Portugal: the 90-day deadline to update the Nationality Regulation falls on 16 August 2026

Portugal's rewritten nationality law has been in force since 19 May 2026, but a second piece is still outstanding - and it is the piece that decides how several of the new routes actually work in practice.

What the deadline is

Article 4 of Lei Organica n. 1/2026 requires the Government to make the necessary amendments to the Portuguese Nationality Regulation (annexed to Decreto-Lei n. 237-A/2006) within 90 days of the law's publication. The law was published on 18 May 2026, which puts the deadline at 16 August 2026.

The Ministry of Justice has said the same thing in its own words: the practical application of several provisions depends on complementary regulation and on the procedural detail that regulation will supply. As of this review no amending decree had been published.

Why it matters for descent claimants

• The new great-grandchild (bisneto) route under article 6(8) waives the residence-period requirement but not the other naturalization conditions, and the language level expected of applicants on that route is not settled in the statute itself.

• The grandchild route under article 1(1)(d) now expressly requires the conditions in article 6(1)(c) to (h), alongside proof of an effective connection to the national community.

• Procedural questions - what documents prove an effective connection, and how declarations are filed - are regulation territory, not statute territory.

What to watch

Two documents. The amending decree itself, in the Diario da Republica, and the Instituto dos Registos e do Notariado guidance that usually follows it. Note also that Lei Organica 1/2026 was itself corrected by Declaracao de Retificacao n. 17/2026, so anyone working from an early copy of the text should re-check it against the consolidated version.

This is a timing and procedure item, not a change in who qualifies. Nothing here moves eligibility; it determines when parts of the new law become usable.