What Is IRN and Why Is It Different from AIMA
IRN — the Instituto dos Registos e do Notariado (Institute of Registries and Notaries) — is the body responsible for processing Portuguese citizenship and nationality applications. It is entirely separate from AIMA (Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum), which handles residence permits and visas. The distinction matters because the two agencies have different legal frameworks, different processing environments, and very different queue lengths.
AIMA handles your residence in Portugal — your right to live and work here. IRN handles whether you become Portuguese. The path to citizenship runs through AIMA first (you need years of lawful residence that AIMA oversees) and then through IRN for the actual nationality decision. Many applicants are familiar with AIMA's backlogs and delays, but IRN operates its own separate queue that is equally long — often longer for certain categories — and has its own status-tracking system and escalation routes. A delay at IRN does not mean your residence is at risk; it means your citizenship application is taking longer to reach a decision, while your underlying permit status continues unchanged.
IRN processes nationality applications through its citizenship bureau (conservatória de registos centrais for nationality — the Conservatória dos Registos Centrais in Lisbon handles naturalisation). Cases filed at local conservatórias are forwarded to the centralised unit. The AI-assisted processing platform launched in October 2024 applies to new cases filed after that date and aims to reduce processing times for straightforward files, but the overall queue remains substantial as of 2026.
2026 Processing Times by Application Category
IRN processing times differ significantly by the type of nationality application. The figures below reflect reported timelines for 2026 based on applicant accounts and available data. They represent the time from formal submission acceptance to the IRN decision — not the time from when you start preparing your documents, and not including any time for Portuguese language tests, criminal record gathering, or other pre-submission steps.
Minor children of Portuguese citizens: 3 to 5 months. This is the fastest category, reflecting the relative simplicity of verifying filiation and residence. Adult children of Portuguese citizens: 8 to 12 months. More documentation is required, and the file is subject to fuller security checks. Naturalisation applicants (non-EU nationals after the qualifying residency period): 12 to 18 months for standard files. This is the largest category and the longest standard queue. Files that trigger supplementary checks — criminal record queries, residency verification requests, or document translation issues — can extend to 24 months or beyond.
Spouses or common-law partners of Portuguese citizens: 25 to 30 months. This is the longest-running category in 2026. Marriage-based and partnership-based nationality applications require verification of the relationship's authenticity, its duration, and the applicant's integration indicators. IRN applies additional scrutiny to this category, partly in response to historical fraud in marriage-of-convenience cases. The result is the longest processing queue of any nationality category.
CPLP nationals (nationals of Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe, Mozambique, East Timor, and Equatorial Guinea) who applied before May 19, 2026 under the old 5-year rule: processing times are in the same 12–18 month range as other naturalisation applicants, with no distinct fast-track within IRN for CPLP files in terms of processing speed.
Why IRN Times Are So Much Longer Than AIMA Times
Several structural factors drive IRN's long processing times, distinct from the AIMA backlog that has dominated immigration news in recent years. First, the volume of citizenship applications has surged significantly in the years since AIMA's delays became widely known. More applicants, aware that the citizenship route takes years, have been filing earlier and in larger numbers, increasing the incoming queue faster than IRN can clear it. The new Nationality Law extending the residency requirement for most applicants from 5 to 10 years, effective May 19, 2026, drove a further surge of pre-deadline filings in April and May 2026.
Second, IRN's review process involves security and criminal background checks with Portuguese judicial records and, for foreign nationals, liaison with the applicant's country of origin or nationality. These checks involve external bodies that operate on their own timelines and cannot be unilaterally accelerated by IRN. A Portuguese police records check might take days; a foreign criminal records query, depending on the country, can take weeks to months. If any check returns ambiguous results, IRN initiates a supplementary review that delays the file further.
Third, IRN must verify the residency record independently of whatever AIMA's files show. This means cross-checking tax records, social security registration, health system registrations, and sometimes requesting confirmation from AIMA directly. For long-term residents with multiple permit renewals and some periods of ambiguity in their records — which describes many applicants who were caught in the SEF-to-AIMA transition in 2023-2024 — this residency verification adds time to the file review.
