Report on Citizenship Law: Portugal 1) having reached the age of maturity; 2) having a means of subsistence; 3) having lived on Portuguese soil for at least three years;14 4) having a clean criminal record proved by a police records from both the country of origin and from Portugal; 5) having performed all military duties in the country of origin. Art. 22 of the Civil Code foresaw four ways of losing citizenship. In all of these cases, the same provision provided for its reacquisition, which meant that the legislators of 1867 did not consider the loss of citizenship to be definitive (Ramos 1992: 35). The first cause of loss of Portuguese citizenship was naturalisation in another country.15 The person in question could reacquire it by taking up residence in Portugal and expressing his or her wish to reacquire it. This ex lege reacquisition was subject to these two legal requirements. The second ipso jure cause of loss of citizenship was accepting, without the government’s permission, public office, pension or honour from a foreign government. Unlike the former case, in the latter, the reacquisition was via a discretionary government act. The third cause for loss of citizenship was expulsion by judicial decision. This was merely a temporary loss, in that it was only valid while the conviction was in effect. Once the sentence had been served, the person in question automatically and ex lege reacquired Portuguese citizenship. Lastly, the Civil Code brought in a new form of ex lege loss of citizenship: the marriage of a Portuguese woman to a foreign man (unless she did not acquire the citizenship of her husband as a result of the marriage). The woman would reacquire Portuguese citizenship should the marriage be dissolved, provided she took up residence on Portuguese soil and made an expression of intent. 2.4. Law 2098 of 29 July 1959: mixed system with the prevalence of ius soli Regarding the acquisition of citizenship at birth, the 1959 Act kept the traditional mixed system but put greater emphasis on ius soli (Proença 1960: 21; Ramos 1996: 601). According to art. I of the 1959 Act, Portuguese citizenship was acquired ex lege and automatically by those born on Portuguese territory (ius soli), specifically by the child of a Portuguese father (or Portuguese mother, should the father be stateless, unknown or of unknown citizenship),16 the child of a stateless or unknown father or of unknown citizenship, and the child of a foreign father (or a foreign mother, should the father be stateless, unknown or of unknown citizenship) if the parent was not in Portugal in his or her country’s service.17 For the purpose of acquiring Portuguese citizenship via ius soli, foundlings were presumed to have been born in Portugal. Ius sanguinis only determined ex lege granting of Portuguese citizenship to the children born abroad to a Portuguese father or mother18 if the parent was abroad in the service of the Portuguese state citizens of Portuguese descendant did not necessarily have to fulfil these requirements provided they took up residence in Portugal. This provision aimed to facilitate access for Brazilian nationals. (Ferreira 1870: 43). 14 The period of residence was not required of a descendant of Portuguese citizens who had taken up residence in Portugal. Foreign citizens married to Portuguese women and those who had performed notable services for the nation could also be exempted from this condition (art. 19-2). 15 The effects of loss of nationality did not encompass the wife and children, who would only lose their nationality should they declare that they wanted to follow the nationality of their husband or father. 16 In these cases, acquisition occurs via the conjunction of ius soli and ius sanguinis. 17 Such a reference in the birth register excludes the presumption that Portuguese nationality has been acquired on the basis of having been born in Portugal (art. 2 of the 1960 Nationality Regulation). 18 Under the 1867 Civil Code, only extraterritorial ius sanguinis a pater was relevant. RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2020/1 - © 2020 Author 5