The coalition intends to “revise the requirements for granting Portuguese nationality [...) by extending the minimum period of residence and effective presence in the national territory, eliminating the possibility of illegal stay being counted toward this period”.

The AD coalition’s proposal introduces two major changes to the citizenship requirements. First, it plans to extend the overall minimum residency period needed to become eligible for naturalisation. Second, it places greater focus on ‘effective presence’, meaning applicants would need to spend more physical time in Portugal during the qualification period.The coalition believes these changes would “strengthen ties to Portugal and mitigate concerns about the ‘call effect’ of the current law.”

The current system offers major advantages to Golden Visa holders. Under current regulations, applicants can count the time their application is being processed toward the five-year requirement for Portuguese citizenship, even with minimal physical presence in Portugal. Since processing times now take over 336 months, investors could technically qualify for citizenship after being in Portugal for just 14 days, allowing them to live abroad for the majority of the five years as long as they maintain their visa.

The AD coalition's electoral programme criticises past governments for making “unilateral and [...] retroactive ruptures in state commitments,” suggesting they want to bring more stability and trust back to investment-based migration. However, Madalena Monteiro, founder of Liberty Legal, says the proposed changes go against recent efforts to simplify access to citizenship–a move designed to help address Portugal’s declining population. She expects significant pushback from immigrant groups, especially given the ongoing challenges with Portugal’s complex and inconsistent residency process.

The proposed changes are part of broader immigration reforms included in the coalition’s platform. Other measures include scrapping the manifestação de interesse pathway for residency, tightening border controls, and reforming immigration services managed by AIMA. It has not yet been specified if the reform would be applied to current Golden Visa holders or only to new applicants.

However, modifying nationality laws requires significant parliamentary support, with at least more than half sitting members voting in favour. An AD coalition win in the upcoming elections means the Ministry of Justice would start to implement these processes by drafting amendments to the Nationality Law, and the entire process could span out between 12 to 18 months.

The implementation of these proposals will depend on the results of Portugal’s legislative election on 18 May 2025. According to Pedro Catão Pinheiro, Partner at Next Lawyer, while the proposals are worth keeping an eye on, they face “significant hurdles before becoming reality.” For the AD coalition to push them forward, they would not only need to win the election but also secure “substantial political capital and cross-party support” to pass the reforms.