Half a month ago, we reported that holders of Portugal’s Golden Visas were preparing a class action against the state over tighter citizenship rules. The dispute has now moved forward: 1,260 people have formally lodged a collective complaint with Portugal’s Ombudsman (Provedor de Justiça).

Most of the complainants are holders of so-called Golden Visas — residence permits granted under the ARI investment programme. They are represented by ten lawyers, including the legal team at Liberty Legal. They are challenging amendments to the nationality law, arguing that the new method of calculating the residency period required for naturalisation is unconstitutional.

Their main objection is not only to the extension of the qualifying period — from five to ten years for most foreign nationals and to seven years for citizens of EU member states and CPLP countries — but also to the date from which that period is now calculated. For many investors, this is the most contentious issue: they waited years, in some cases up to five years, for their first residence permit cards to be issued, and under the new rules that waiting time is effectively disregarded.

While the initial debate focused in part on restoring the previous five-year residency requirement, the legal challenge now appears to have shifted toward a narrower — but potentially stronger — question: whether it is lawful to erase time lost because of delays caused by the state itself.

We will continue to follow the case. So far, a collective legal challenge brought by ordinary residence permit holders has failed to produce any tangible results. Attention is now turning to a group with considerably greater influence.