Portugal citizenship now takes 10 years: what it means for Golden Visa investors

If you invested in a Golden Visa in 2023 or 2024, you did it under a law that let you apply for Portuguese citizenship after five years. Since 19 May 2026 it takes ten.

You signed up under one rule, and you’ll finish under another.

“Does the new rule really apply to me?” It’s the worry we hear most from Golden Visa clients. Yes, unless your citizenship application was already filed by 18 May 2026. Less changed than the headlines suggest, though.

The Golden Visa routes, fees and process are on our Golden Visa page, linked at the end of this post. This post is only about the road from your permit to a passport.

In this guide9 sections

1. What changed in Portugal's nationality law in 2026?
2. Does the 10-year rule apply to my Golden Visa?
3. When do my 10 years start, and how are they counted?
4. Do I now have to keep my investment for 10 years?
5. Can I still get permanent residence after 5 years?
6. What did the Constitutional Court strike down?
7. What are other Golden Visa investors doing about it?
8. Is the Golden Visa ending?
9. Who is the Portugal Golden Visa still worth it for?

What changed in Portugal’s nationality law in 2026?

Since 19 May 2026, you need 10 years of legal residence in Portugal to naturalise, or 7 if you’re a national of an EU country or of a Portuguese-speaking (CPLP) country such as Brazil. Before that date it was 5.

The change came in an amendment to Portugal’s nationality law, published on 18 May 2026 and in force the next day.^[1]

The years are one condition among several. You also need:

• Basic Portuguese.
• Knowledge of Portuguese culture, history and civic rights and duties, shown by a test or a certificate.
• No serious criminal convictions.
• A formal declaration that you accept the principles of the democratic state.
• The means to support yourself.

The regulation that will set out the culture and civics test hadn’t appeared in the official gazette when we checked on 3 November 2026, so we don’t describe the test here.

Does the 10-year rule apply to my Golden Visa?

Yes, unless your citizenship application was already filed by 18 May 2026. The law’s transitional rule says nationality procedures pending on 19 May 2026 are decided under the old text. So if your application was already lodged with the registry, the IRN, you keep the five-year rule.

Everyone else is on the new count, whatever residence permit you hold. Where that leaves you depends on where you are in the process.

If you hold a Golden Visa permit, your permit itself is untouched. You renew it every two years as before, you need 7 days in Portugal in the first year and 14 days in each later two-year period, and you hold the investment for five years.

If a passport in five years was the point, go straight to who the Golden Visa still suits, below.

When do my 10 years start, and how are they counted?

Your 10 years start on the date your first residence permit was issued, and the periods you count have to fall inside a 12-year window. Three points follow from the text of the law.

• The day you applied doesn’t start your clock. Until May 2026 the nationality law let you count time from the date you applied for a temporary permit, provided the permit was later granted. The 2026 amendment repealed that rule.^[1] The Constitutional Court, asked about the repeal, described the effect plainly: your count starts when you obtain the residence permit.
• You can add periods together. If your residence has gaps, the law lets you add the periods, continuous or not, as long as they all fall within 12 years (9 on the seven-year route).
• Golden Visa years count as legal residence on the text. The law defines legal residence as being in Portugal with your situation regularised under any of the permits or visas in the immigration regime, and a Golden Visa is one of those permits.

Want your own dates checked? Book the €80 consultation with our partner lawyer.

Do I now have to keep my investment for 10 years?

No. You still hold the investment for 5 years, counted from the date your permit was granted, and the nationality law didn’t touch it.

A client asked us exactly this in July 2026, and the answer was no. The hold sits in the immigration rules, and the citizenship period sits in the nationality law. Only the second one moved.

As a Golden Visa investor you run three clocks. All three start at your first permit and end at different points.

• Your investment hold: 5 years from the grant of your permit. Every renewal checks that your investment is still in place.
• Permanent residence: you can apply after 5 years on temporary permits, covered in the next section.
• Citizenship: 10 years of legal residence counted from your first permit, inside a 12-year window.

