New alarm in Portuguese citizenship: Complaints increased by 177%, AIMA system did not work for about a year

It turned out that the files accumulated in IRN were not the only reasons behind the long waiting times in Portuguese citizenship applications. Complaints about citizenship increased by 177% in 2025 compared to the previous year, according to new data from Provedoria de Justiça, while AIMA's information system used to verify the duration of applicants' legal residence in Portugal was also down for nearly a year.

The impact of the problem became even more evident in 2026. 1,738 applications for citizenship reached Provedoria alone until August 19, 2026.

Complaints increased from 275 to 762

According to Provedoria de Justiça data, the number of complaints regarding the granting or acquisition of Portuguese citizenship increased from 275 in 2024 to 762 in 2025.

This represents an increase of approximately 177% in one year.

However, the figure for the first eight months of 2026 is much more striking: 1,738 complaints were recorded by August 19.

It is stated that a significant portion of the complaints are related to long processing times in citizenship applications.

Waiting for some citizenship files exceeds four years

Provedoria's assessment points out that delays in some citizenship procedures can exceed four years.

At this point, it is necessary to separate the roles of two different institutions.

While the Instituto dos Registos e do Notariado (IRN) is in a central position in the evaluation of citizenship applications, in some files the person's AIMA data is needed to verify how long you have legally resided in Portugal.

Therefore, an information system problem in AIMA can affect the citizenship file beyond the residence application made directly to AIMA.

AIMA system stopped for about a year

One of the most important details in the new report is exactly this connection.

According to Provedoria, AIMA's information system for verifying the duration of legal residence, which may be required for citizenship procedures, was not working for about a year.

Even if the system has been reactivated, Provedoria points out that the consequences of the outage will continue over time.

In other words, the restart of the technical system does not mean that the pending files disappear at the same time.

More than 1.5 million citizenship applications in the last six years

Another data showing the scale of the problem is the total number of applications reaching IRN.

More than 1.5 million applications were made regarding the acquisition or granting of Portuguese citizenship in the period 2020–2025.

Therefore, current delays cannot be reduced to a single technical problem. High file volume, data exchange between institutions and applications transferred from the past should be evaluated together.

What does this mean for the resident whose application is still ongoing?

The new statement does not introduce a new application requirement in the citizenship legislation that comes into force today.

Therefore It does not mean that it is necessary to re-apply for existing citizenship.

However, it shows that the delay in files that have been waiting for processing for a long time may not be caused only by the IRN queue.

Especially in cases where the legal residence period needs to be verified, the data flow between AIMA and IRN can constitute a separate stage of the process.

Resources

Provedoria de Justiça — Relatório à Assembleia da República 2025

https://www.provedor-jus.pt/

DN Brasil — Provedoria: Queixas sobre nacionalidade sobem 177% com atrasos agravados por plataforma da AIMA parada, 24 September 2026

https://dnbrasil.dn.pt/provedoria-queixas-sobre-nacionalidade-sobem-177-com-atrasos-agravados-por-plataforma-da-aima-parada