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Over half a million applicants waits 2-Year due to high demand for Portuguese citizenship

by DD Report

May 09, 2024

Portuguese Passport

key takeaways

The government says high demand is causing the delays but the Union cites a lack of staff for long waiting times.
The application process is also dealing with very long queuing lines.

More than a two-year wait period for the processing of over 500,000 applications for Portuguese citizenship.

The Lisbon Central Registry Office queue starts to build at 5 a.m., and the administration has blamed heavy demand for both the delays and the congestion.

The Registry and Notary Workers Union, however, asserts that the true cause is a shortage of experts to handle the demands.

Government Says High Demand Drives Candidates to Wait Since Early Morning to Apply

The Ministry of Justice told SIC that the delays in processing citizenship applications are related to the large number of requests.

In addition to the long waiting time for processing, starting the application process is also a hustle. SIC reports that the line at the Lisbon Central Registry Office began at 5 am, with some people even bringing chairs.

Around 60 service tickets are allocated to applicants who get a hand on the tickets within the first minutes of the Registry Office opening.

Staff to Process Requests is 34% Shorter Than Needed, Union Reveals

The Registry and Notary Workers Union does not agree with the government, pointing out that a lack of professionals is behind the delays in processing citizenship applications.

The Union says that competent authorities are understaffed, while currently there are some 500,000 pending applications.

There is a shortage of 242 records keepers and 1,691 records officers, this means a deficit of more than 34 per cent of the staff that is needed.
-The Registry and Notary Workers Union

Some people took to social media to voice their concerns, with a netizen saying he filed for Portuguese citizenship in November 2022 and has not heard anything yet – some 17 months later.

Another one, who was applying through his grandparents pointed out that he was notified by a company called Portugal Solutions in Rhode Island that it would take up to five years for him to obtain Portuguese citizenship.

According to the Immigration, Borders and Asylum Report, requests for Portuguese nationality have reached a new high in 2022. With a surge of 37.2 per cent from the previous year, some 74,506 people sought citizenship in 2022, while only 911 of 64,040 processed applications were denied.