angolans (1,937).
Furthermore, the highest number of requests for Portuguese nationality was recorded in January 2023, when 5,918 applications were filed. This is the second-highest record number for requests in the last two years, with only application rates recorded in October 2022 being higher (6,132). On the other hand, nationality applications filed in December were the lowest for the year (1,747), which is down by 51 per cent compared to 2022 levels.
Moreover, around 79 applications were filed by nationals of former colonies in the country, while the difference in applications compared to 2022 was up by some 609 more requests.
Rejections were the lowest recorded in these two years – since only one application was rejected. However, two months prior (October 2023), 20 applications were rejected, marking the highest record of rejected applications.
The ‘Online Nationality’ platform has been fully implemented since December 1, 2023, meaning that all requests were made exclusively online.
This measure helped to relieve the pressure on service, removing around 10,000 face-to-face services per month from branches and contributing to making services more efficient by reducing the receipt of paper orders.
The accumulated number of adherents to the “Born Citizen with Citizen Card” initiative reached 17,162 last August. This program allows, in a single act, parents or their legal representatives to register a newborn in the hospital facilities where they were born and request the child’s Citizen Card.