The Brazilian lawyer André Lima responds every week to a question from DN Brasil readers about immigration.
In this week’s response, the doubt resolved is that of a reader who wants guidance on applying for nationality. The request was made in Lisbon, but there is information that the processing is faster in other places. So you want to know if you can cancel and start another one. Lawyer André Lima responds:
This is a question that frequently arises among those who follow the processing times of the registry offices and notice relevant differences between Lisbon, Porto and other cities.
The question is straightforward — and the answer also needs to be: There is no legal prohibition on the simultaneous processing of two or more applications for Portuguese nationalityincluding based on the same article as the Nationality Law.
Neither the Nationality Law (Law no. 37/81) nor its Regulations establish any limitation on the number of applications that the same applicant can submit. The law does not impose exclusivity or require that a process be closed before another can be initiated.
What exists, in practice, is a strategic decision.
Strategy, time and cost
Choosing to submit two requests at the same time is neither illegal nor a procedural error. It is a choice that involves three main factors:
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processing time at each registry office;
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risk of different administrative interpretations;
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the applicant’s financial capacity to support duplicate fees, certificates and fees.
Therefore, it is often said that this decision depends more on the strategy adopted and the applicant’s pocket than on any legal impediment. Anyone who decides to proceed with two requests consciously accepts that they are investing in probability and time.
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Is it necessary to cancel the first order?
Here is an important point that generates a lot of confusion. It is not necessary to request the cancellation of the first process to file a second nationality application, even if it is under the same legal article.
The processes can normally coexist in the IRN system, each with its own procedure, without this representing irregularity or bad faith on the part of the applicant.
What happens when one of them is approved?
In administrative practice, when a nationality request is granted and Portuguese nationality is granted, the other ongoing processes automatically lose their purpose. In this situation, the conservator unofficially cancels the remaining requests, that is, the closure occurs on the initiative of the conservatory itself, without the need for any request from the interested party.
There is no penalty, there is no rejection due to duplicity and there is no legal prejudice to the applicant. Therefore, having two or more nationality applications simultaneously, including under the same article of the Nationality Law, is legally possible.
There is no legal prohibition, there is no need for prior cancellation and the system is prepared to close the remaining processes as soon as one of them is approved. What defines this choice is not the law, but the strategy adopted in each specific case.
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