Portugal has received a record breaking number citizenship applications, according to a latest annual report published by SEF.
In 2019, SEF registered a total of 74,116 requests for acquisition of Portuguese nationality, with a significant increase over the same period (+ 79.4%) according to the 2019 annual report. Of these 68.9% were naturalization requests and out of these 68,116 positive and 2,413 negative decisions were issued (refusal rate at 3.2%. The nationality applications also received at embassies abroad 9,270
The applications were received from these top countries
- Brasil 22.928
- Israel 18.433
- Cape Verde 6.472
- Angola 2.993
- Ukraine 2.738
- Guiné-Bissau 2.538
- Turkey 1.629
- São Tomé e Príncipe 1.510
- Nepal 1.287
- Índia 1.225
In 2015 Portugal amended its citizenship law to allow Sephardic Jews, descendants of those persecuted and expelled from the country, to obtain Portuguese citizenship. Tens of thousands of Jews, mainly from Turkey and Israel applied and obtained citizenship under this regime. Since 2015, Portugal has granted over 10,000 citizenships to descendants of sephardic jews.
Portugal also simplified citizenship regime, reducing the number of years to five for acquiring citizenship in Portugal. The golden visa scheme has also attracted significant interest because property investors can get citizenship with minimum residence requirements and without actually living in the country and passing the language test.
A recent report by European commission, Portugal has granted a record breaking number of citizenship in 2019, reaching all time high more than double the number of births in the country,
In 2018, EU-27 Member States granted citizenship to 672 000 persons in 2018, some 2.0 % of all foreign citizens in the EU. Portugal recorded 5.1% naturalization rate for foreign citizens, third highest in the EU. The naturalisation rate, calculated as the share of foreign citizens acquiring the citizenship of an EU Member State relative to the total number of foreign citizens resident in the same Member State.
Migrants integration requires role of active citizenship covers civic and political participation by migrants and the acquisition of equal rights and responsibilities by migrants.
The table below shows a total of 21,333 of foreign citizens acquired portuguese citizenship in 2018, out of these 90% are non-EU citizens. The naturalization rate is higher for non-EU nationals stood at 6.7% in Portugal.
