Ana Rita Gil and Nuno Piçarra The granting of naturalisation is registered by the Central Registry Office automatically (art. 27 (13) of the Nationality Regulation).98 The registration fee for the procedures regarding the acquisition of citizenship after birth is 250 Euros for adults and 200 Euros for minors. The fee for registering the loss of citizenship is also 150 Euros.99 Applicants who can prove economic deprivation can be exempted from paying the registration fees.100 These procedures respect the principle of due process, as the applicant has the right to respond to negative decisions that might affect him or her. All the principles of the Portuguese administrative procedures code are in force. These include, for example, access to information, assistance and representation and the right to receive a statement of reasons if a negative decision has been taken (art. 41(4) of the Nationality Regulation).101 Furthermore, the registration of citizenship or of the facts that determine conferment of citizenship of origin is only valid if the legal requirements for acquisition of Portuguese citizenship are met. If these requirements are not met, registration can be declared null and void (art. 55 of the Nationality Regulation and art. 87 of the Civil Registry Code). The citizenship acquisition procedure by option, by adoption or by naturalisation is suspended for five years if the applicant has been sentenced to more than one year in prison (art. 13(1) of the Nationality Act).102 This suspension also applies to the deadline established for the opposition of the Public Prosecutor. The acts adopted in violation of these arrangements are null and void (art. 13(3)).103 The new Nationality Regulation has also created mechanisms to simplify procedures. For example, the applicant is exempted from presenting certificates of acts of national civil registry and of Portuguese criminal records, as well as documents proving a legal stay within the Portuguese territory, as the Public Administration can have direct access to this information (art. 37 of the Nationality Regulation). In particular situations, the Ministry of Justice can allow for an exemption for documents which should be presented for the naturalisation procedure as long as there are no doubts regarding the facts concerned (art. 26 of the Nationality Regulation). This possibility is useful, for example, when the immigrants are from countries where registries 98 It is no longer published in the Official Journal (Diário da República), as it was before the 2006 reform. Art. 18 of Decree-Law 322-A/2001, of 14 December, as last amended by Decree-Law n. 157/2019, of 22 October (Registration and Notary Regulation). In naturalisation procedures the costs can be higher when the applicant takes a Portuguese language diagnostic test, whose fee is established as 65 Euros (art. 4(4) of Portaria n.º 176/2014, 15 December and Aviso n.º 16726-A/2019 of 18 October). 100 Art.10 (3) of the Registration and Notary Regulation. 101 Respectively arts. 61, 52 and 124 of the Administrative Procedures Code. 102 This legal arrangement aims at a harmonisation with immigration law, which provides in art. 80 that a permanent residence permit can be granted to foreign citizens who, during the last five years of residency in Portuguese territory, have not been convicted for crimes punished with a penalty or penalties that, individually or cumulatively, exceed one year in prison. If such a conviction precludes the acquisition of a permanent residence permit, then, a fortiori, it should also preclude the acquisition of nationality (Canas 2007: 529). 103 This arrangement is useful, as naturalisation is now a subjective right once its requirements are met. Under the previous law it could be unnecessary, since naturalisation was a discretionary power, so the Minister could freely appreciate such situations. However, its application to filial transfer and adoption is doubtful, since these situations concern minors and involve the principle of the family unity. Some authors also argue that the fiveyear suspension period is too long and postpones the acquisition of nationality for too long (Ramos 2007: 216). 99 34 RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2020/1- © 2020 Author