If you have seen the headlines about Portugal doubling its citizenship timeline, you are probably wondering what it means for your plans. The short answer: your right to live here, buy property, and build a life in the Algarve has not changed at all. Citizenship just takes longer now.
Portugal’s Parliament passed a revised Nationality Law in April 2026 that extends the residency requirement for citizenship from 5 years to 10. It is expected to take effect in May 2026, once signed by the President. That is a significant shift on paper, but it is far less dramatic than most of the coverage suggests.
What Actually Changed
Under the previous law, foreign residents could apply for Portuguese citizenship after 5 years of legal residency. The new law doubles that to 10 years. This applies to all pathways, whether you hold a D7 visa, a Golden Visa, a Digital Nomad visa, or any other residence permit.
The law also introduces stricter language proficiency requirements at the application stage. You will need to demonstrate B1-level Portuguese, which was already a soft requirement but is now formalised with clearer testing standards.
What Has Not Changed – and This Is the Important Part
Your residency rights are completely unaffected. If you have a valid residence permit – D7, Golden Visa, work visa, EU family reunification – nothing changes. You can still live, work, buy property, access healthcare, and enrol your children in school exactly as before.
Property ownership rights have not changed either. Foreigners can still buy property in Portugal with no restrictions, no additional taxes triggered by this law, and no new barriers to the purchasing process. The Golden Visa and D7 visa pathways remain fully operational.
Permanent residency, which grants you indefinite right to live in Portugal, is still available after 5 years. That is a critical distinction. Permanent residency and citizenship are different things. Most expats I work with in Lagos and the Western Algarve care far more about the right to stay than they do about holding a Portuguese passport.
Why Portugal Made This Change
This is not an anti-expat move. Portugal is aligning with the EU average. Most European countries already require 8 to 10 years of residency before granting citizenship. Germany requires 8, Spain requires 10, France requires 5 but with stricter integration tests. Portugal at 5 years was an outlier, and the government has been under domestic pressure to tighten the timeline.
There is also a political context. With housing affordability dominating Portuguese politics, the government wants to signal that residency-for-investment programmes are not a fast track to a passport. Whether that is fair or not is debatable, but the policy direction has been clear for over a year.
What This Means If You Are Considering a Move to the Algarve
If you were planning to move to Portugal primarily for a quick route to an EU passport, you will need to adjust your timeline. Ten years is a meaningful commitment.
But here is what I have noticed in my years helping expats relocate to Lagos and the Western Algarve: most people who move here are not counting down to citizenship day. They come for the lifestyle, the climate, the safety, the cost of living, and the community. The passport is a bonus that some pursue and others never bother with.
If your motivation is quality of life – waking up to Atlantic light, walking to the beach, raising your kids in a safe and affordable environment – nothing about this law changes that calculation. The reasons expats are still buying in the Algarve have not shifted.
Practical Steps If You Are Already in the Pipeline
If you already hold a residence permit and have been living in Portugal, check where you stand. The transitional provisions are not fully published yet, but early indications suggest that time already accrued under the old law will count. If you are at 4 years, you may still qualify under the 5-year rule, but do not assume. Get legal advice specific to your situation.
If you are still in the planning phase, this changes your citizenship timeline but not your residency one. You can still obtain a residence permit, move to Portugal, and apply for permanent residency after 5 years. Citizenship just moves to year 10 instead of year 5.
And if you are buying property as part of your relocation, the process is identical to what it was last month. NIF application, property search, CPCV, deed signing at the notary – none of that has been touched.
The Bottom Line
Portugal made it harder to get a passport. It did not make it harder to live here, buy here, or build a life here. For most expats considering the Algarve, the fundamentals have not changed, and the region remains one of the most welcoming, affordable, and well-connected places in Europe for international buyers.
If you are weighing up a move to the Western Algarve and want to talk through how this affects your specific situation, get in touch. I am based in Lagos and I work with expats navigating exactly these kinds of decisions every day. Drop me a message at steve@sunnysteve.com or call +351 934 916 657 – happy to chat, no strings attached.
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