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Portugal has announced that it will end the special naturalization regime for Sephardic Jews, closing a pathway that has allowed tens of thousands of people to claim Portuguese citizenship over the past decade.
Originally introduced in 2015, the program was a form of historical reparation for the forced expulsions and persecution of Sephardic Jews in the 15th century. But after several legal changes and growing political pressure, the government now says this route has “had its time.”
A Program That Made Headlines — and Headlines of Controversy
The Sephardic citizenship program allowed people to apply for Portuguese nationality if they could prove descent from a Sephardic Jewish ancestor expelled from the Iberian Peninsula during the Inquisition. No requirement to live in Portugal was initially included.
At its height, the program attracted tens of thousands of applicants — particularly from Israel, Turkey, and Latin America. But it also became politically divisive, with concerns that people were obtaining citizenship without any genuine link to Portugal, either cultural or physical.
In 2022, the rules were tightened significantly. Applicants now needed to show a tangible connection to Portugal, such as recent residency or regular visits — a change that dramatically reduced the number of successful applications. In practice, this made it nearly impossible for most people to qualify unless they moved to Portugal and lived there for several years.
At that point, applicants could still apply for citizenship after just three years (instead of the standard five), but they had to build a real life in Portugal — a compromise that still acknowledged historical wrongs while respecting modern policy concerns.
Portugalist Take: A Quiet Ending to a Program Already on Life Support
This latest announcement doesn’t come out of nowhere — the program was already effectively non-functional for most people after the 2022 reforms.
Still, the official closure sends a clear message: Portugal wants to move on.
Many people never got the chance to apply — either because they didn’t know about it or because they couldn’t meet the bureaucratic burden in time. For those individuals, this will feel like a door closing just as they were starting to knock.
It’s also notable that this closure comes at a time when Portugal is proposing other major changes to its nationality law — including extending the naturalization timeline to 10 years, and at the same time, opening up ancestry-based citizenship to great-grandchildren.
Some critics might see a contradiction: If great-grandchildren of Portuguese citizens can qualify, why not Sephardic Jews, many of whom are also descendants — albeit from further back?
Politics, Pressure, and Public Perception
The program’s closure is likely politically motivated, at least in part. Rising anti-immigration sentiment and increased pressure from the political right have reshaped Portugal’s immigration policies in 2025.
At the same time, some might argue the reverse: the wrong has been righted, and the program had a 10-year run — longer than many expected. Those who wanted to apply had ample time, and it’s not Portugal’s responsibility to offer historical reparations forever.
What It Means Going Forward
Here’s the practical impact:
- Sephardic Jews will no longer have a special route to citizenship
- Those already living in Portugal can still apply for citizenship — but likely under the standard rules
- That may mean waiting five or even ten years, depending on what the final version of the new naturalization law looks like
In short: Sephardic descendants can still move to Portugal, live here, integrate, and eventually apply — but they’ll need to do so the same way everyone else does.
Final Thoughts
The end of the Sephardic citizenship program is significant — both symbolically and practically.
For many, it will feel like an unfinished gesture, especially for those who only recently learned about their ancestry or faced bureaucratic barriers in applying.
But for the Portuguese government, this closes a chapter in its immigration policy and signals a broader move toward tighter, more uniform nationality rules. Whether that’s fair — or premature — is a matter of debate.
What’s clear is that Portugal is now asking everyone, regardless of history, to prove a deeper connection to the country today.