Important Update: Release of the Amendment to the Citizenship Law

We are delighted to announce that the amendments to the Citizenship Law have been officially published today. As previously communicated, these amendments bring about significant changes to the citizenship application process. One crucial aspect of these changes is Article 15, which states: “For the purposes of counting legal residence periods provided for in the present law, the time elapsed since the moment in which the temporary residence permit was requested, provided that the same will be granted.”

There has been some ambiguity regarding what constitutes the “request” for a temporary residence permit, especially concerning the process of acquiring a golden visa for citizenship purposes. As outlined in our previous article, available here, several possibilities exist, including:

i) The online submission date
ii) The date of payment of the online application
iii) The date of biometrics
iv) The date of biometrics with no notice of further documents missing
v) Other moments

Given the legislator’s intention to address the backlog affecting immigration proceedings, we anticipate that the date of online submission or payment will likely be considered as the “request” for residency calculations.

While the law is already in effect, the regulation will be implemented within the next 90 days. Once this regulation is finalized, we will have a definitive answer to the question of what moment constitutes the request for a golden visa in the context of acquiring citizenship.

Please be assured that the team at IAS is fully committed to providing you with comprehensive support and guidance throughout this process. We will continue to keep you informed of any further developments.