One warning from our partner lawyer, confirmed on 30 October 2026: you can sell after year five, but if you do it before you hold permanent residence, you won’t be granted a permanent card. Keep the investment until the permanent card is in your hand.

Can I still get permanent residence after 5 years?

Yes. After 5 years on temporary permits you can apply for permanent residence, with basic Portuguese (A2) and a clean record. The 2026 amendment didn’t change that.^[1]

As a Golden Visa holder you then have two options, and our partner lawyer confirmed both on 30 October 2026.

Which one fits you depends on whether you plan to live in Portugal. Both fees are on AIMA’s table as of 1 March 2026, and AIMA updates them every 1 March.

What did the Constitutional Court strike down?

The Constitutional Court struck down four provisions of the first version in its ruling of 15 December 2025^[2], and the 10-year period wasn’t one of them.

The Court was asked to review Parliament’s first text before it could be promulgated. It objected to four things:

• An automatic bar on naturalisation for people with certain criminal convictions.
• A ground for opposing nationality that it found too vaguely worded.
• A “manifest fraud” exception.
• A rule on how pending applications would be judged.

It was asked about the new counting rule too, and let it stand. The ten and seven-year periods weren’t among the questions put to it at all.

What are other Golden Visa investors doing about it?

Some are taking money out, and some are preparing to go to court. €94.7m was redeemed from Portuguese funds eligible for the Golden Visa between January and May 2026, nine times the amount in the same months of 2025 and double the €45.3m withdrawn in the whole of 2025.

Those figures come from APFIPP, the fund industry association, as reported by ECO on 26 June 2026 (in Portuguese). New money still came in faster, €283m of subscriptions in the same five months, though ECO called that a slowdown on a year earlier.

If you invested in 2023 or 2024 with the five-year rule in mind, you’ll finish under the ten-year one. Because your count starts at your first permit, every month AIMA takes to issue it is a month added to your wait.

One investor in our files filed in March 2025 and received his card at the end of August 2026. The dated cases, and what they mean for your planning, are in our guide to Golden Visa processing times.

What investors have done so far, as reported:

• Talk of legal action. On 14 May 2026, ECO reported that fund managers were seeing particular unease among US and other international investors, some of whom were weighing legal action. It quoted the president of APCRI, the venture-capital association, saying a large part of them might be thinking of suing the state over frustrated expectations.
• A collective action. The same report said, citing Expresso, that more than 500 foreign citizens were about to file one.
• A complaint to the Ombudsman. On 24 June 2026, 1,260 people, most of them Golden Visa holders, filed a formal complaint with Portugal’s Ombudsman, the Provedoria de Justiça, against the State over the changes to the nationality law. They argue the new text puts the legitimate expectations of thousands of applicants and permit holders at risk, and they propose changes to how the years are counted.

We don’t know how any of it will end.

Is the Golden Visa ending?

No. Portugal’s September 2026 immigration law, in force since 11 September 2026, left the Golden Visa as it was.^[6]

The question comes up every time the rules move:

• October 2023: the property route closed. The other routes stayed open, including the fund and the cultural donation.
• May 2026: the road from your permit to a passport doubled in length. That law changed nothing else: your permit, its routes and its stay rule are as they were.

What the rest of Europe has done with its golden visas is a separate article.

Who is the Portugal Golden Visa still worth it for?

It still fits a family that wants a second base in Europe without moving their life or their taxes, and that’s happy to think 10 years ahead. If that’s you, it can still make sense.

• You keep the permit with very little time in Portugal: 7 days in the first year and 14 days in each later two-year period.
• The permit on its own doesn’t make you tax resident.
• At year five you can move to a permanent card that can’t be cancelled for time abroad.

It no longer fits you if:

• You wanted a passport in five years. The Golden Visa no longer gives you that, and nor does any other Portuguese residence permit.
• You wanted to buy a home and get residency with it. That route closed in October 2023.

If you actually want to live in Portugal, a regular visa usually fits you better:

• The D7 is for you if you live on passive income such as a pension, rent or dividends.
• The D8 is for you if you work remotely for an employer or clients abroad.
• The D2 is for you if you want to run your own business in Portugal and can show what you’re putting into it.

