In the last 6 years, 1,600,000 Portuguese nationality applications have been initiated, according to the publication of Revista Imprensa, on January 21, 2025.
Despite the creation of the online platform, currently imposed on lawyers, as a way of speeding up the analysis and decision of the nationality process, such a system does not correctly respond to the objective for which it was created.
Processes based on length of residence, which 2 years ago took an average of 9 months to complete, are now taking over 36 months for analysis and decision.
The result is a backlog of requests for residence renewals with AIMA, also delaying requests for renewals from foreign citizens who are LEGAL residents and who depend on either the renewal of their residence card or the granting of their nationality to be able to maintain their lives in the country they have chosen to reside in.
There is widespread inefficiency in the system, both at IRN and AIMA.
It is also clear that the State is unable to implement efficient IT systems, because as soon as it is implemented, the migrated data either disappears or the logins are blocked. Furthermore, the computerization of document issuance has generated gaps, errors and more requests for rectifications and corrections, undermining the public service with unnecessary additional work. For example, birth certificates are issued electronically without the information of grandparents or declarants, which needs to be corrected.
The Secretary of State for Justice, Maria José Barros, admitted that there are still difficulties: "The platform's response is not what we would like, the average waiting times are high".
By WBLEX, 02/04/2025. Translated automatically.
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