Effective from 1 October, Portugal’s new citizenship reforms will help the authorities to cover the nationality applications’ backlog. The Institute of Registries and Notary (IRN) has announced that the new Nationality Platform is expected to increase the capacity to process nationality applications by 50 percent. This platform will allow for the complete digitization of nationality processes, including application submission, document analysis, and final decisions.
Features of the New Platform
The online platform will incorporate new technologies such as functionalities automation and artificial intelligence (AI). It will first be implemented at the Central Registry Office in Lisbon and the Central Archive of Porto from 1 October, with plans to expand to 16 other Civil Registry branches across the country by November 4th.
Challenges in the Current System
According to the Secretary of State for Justice, Maria José Barros, the current system faces several challenges:
- Security in the verification and validation of documents;
- Bureaucratic procedures in receiving applications;
- Manual and redundant tasks that slow down the process.
These issues lead to delays in processing nationality applications, creating backlogs. The Government expects this new technology to reduce the backlog of pending applications, ensuring quicker processing times.
How the New Platform Works?
The new platform will:
- Digitize documents;
- Use artificial intelligence to extract the applicant’s identification details;
- Automatically classify applications based on the type of request.
With this automation, employees will only need to validate the uploaded information, reducing processing time from two hours to just 30 minutes.
The IRN points out that paper documentation is the main source of inefficiency in the nationality application process. It adds bureaucratic, and logistical burdens, and increases the risk of fraud.
Increase in Applications
In 2022, the IRN received a record 230,000 applications for Portuguese nationality. Applicants can qualify based on factors like years of legal residence, family nationality, and place of birth.
Project Funding
This new platform is part of a project financed by the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), with an initial budget of €1.4 million.
Filomena Rosa, president of the IRN, emphasized that the platform will lead to:
- More efficient services;
- Higher resource productivity.
It will also integrate with the civil registry system, automatically linking the nationality approval with the applicant’s birth certificate. Applicants will be able to track the progress of their applications online with more transparency.
In 2023, the IRN introduced an online channel for submitting nationality applications, which is mandatory for lawyers and solicitors. So far, over 53,000 applications have been submitted through this system. This measure has improved service efficiency and reduced the burden associated with paper documentation.