Authorities in Portugal have introduced the new Nationality Platform as part of efforts to ease and accelerate the process of obtaining Portuguese nationality.
Through a statement through the electronic channel to access the services of Portugal, ePortugal, it was revealed that the event was held at the Central Registry Office in Lisbon.
The event was attended by the Secretary of State for Digitisation and Administrative Modernisation, Mário Campolargo, as well as the Secretary of State for Justice, Pedro Ferrão Tavares, and the Board of Directors of the Institute of Registries and Notaries.
The updated BackOffice Platform in the Civil Registry system aims to help automate various tasks by using Artificial Intelligence and also connecting with other entities line the Judicial Police (PJ), as well as the Directorate General for the Administration of Justice (DGAJ), and the Agency for Integration, Migration, and Asylum (AIMA).
The project is funded by Recover Portugal (PRR) with an initial budget of a total of €1.4 million.
In November, the online submission of nationality applications became compulsory for agents (lawyers or solicitors), which corresponds to 90 per cent of the nationality applications submitted.
The introduction of this platform is a new phase in the development of nationality procedures, following the introduction of the Nationality Online services in February this year.
Since June 14, authorities in Portugal made it eligible to request Portuguese nationality online, emphasising that online applications can only be made by a lawyer or solicitor.
The service was launched in February 2023, but was only available for those who have been legally living in Portugal for at least 5 years and for those who have been married or living in a non-marital partnership with a person of Portuguese citizenship for more than three years.
At present, the online service is available for all cases of application for Portuguese nationality.
In order to submit an online request, the lawyer or solicitor is required to verify their identity using the professional order certificate and also have the digital signature with professional attributes active.
Recently, it was reported that the Ministry of Justice platform for electronically submitting nationality requests has registered a total of 16,000 requests as of February this year.
The platform, now entirely operational, automates the integration of the Civil Registry to issue birth certificates, expediting around 23,000 registration processes.
The Ministry of Justice said that it is estimated that 20,000 hours of work will be saved, the equivalent of 86 people freed up for other high-value tasks.
