PS and PSD consider that the grandchildren of Portuguese emigrants who want to obtain the nationality of their grandparents as well as the spouses of national citizens will now have the simplest and fairest process under the law approved today.

The Nationality Law now approved considers only the necessary requirements for granting nationality to Portuguese grandchildren who reside abroad or in Portugal the mastery of the Portuguese language and who do not have a conviction of more than three years in their registration or suspicion of links to terrorist acts , explained the social-democratic deputy José Cesário to Lusa, who voted in favor of the diploma, when his party voted against it.

The PSD voted against the law because of issues related to Sephardic Jews and the children of immigrants born in Portugal, explained the deputy, adding: “I voted in favor because I consider that the changes related to Portuguese non-residents in Portugal are fair measures, that allow Portugal to get closer to Portuguese communities and that were part of the party’s electoral program.

Another change that appears in the law approved today, as proposed by the PSD, and which José Cesário referred to as “an important and more just measure”, is that which concerns the acquisition of Portuguese nationality by Portuguese spouses.

“In this case, too, there was a simplification,” the Social-Democratic deputy, elected by the Out of Europe circle and former Secretary of State for Communities, told Lusa.

“Because now for the spouse to obtain Portuguese nationality, it is enough that he has been married for at least six years to a person of Portuguese nationality”, or earlier, if the couple already has children of Portuguese nationality, he explained.

With these changes, both the grandchildren and the spouses of Portuguese, “now have objective criteria for the attribution of nationality”, defended the socialist deputy Paulo Porto, who considers them “more just”.

In practice, both grandchildren and spouses no longer have the need to “prove their connection to the community”, as provided by the previous version of the law and which was difficult to prove, he said, giving the entire process of obtaining nationality “Greater legal certainty”.

In addition, “it also simplifies work within the conservatories”, stressed the deputy of the PS.

The leftist parties and the PAN today approved, in parliament, in a final global vote, an amendment to the Nationality Law, which allows the children of immigrants living in Portugal for a year to be Portuguese.

The Nationality Law is from 1981 and the last change was made in 2018.

The diploma approved today was based on two bills, the People-Animals-Nature Party (PAN) and the PCP, which were voted in general in December 2019. The diploma of the Bloco de Esquerda (BE) was downloaded without a vote and the bill Joacine Katar Moreira, then at Livre, was unsuccessful