Grandchildren of Portuguese Citizens: Practical Examples Part I

Source: cafepress.co.uk

On my previous posts, I have said it was very common for the grandchildren to have the opportunity to choose between the attribution of citizenship and the naturalisation (acquisition of citizenship), but that I advised to choose the acquisition only if the children of the Portuguese citizen has passed away.

Further on, I provide you practical examples for you to understand why I advise this:

Case - Imagine that Francisco is a Portuguese citizen, who had a son called Joseph who was born in the USA, therefore an American citizen. Later on, Joseph also had a child called John, also born in the USA and also an American citizen. John have read our blog and discovered that, as a grandchild of a Portuguese citizen, he can apply for the Portuguese citizenship. He writes to me and ask me: through which procedure should I apply for the citizenship?

First situation -  Joseph, who is John’s father and Francisco’s child, has passed away:

The indicated procedure in this case is the NATURALISATION (ACQUISITION OF CITIZENSHIP). In the moment that Joseph passed away, he lost the right to apply for the Portuguese citizenship as child.

Therefore, there is not the possibility of him obtaining the citizenship to, then, “transmit” it to John. Thus, the only option left for John is to obtain the citizenship though naturalisation as grandson.

Larissa Bona