What are the Eligibility Criteria?
The most important thing in the eligibility criteria is that you must have all the documents needed for Portuguese citizenship by marriage. You can get Portuguese citizenship if your spouse or unmarried partner has Portuguese citizenship. This spouse-sponsored nationality will give you more rights and benefits than the temporary partner visa or even residentship.
You get to vote in Portugal, and your own citizen card is issued with a Portuguese birth certificate when you get citizenship by marriage. Furthermore, you also get a Portuguese passport.
You are eligible for your partner-sponsored Portuguese citizenship if you are married to a Portuguese national. If you are sponsoring your spouse, you should not necessarily be the descendant of a Portuguese national. The spouse-sponsored nationality is also valid for the expats who have moved to Portugal in recent years.
When applying for spouse-sponsored citizenship, you should know the eligibility criteria, which are:
- You should be married to or be in an intimate relationship with a person holding Portuguese citizenship. The Portuguese citizen can sponsor you after there three years of living in Portugal if you have Portuguese kids. However, if you don’t have kids, the Portuguese will have to live here for six years until they become eligible to sponsor you.
- While you are applying for Portuguese spouse citizenship, you should be able to provide proof of your relationship and unions.
- Your marriage should be registered in the Portuguese registry system.
After you have received your Portuguese citizenship as a spouse, it won’t be annulled even if you both part ways.
Which Factors Can Lead to Application Rejection?
Before we look into the documents needed for Portuguese citizenship by marriage, let’s find out the factors that can cause opposition to or rejection of your application.
Under Portuguese Law, certain circumstances make you ineligible for spouse-sponsored Portuguese citizenship. Hence, you may get rejected by the legal agencies of Portugal.
Here are some factors that can lead to the rejection of your application:
- If you were convicted of a crime that has a penalty of three years imprisonment or even more by the Portuguese book of law.
- When you seem to be a threat to Portuguese public law and order, public health, or national security because of your involvement in terrorism.
- If one of the documents needed for Portuguese citizenship by marriage is false.
- In case you have been serving in the military in any foreign country, your application will be rejected.
- Your application will be rejected if you pretend to be in a relationship with a Portuguese citizen just to get citizenship.
- If you cannot provide the documents needed for Portuguese citizenship by marriage, your application will be rejected immediately.
- If your relationship with the Portuguese national comes to an end and subsequent to that, you apply for Portuguese citizenship. You will not be entertained with Portuguese citizenship if your spouse dies before completing the eligibility period in Portugal.
If your past record is clean, you should attach proof of your non-criminal background to the documents needed for Portuguese citizenship by marriage. Otherwise, the Portuguese Public Ministry might reject your application.
How to Apply for Spouse-sponsored Portuguese Citizenship?
You need to understand the application process to decode the list of documents needed for Portuguese citizenship by marriage. The first step to getting yourself Portuguese citizenship by marriage is to register your marriage or an open, intimate relationship with your partner.
If you had your marriage festivity in any other country, you are bound to register your marriage in the Civil Registry Office of Portugal. You can get your marriage registered in a Portuguese consulate closest to your marriage ceremony, which is celebrated in Portugal. This is termed as the “ transcription of marriage celebrated abroad.”
For your transcripted marriage celebration, you will have to visit Portugal with your birth certificate issued by the government of your native country. Here are some of the documents needed for Portuguese citizenship by marriage.
- Your spouse’s Portuguese identification documents.
- The bride is mandated to provide a statement regarding their name after their marriage. The brides are expected to issue a statement regarding the name they will use after marriage.
- You are also expected to submit the long-form marriage certificate. This certificate will provide the ceremony type of your marriage, which can be either religious or civil, and is approved by the Government of your native country where you tied the knot.
- You must also submit your filled declaration.
Furthermore, after you have submitted the documents needed for Portuguese citizenship by marriage, you will have to make a decision. You will have to choose between agreeing a prenuptial agreement or marrying under either of these conditions:
- 100% communion of your property attained as your heritage.
- Communion of property you may acquire after the marriage.
- Complete separation of Property.
You will receive your marriage certificate after two to three months of your registration. Hence, one of the spouses should stay within the constraints of Portugal.
On the other hand, for a non-marital relationship, you will need legal recognition of your relationship in Portugal. If your relationship started in a country other than Portugal, the jurisdiction must approve and issue a decree. Only then will you be eligible for Portuguese citizenship sponsored by your spouse?
Now that you have your registered marriage or relationship, you can now apply for Portuguese citizenship.
Documents Needed for Portuguese Citizenship by Marriage
The application process for Portuguese citizenship starts with filling out the application. However, you will have to pay the application fee, which is 250 Euros.
Subsequent to that, you will have to submit the documents needed for Portuguese citizenship by marriage to the Civil Registry Office. Here are the documents needed for Portuguese citizenship by marriage:
- A copy of your birth certificate, which is issued by the Portuguese consulate.