How to Check the Status of Your IRN Citizenship Application
IRN provides an online status-check facility at www.irn.mj.pt under the nationality section (Nacionalidade > Verificar o estado do pedido). You will need your process number (número de processo), which IRN issues when it formally accepts your application. The status system shows broad stages: submitted, under review, supplementary information requested, decided, and dispatched. It does not show detailed case notes or which specific check is pending.
If you do not have a process number — which can happen if your application was submitted through a local conservatória that has not yet forwarded it to the central unit — contact the conservatória where you filed to obtain confirmation that your file has been forwarded and the process number assigned. Without a process number in the central IRN system, your application cannot be tracked online and may not yet have entered the formal IRN queue, even if you have proof of submission.
For status inquiries beyond what the online system shows, IRN can be contacted by email at nacionalidade@irn.mj.pt with your process number, full name, date of birth, and a brief description of what you are asking. IRN response times to email inquiries are variable — expect one to three weeks. Do not contact IRN repeatedly about the same case within a short period; duplicate inquiries do not speed up processing and can create noise in your file.
How the New Nationality Law Affects Applications Filed After May 19, 2026
Portugal's revised Nationality Law entered into force on May 19, 2026. For applications filed on or after that date, the residency requirement for naturalisation increases to 7 years for EU citizens and CPLP nationals, and to 10 years for all other nationalities, replacing the previous 5-year standard. This change does not affect applications already filed before May 19. IRN is legally bound to assess each file under the law in force on the day of filing — a rule confirmed by the Nationality Law's own transitional provisions and by IRN's official position.
A second significant change introduced by the new law concerns how residency time is calculated: the clock now starts from the date of first card issuance by AIMA, not the date of residence permit application. For applicants who experienced long AIMA processing delays in 2023 or 2024, this means the citizenship clock effectively restarts at card issuance — losing the months or years they waited in the AIMA queue before the card was issued. This change applies to citizenship applications filed after May 19, 2026. It does not retroactively affect the calculation for applications already with IRN before that date.
The combination of a longer residency requirement and a clock that starts later (at card issuance rather than application) means that for non-CPLP nationals who arrived in 2022 or 2023 and experienced AIMA delays, the realistic citizenship horizon under the new law may be 2034 or later rather than 2027 or 2028. This is exactly why many applicants rushed to file with IRN before May 19, 2026.
If Your Application Is Stalled: What You Can Do
If your IRN citizenship application has been sitting in under review status for significantly longer than the typical processing time for your category — for example, if you are a naturalisation applicant and your file has been pending for more than 18 months with no supplementary information request and no decision — you have options beyond waiting. The first step is a formal inquiry to IRN by email, citing your process number and asking for a timeline for the decision on your file. If this produces no response or a generic holding reply, you can escalate to a reclamação graciosa (formal administrative complaint) with the Ministry of Justice, asking IRN to make a decision within a defined period.
If administrative channels do not produce a decision, judicial options exist. A court action to compel a decision (acção administrativa para condenação à prática de acto devido) can be filed in the administrative courts, asking the court to order IRN to decide your case within a specified time. This is more involved than the intimação approach used for AIMA cases, and IRN cases typically require an immigration lawyer familiar with nationality law. The cost and timescale of judicial action should be weighed against the gap between where you are in the queue and a likely IRN decision — if you are six months out of the ordinary window, judicial action is expensive relative to the wait; if you are three years in with no movement, it may be the right call.
Keep all documents ready throughout the processing period. Criminal record certificates have validity limits — typically six months — and if IRN is delayed long enough that your certificates expire before the decision, you may need to obtain fresh ones. Portuguese criminal records from the registo criminal online system can be refreshed quickly, but foreign criminal records from countries with slow bureaucracies can add weeks to the process. Monitoring the expiry dates on your certificates and refreshing them proactively avoids a refusal on purely administrative grounds after years of waiting.
Frequently Asked Questions
See the Q&A panel above for direct answers to the most common questions about IRN citizenship processing times, including how long the process takes, whether you can speed it up, what happens when IRN exceeds its statutory deadline, whether your residence permit needs to stay valid during processing, and whether pre-May 2026 filings benefit from the old 5-year rule.