The Portuguese government may grant Portuguese nationality through naturalization to the descendants of Portuguese Sephardic Jews who were expelled from Portugal and Spain in the fifteenth century.
This measure was approved by the Organic Law No. 1/2013 of 29 July. The Regulation, approved by DL n. 30-A/2015, 27 February, has the following requirements:
- a) applicants are Sephardic Jews of Portuguese descent and are adult or emancipated under the Portuguese law;
- b) not have been convicted, pursuant final judgment of sentence, for committing a crime punishable with a maximum prison sentence equal to or exceeding three years, under Portuguese law.
In the application shall be stated and demonstrated requirements for granting Portuguese nationality to Sephardic Jews of Portuguese descent, namely:
- Family Surnames,
- Family Language,
- Direct offspring or family relations in the genealogical lines of the Portuguese Sephardic community.
The application must be accompanied by the following documents:
- birth registration certificate;
- Criminal record certificate issued by the competent Portuguese authorities, country of nationality and country where they have taken residence:
- Jewish community certificate with religious-related status in Portugal, under the law in force at the date of entry of the Regulation, proving Sephardic Jewish lineage of Portuguese origin, through surname, family language, genealogy, and family memory.
This certificate must contain the following data :
- Full name;
- Date of birth;
- Birth;
- Membership;
- Nationality;
- applicant’s residence;
- Description of direct descent or through family relationship in the genealogy of common progenitor, from Sephardic community of Portuguese origin;
- Evidence of all these elements.
Absent such certificate, other evidence may be admitted, as follows:
- Document issued by the Jewish community proving applicant’s requirements to apply to Portuguese nationality.
- documentary records, such as records of synagogues and Jewish cemeteries, as well as residence permits, property deeds, wills and other documents proving the family relations of the applicant, by way of direct descent or family relationship in the collateral line of the Portuguese in Jewish rites, or as spoken by itself in the middle of this community, the rogue.
- Documentary records, such as records of synagogues and Jewish cemeteries, as well as residence permits, property deeds, wills and other documents proving the family relationship of the applicant, by way of direct descent or family relationship in the collateral line of the common progenitor belonging to the Sephardic community of Portuguese origin .
If in doubt of the authenticity of the contents of the documents issued abroad, the competent authorities may provide to the Jewish communities registered in Portugal opinion on the evidence.