Brazilians will be able to apply for Portuguese citizenship online; know how it will work

Portugal’s government has announced that Brazilians will be able to obtain Portuguese citizenship online, which promises to be less bureaucratic and more flexible. According to Pedro Ferrao Tavares, Minister of Justice, the possibility should become a reality by the end of this year. Through the local justice websitewhich now tracks the progress of orders.

Tavares explained to the Portuguese newspaper News Diary, that this procedure is necessary in light of the large volume of applications for obtaining citizenship. The purpose of this measure is to mitigate the face-to-face operations of Portuguese notaries, who face a high demand for notarialization.

The idea is to make the submission of documents available and to speed up the start of the process online, according to the minister.

After the interested party submits the citizenship application, the online process will conduct a pre-assessment to avoid waiting lists and save time. Thereafter, the process will follow established procedures within the Ministry of Justice.

Portuguese citizenship is the most requested service at the Instituto dos Registos e Notariado (IRN), the local public body that manages the country’s official documents. The deadlines for processing the process can exceed ten times the periods suggested by law.

The citizen’s card, which is the Portuguese ID, for example, has already been renewed online. According to Tavares, he explained to the local press, the operation with the citizen card removed about 3 million attendees from direct services.