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Portugal’s parliament has recently voted to increase the residency requirement for Portuguese citizenship from five years to ten years, leaving many prospective expats wondering whether the country remains an attractive destination. The short answer? It depends entirely on why you wanted to move there in the first place.
What’s Changed
The Portuguese parliament has approved legislation extending the residency period required for naturalization from five to ten years. This change is currently awaiting presidential approval, which many observers consider a formality at this point.
There are two important exceptions to the ten-year rule:
- Portuguese-speaking country citizens (such as those from Brazil or Mozambique) will need seven years instead of ten
- EU citizens will also face a seven-year requirement rather than the full decade
Additionally, the clock now starts when you receive your residency permit, not when you submit your application. This means you’re realistically looking at 10.5 to 11 years from arrival to citizenship application, plus another two to three years for processing.
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What Hasn’t Changed
For those who genuinely want to live in Portugal, the day-to-day practicalities remain largely the same. The vote affects citizenship requirements, but visa requirements remain untouched.
You can still move to Portugal just as easily as before using various visa options including the D7 visa (requiring just €870 monthly in 2025, rising to €920 in 2026), digital nomad visa, or D2 visa. Portugal continues to offer some of the most accessible entry requirements in the entire European Union.
Once you’re a resident, you’ll still enjoy:
- Access to the public healthcare system
- The right to live in Portugal indefinitely (with standard renewals)
- The ability to buy or rent property
- Access to Portuguese universities
- All the practical benefits of Portuguese residency
Your first permit remains valid for two years, then renews for three years. At the five-year mark, permanent residency becomes available, offering greater stability and significantly more flexibility to spend time outside Portugal—up to 24 consecutive months or 30 months total within a three-year period.
How Different Groups Are Affected
Retirees: Probably Fine
If you’re retiring to Portugal, this change likely won’t impact you much. What most retirees really want is the lifestyle, safety, and access to Portugal’s public healthcare system—all of which you get with a D7 visa (or any other residency visa).
Citizenship is nice to have, but it’s not the main draw. If your move was always intended to be permanent with no plans to relocate elsewhere, the extended timeline is simply a minor inconvenience rather than a dealbreaker.
That said, it would have been nice to have the option to move elsewhere after five years if you wanted to.
Digital Nomads and Remote Workers: It’s Complicated
Digital nomads face a trickier situation because, by definition, they want mobility—and Portugal’s physical stay requirements have always been restrictive.
During temporary residency, you can’t be out of the country for more than six consecutive months or eight non-consecutive months during the validity of your permit (two years for the first permit, three for the second). That’s tough for true nomads. However, once you hit permanent residency at the five-year mark, the rules loosen up significantly.
For remote workers who’ve traveled the world and are now ready to settle down, Portugal remains attractive. But this is typically a younger demographic (20s to 50s) who may have plans to eventually move to other EU countries. The ten-year commitment becomes more burdensome when you’re potentially tied to one job for a decade, limiting career opportunities.
The flexibility to move between EU countries exists even without Portuguese citizenship—it just becomes easier with permanent residency. But it doesn’t provide the same freedom as having an EU passport.
Workers: A Major Setback
One of the legislation’s explicit goals was to prevent people from coming to Portugal, working for five years, getting citizenship, and then moving to Germany or Ireland for higher wages.
For low-skilled workers: If that was your plan, Portugal just became significantly less appealing. Living and working in Portugal for 10-15 years means giving up substantial earning potential compared to higher-wage EU countries. However, Portugal remains one of the easiest entry points into the EU, partly due to its low minimum wage requirements. For someone in India or Bangladesh, 15 years in Portugal may still be more attractive than staying home—but if better options exist, they’ll likely choose those instead.
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For highly skilled workers: This change significantly impacts Portugal’s ability to attract top talent. When Ireland and Germany can offer higher salaries and better career opportunities, Portugal’s main advantages were the five-year citizenship path, lifestyle benefits, and lower cost of living. Highly skilled workers have more mobility and options, making them less likely to commit to a decade in Portugal when other opportunities exist.
Families: Age Matters
For families, the impact depends heavily on your children’s ages.
If you’re moving for lifestyle—safety, quality of life, bilingual education—nothing has changed. Portugal still delivers on all of that from day one.
The problem arises for families with children aged six and older. One of the biggest perks of Portuguese citizenship is that your children could study at universities across the EU—France, Germany, Ireland—paying EU rates instead of international fees. That’s a massive financial advantage, potentially saving tens of thousands of euros.
But if your child is already six years old, by the time you get citizenship 10+ years later, they’ll be past university age. They’ll either need to pay international fees or you’ll need to find another solution.
If you have toddlers or infants, you’re fine. If your kids are in primary school or older, the citizenship benefit for education is essentially off the table.
Golden Visa Holders: Extended Timeline, Extended Investment
Portugal’s Golden Visa requires either a €500,000 investment or a €250,000 donation. In return, you only need to spend seven days per year in Portugal to maintain residency.
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If you’re using it as a backup plan—a safety net in case your home country becomes unstable—nothing changes. Your residency remains available whenever you need it.
If citizenship was the main goal, this hurts. You’re now holding your investment in Portugal for 10+ years instead of five, tying up your capital for twice as long.
The Golden Visa will likely remain popular because Portugal is one of the few EU countries still offering one (Spain and Malta have scrapped theirs). Greece offers citizenship after seven years, but you need to carefully compare investment options and ask yourself: Would I make this investment even without the citizenship benefit?
There’s also a trust issue. Golden Visa holders have endured significant challenges—taking risks to invest in Portuguese companies they know little about, only to face 2-3 year application processing times. Now the rules are changing suddenly. Even if Portugal remains a good deal on paper, this instability may make potential investors more cautious about committing.
The Bottom Line
If you’re moving to Portugal because you actually want to live there—yes, absolutely. The lifestyle, healthcare, safety, and permanent residency benefits remain intact. The extended citizenship timeline is simply part of the journey.
If you wanted a fast track to EU citizenship to move elsewhere—no, this is a major setback. You’re better off exploring other options or reconsidering whether you’re truly committed to Portugal long-term.
The five-year citizenship path was Portugal’s secret weapon. It separated them from countries with stronger economies but harder visa requirements. Now that advantage is gone.
Portugal is still easier to enter than most EU countries, and it still offers an excellent quality of life at a reasonable cost. But it’s no longer the obvious choice it once was. The question you need to ask yourself is simple: Am I willing to commit to actually living in Portugal for a decade, or was I just looking for the easiest path to an EU passport?
Your answer to that question will tell you everything you need to know about whether this change matters to you.