The bill presented by the Socialist Party in Portugal (PS) would modify the nationality law for Sephardic Jews.
In many occasions who has the responsibility to legislate does not always know the true reality on which dictates the destiny of so many people, sometimes millions of people as it happens with the people who wish to obtain the Portuguese nationality by Sephardic origin, and even more when this reality is multiple and thousands of kilometers away, in several countries of the world, as is the case of the Diaspora of the Sephardic Jews, the gap between what is said, from the top of the tribunes, and the diversity of motivations and realities. Of those who seek Portuguese nationality, it is even more surprising.
From Molinares Abogados we are aware of the regulatory dynamism that exists in matters of foreigners and immigration, and in this case specifically on the procedure for obtaining the Portuguese nationality by Sephardic origin, and that is why we have ascertained from real sources of the agencies and institutions involved in the nationality processes where the interests of our clients are, the following information:
That last 04/28/2020, the Socialist Party (PS) submitted a bill that seeks to amend art.6, paragraph 7, of Law 37/81 (Portuguese Nationality Law), which would come to modify the naturalization of descendants of Sephardic Jews contained in the Portuguese law, through Law 1/2013 and Decree Law 30-A / 2015.
Now, it is necessary to note that the change of initiative proposed by the PS initially represents an attempt to densify the indeterminate concept of "connection with Portugal" in terms of naturalization of Sephardic descendants, beginning to demand, as a new requirement to add to the already existing ones, that of legal residence in Portugal for a period of 2 years.
The current law already lists, by way of example, objective requirements intended to concretize this connection, namely, nicknames of Sephardic origin, family language (e.g. Ladino) and descendants of Sephardic Jews, i.e., genealogical evidence of descent from Jews who were driven, directly or indirectly, by inquisitorial racism to cease residing on the mainland of Portugal.
Taking into account the above, there is a possibility that the bill seeks to curb the naturalization applications that in recent months has grown " exponentially ", also because Spain is being taken as an example, more than all with the facts that occurred at the end of the validity of Law 12 of 2015, and the thousands of applications that are being completed by their applicants as those already under study by the General Directorate of Registries and Notaries in the Ministry of Justice, and now we must add that there could be the possibility in the medium term that the procedure for obtaining nationality by Sephardic origin could end in Portugal, in addition to the fact that as of today Portugal is "the only country with this regime for the naturalization of foreigners".
In any case, it should be noted that this is a bill, whose modification must be made by qualified majorities of 2/3 of the Parliament, and the Socialist Political Party (PS) has the parliamentary majority and has been able to form the government, but undoubtedly, the bill will need the support of other political parties for the reform to be effective, produce full effects, and become a reality.
This bill, if approved, should enter into force on January 1, 2022, at which time parliamentary control over the bill would take place and qualified majorities would be obtained. We are convinced that the new requirements will be approved and enter into force.
Therefore, our recommendation today will be directed to make the decision to initiate the procedure to obtain the Portuguese nationality by Sephardic origin, especially when we are talking about the fact that the procedure consists of several phases and that each one takes its time. For example, obtaining the Certificate that certifies your Sephardic origin, which can be issued by the Jewish Community of Lisbon or Porto, can take between 4 to 8 months maximum, and this implies that as more applications are submitted the Israeli Community in Lisbon can extend these deadlines, the same happened in Spain at the time that the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain - FCJE, received so many applications that today they are issuing certificate of origin presented in the summer of last year.
Indeed, we must minimize as much as possible to submit to a regulatory change that could establish more requirements to be able to obtain the nationality by this route, and not only the mentioned, but also those that may include as special link with Portugal or even put proof of knowledge, at the moment, we have that it will require that the applicant resides for 2 years in Portugal.
And that is why, in order to file your application with the Ministry of Justice in Portugal we must file the application before January 1, 2022, your process must start at least 18 to 20 months before that date to avoid any further delay.
From Molinares Abogados we invite you to start your application as soon as possible, we are ready to receive all the people who want to obtain their European passport; do not miss this opportunity that opens the doors to Europe.
If you want to know more about obtaining Portuguese nationality by Sephardic origin, you can contact us through our free web consultation service, remember that we are here to help you!
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