Our D7 vs D8 vs D2 comparison sets the three side by side.

Frequently asked questions

Does the 10-year rule apply if I already hold a Golden Visa?

Yes. Unless you filed your citizenship application by 18 May 2026, you’re on the new count, whatever residence permit you hold. Your 10 years (7 for CPLP nationals) run from the date your first permit was issued.

I filed for citizenship before 19 May 2026. Which law applies to me?

The old law, five years included. The transitional rule says nationality procedures pending on 19 May 2026 are decided under the old text, so an application already lodged with the IRN keeps the five-year rule.

When does my citizenship clock start?

On the date your first residence permit was issued. Since May 2026 you can’t count from the date you applied for the permit, so the months you spend waiting for AIMA aren’t added back.

Does the time I spend waiting for my first permit count?

No. Your clock starts when AIMA issues your first permit. That’s why every month AIMA takes is a month added to your road to a passport.

Is it 7 years for Brazilians?

Yes. If you’re a national of an EU country or a CPLP country such as Brazil, you need 7 years of legal residence. Your years have to fall within a 9-year window on that route.

Can my years of residence have gaps?

Yes. You can add periods of residence together, continuous or not, as long as they all fall within 12 years (9 on the seven-year route).

Do I have to keep my investment for 10 years now?

No. You hold it for 5 years from the date your permit was granted. The nationality law didn’t touch the hold, which sits in the immigration rules.

Can I sell my investment after year five?

Yes, but keep it until your permanent card is in your hand. Our partner lawyer confirmed on 30 October 2026 that if you sell before you hold permanent residence, you won’t be granted a permanent card.

What else do I need for citizenship besides the years?

Basic Portuguese, a culture and civics test or certificate, no serious criminal convictions, a declaration that you accept the principles of the democratic state, and the means to support yourself. The test’s regulation hadn’t been published when we checked on 3 November 2026.

What does permanent residence cost?

€8,840 per person for the Golden Visa permanent card, or €363.20 for ordinary permanent residence, on AIMA’s fee table as of 1 March 2026. AIMA updates the table every 1 March.

Did the Constitutional Court block the 10-year rule?

No. The Court’s December 2025 ruling struck down four other provisions, and the ten and seven-year periods weren’t among the questions put to it. Parliament revised the text, and it has been in force since 19 May 2026.

Is the Portugal Golden Visa being abolished?

No. Portugal’s September 2026 immigration law left the Golden Visa as it was. All its routes are open, including the fund and the cultural donation, and the stay rule hasn’t changed.

Sources and how we checked

1. Lei Orgânica n.º 1/2026, de 18 de maio, Diário da República, with the official PDF. We read the full text on 3 November 2026, including the annex that republishes Lei n.º 37/81, the nationality law, as amended. That’s where the 10 and 7-year periods, the other naturalisation conditions, the definition of legal residence, the 12-year window, the repeal of the application-date rule and the transitional rule for pending procedures come from.
2. Acórdão n.º 1133/2025 of the Constitutional Court, 15 December 2025, full text, and the Court’s press communiqué of the same day.
3. ECO, 14 May 2026, on fund managers, APCRI and the collective action; 24 June 2026, on the 1,260-signature complaint to the Ombudsman; and 26 June 2026, on redemptions and subscriptions. All in Portuguese. The fund figures are APFIPP’s as reported by ECO; we didn’t see the underlying release.
4. Decreto Regulamentar n.º 84/2007, consolidated text: the five-year hold counted from the grant, the 7-day and 14-day stay rule, and the permanent Golden Visa card’s protection from cancellation for absences.
5. AIMA’s fee table, updated 26 February 2026 and in force from 1 March 2026, charged column, for the €8,840 and €363.20 figures.
6. Lei n.º 62/2026, in force 11 September 2026, checked against the Golden Visa articles of Lei n.º 23/2007.
7. Our partner immigration lawyer’s answers of 30 October 2026 on the investment hold, selling after year five, absences and the two permanent cards.