Portugal ends citizenship for Sephardic heritage

Portugal’s President, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, has promulgated changes to the Portuguese nationality law approved by the Portuguese Parliament, including the closure of the special naturalization route for descendants of Jews of Portuguese origin.

The parliamentary measure appears in: Assembleia da República – Proposta de Lei n.º 1/XVII/1. According to reports citing Decreto da Assembleia da República n.º 48/XVII, the law will only enter into force following publication in the Diário da República.

The Sephardic nationality route, introduced in 2015 under legislation approved in 2013 as a form of historical reparation, allowed descendants of Portuguese Jews to apply for nationality without living in Portugal. That route is now being abolished for future applicants.

The most important question now concerns pending applications already submitted to the Portuguese authorities.

In his official statement, the President stressed that pending cases should not be “effectively affected” by the new law and that applicants should not suffer because of delays caused by the Portuguese State itself. The President’s statement does not bind the Ministry of Justice or the IRN. However, his comments may carry political and interpretative weight, especially if the treatment of pending applications is later challenged before the Portuguese courts.

The official parliamentary documentation also shows that the proposed legislation itself included transitional provisions linked to 19 June 2025, and these provisions attracted constitutional scrutiny during the legislative process.

Reports in the Portuguese press and commentary by Portuguese legal scholars have raised concerns that some applications may not be treated by the authorities as formally “started” until they are internally moved into processing by the IRN (Instituto dos Registos e do Notariado), which operates under the Ministry of Justice. Critics argue that this could unfairly expose existing applicants to the harsher new rules even if they applied years earlier.

At present, it remains unclear how pending Sephardic applications will ultimately be treated. However, the President’s statement, together with the constitutional concerns raised during the legislative process, may strengthen the argument that applications already submitted should continue to be assessed under the previous legal framework rather than under the new rules introduced in 2026.