No rise in Britons seeking Portuguese nationality

Despite an EU Referendum in the UK having been on the cards since the beginning of 2015 – followed by the eventual Brexit outcome last month – the number of British residents in Portugal applying for Portuguese citizenship over the past 18 months has remained low; in fact last year applications dropped to half of those submitted in 2014.

This contrasts with last week’s reports of a “rush” for Irish passports, by Britons looking to remain EU citizens.

Reuters reported last Monday that following the Brexit result, in the early hours of Friday 24 June, Ireland’s embassy and post offices in Northern Ireland received more than 4,000 enquiries, compared with the 200 normally received.

In Portugal, in comparison to 2013, when 12 Britons applied for Portuguese nationality, in 2014 just ten British nationals applied for Portuguese citizenship.

And last year, half of that number underwent the process of becoming naturalised; in 2015, five Britons became Portuguese nationals, a number that has, however, already been matched during the first five months of this year.

Two applications were made in January 2016, one in February, one in April and one in May – and it remains to be seen whether Brexit will have any influence on those figures.

The Portuguese Ministry for Justice, which oversees naturalisation processes, told The Portugal News that while it has no means of establishing whether there has been a rise in the number of Britons enquiring about how to obtain Portuguese citizenship in recent times, “so far there has been no rise in effective requests.”

The British Ambassador in Portugal told The Portugal News that the Embassy has received a large number of messages, including some specific requests seeking information on the matter, this past fortnight in the wake of Brexit, but not many.

