Over half a million applicants are experiencing two-year waits due to the high demand for Portuguese citizenship.

Here are the main points:

- Over 500,000 individuals aspiring to obtain Portuguese citizenship are experiencing delays of up to two years in the processing of their applications.
- While the government attributes the delays to high demand, the Union points to staffing shortages as the primary cause of the prolonged waiting periods.
- The application process is further complicated by extensive queues, exacerbating the waiting times.

More than half a million applicants for Portuguese citizenship are currently enduring waits of up to two years for their applications to be processed. The government attributes these delays and the resulting congestion at the Lisbon Central Registry Office to high demand. However, the Registry and Notary Workers Union argues that the primary cause is a shortage of professionals to handle the requests.

According to the Ministry of Justice, the surge in citizenship applications has overwhelmed available resources, leading to processing delays. This situation has prompted individuals to begin queuing as early as 5 am, with some even bringing chairs to endure the long wait.

Reports indicate that the line at the Lisbon Central Registry Office forms early in the morning, and only around 60 service tickets are distributed within the first minutes of opening. As a result, individuals like Fábio Silva feel compelled to arrive at 5 am to secure a place in line.

The Union highlights a significant staffing shortage, revealing that there is a deficit of 242 records keepers and 1,691 records officers, amounting to more than 34 percent of the required staff. This understaffing has led to the backlog of over 500,000 pending applications.

Concerns over the lengthy processing times have been voiced on social media, with one individual reporting a wait of 17 months since filing for Portuguese citizenship. Another applicant was informed by a company in Rhode Island that it could take up to five years to obtain citizenship.

In 2022, requests for Portuguese nationality reached a record high, with a 37.2 percent surge compared to the previous year. Despite the increase in applications, only 911 of the 64,040 processed applications were denied, as per the Immigration, Borders, and Asylum Report.