- A copy of your native country’s passport.
- Furthermore, you will have to submit a copy of your passport and the ID of your Portuguese national spouse.
- Your spouse’s birth certificate is Portuguese national. This birth certificate should be completely descriptive and also be attached to your marriage certificate, which was obtained within the past six months.
- You also need a detailed marriage document that explains the way in which your marriage took place. It indicates the style of the wedding ceremony, whether it took place in a religious style or has been endorsed by the Government of that country.
- A copy of your marriage certificate that has been registered from the Portuguese Government.
- A Federal Bureau of Investigation National Criminal Record issued by relevant authorities.
- A report of investigation of your criminal history from the countries where you were born and raised. Your criminal record is also required from any other countries where you have lived for at least six months or the last five years if your age was above sixteen. If the reports are written in languages other than Portuguese, attach their translations too.
- A document as proof that you have paid the application fee.
- A piece of evidence that demonstrates that you have never served as a government servant in your home country or any other foreign country. It must also have proof that you have never joined the military forces in any country other than Portugal.
- Evidence that you have proficiency in the Portuguese language. It is usually attached in the form of a handwritten from you explaining the reason why you are requesting the nationality. You have to write this letter in Portuguese. However, you don’t need to attach this document if you have been married to a Portuguese national Spouse for at least five years.
Ways to Make Your Citizenship Application Successful
The success of your application for citizenship is based on multiple factors. Just collecting all the documents needed for Portuguese citizenship by marriage is not enough. You have to prepare for it practically and pave the ground for the acceptance of your application. So, let’s discuss these factors one by one.
How Do You Prove Your Knowledge of Portuguese?
The proof that you are proficient in the Portuguese language is one of the important documents needed for Portuguese citizenship by marriage. In order to fulfill this requirement, you can present documentation such as a diploma from the Portuguese government or private educational institution. This document is awarded in accordance with Portuguese law.
It is proof that you have passed an exam from the Portuguese Consulate while you were living in your home country or any other country. It can also be from a public or private school in Portugal or a certification of foreign language proficiency from a Portuguese assessment center that has been accredited.
Alternatively, you may submit a diploma from a private or public school you attended in a Portuguese-speaking nation.
Pass Your Tests
You don’t need to appear in any citizenship test as this is not included in the documents needed for Portuguese citizenship by marriage. Yet, you will have to take a Portuguese culture and language test named “Certificado Inicial de Português Língua Estrangeira (CIPLE)” You are given two hours to complete this test.
This test is composed of 45% reading and writing, 30% oral comprehension, and 25% oral expression. Although there’s no citizenship test, you’ll have to take a Portuguese culture and language test called “Certificado Inicial de Português Língua Estrangeira (CIPLE)”. This two-hour exam is composed of 45% reading and writing, 30% oral comprehension, and 25% oral expression.
You can appear in the test at any assessment center in Portugal for approval for about 70 Euros, and you must pass with at least 55% scores. Once you have cleared the test, you will receive the call for an interview and you have to pass through the interview process.
If you are successful in passing these exams, you will be able to become a Portuguese national and receive a certification of registration. You might have to wait for this process to complete for about two years.
Develop a Meaningful Interaction with the Portuguese Society
Since man is a social animal, he cannot survive without having links and connections with other humans in his society. To get an excellent quality of life in society, you not only require a good financial position but a strong and wide network too. You must create relations with other people in Portuguese society in addition to bonding with your family members. You must have a property in Portugal that belongs to you and engage yourself in healthy and constructive activities that can benefit you, your society, and its culture.
Moreover, you must have strong proof of your connections with key figures in society and the witnesses that you own the property in Portugal. The proof can be in the form of pictures of your passport, medical records, hotel accommodation bills, travel receipts, and enrollment in Portuguese associations or clubs back home.
Your links and interaction with the Portuguese society is an important factor that plays a role in the success of your application. Most of the applicants are afraid that their application will be rejected if they fail to present sufficient evidence of an actual link to Portugal. This fear is not baseless as till a few years before, not providing solid proof of strong networking used to be one of the primary reasons an applicant would not be granted Portuguese nationality. As a result, many partners and spouses would not proceed with the application procedure.
However, the Government of Portugal has made some changes in the law of Portuguese nationality. Now, you don’t need to get worried about the links for your application of nationality. It would not be rejected just because you don’t have effective associations. Yet, you can avail of this relief only if you have children with your spouse in Portugal or there have been more than six years have passed since your marriage.
If you want to stay in Portugal and are applying for citizenship through a Portuguese national spouse, you must fulfill the eligibility criteria. You have to present the documents needed for Portuguese citizenship by marriage. You can enjoy a number of benefits if apply for Portuguese citizenship in this way such as you will have the right to vote, a Portuguese passport, and a citizenship card. However, you may have to face some challenges in the application process if you don’t have enough links in Portuguese society.
