Report on Citizenship Law: Portugal Nullity of a registration of birth (in cases of ex lege acquisition at birth) or the registry of citizenship acquisition after birth based on falsehood (arts. 87 and 88 of the Civil Registry Code) are not treated as loss of citizenship. Since the declaration of nullity of the registration upon which citizenship was granted has retroactive effects, one can not classify this as a loss of citizenship, but rather as non-acquisition of citizenship.80 The legal regime on nullity of the nationality acquisition was also reviewed in 2018. According to the new Article 12-A, the act that determines the attribution, acquisition or loss of Portuguese nationality based on false or certifying documents of untrue or non-existent facts, or false statements, is null and void. However, this shall not apply in cases where the declaration of invalidity results in statelessness of the person. This new clause constitutes a measure for prevention of statelessness. However, it may raise the concern of being abusively used. The 2018 amendment has also introduced Article 12-B, which sets for cases where the nationality is “consolidated” in the legal order. In cases where the act or fact that has resulted in the acquisition of the Portuguese nationality is contested, if the holder acted in good faith for ten years, believing that he or she was indeed, a Portuguese citizen, retains the nationality. This solution was enacted in order to protect the legitimate expectations of bona fide” holders of Portuguese nationality (Gil: 2018). Reacquisition of citizenship Those who have lost Portuguese citizenship as a result of renouncing it by means of a declaration made when they were not legally autonomous can reacquire it by a declaration when they come of age (art. 4 of the Nationality Act). Reacquisition is not automatic with the declaration but depends on it not being legally contested within a period of one year. Two more reacquisition situations are linked to the legal arrangements for loss of citizenship which were in force until 1981. Art. 30 of the Nationality Act allows women who have lost Portuguese citizenship due to marriage to reacquire it by means of a declaration. This reacquisition of citizenship is not subject to non-opposition by the Public Prosecutor. Furthermore, reacquisition is effective retroactively from the date of loss of citizenship, which allows children who were born after this date to acquire Portuguese citizenship of origin by declaration. Art. 31 of the Nationality Act allows the reacquisition of Portuguese citizenship by all those who lost it when they acquired another citizenship. So long as there is no definitive registration of loss of citizenship, reacquisition is ex lege but allows the applicant to oppose it by declaring that he or she does not want to be Portuguese. An expression of intent stating the wish to reacquire citizenship is required only when there is definitive registration of loss of citizenship. The reacquisition of citizenship in these cases is not subject to opposition by the Public Prosecutor and becomes effective from the date of acquisition of the foreign citizenship 80 These cases are extremely rare and normally refer to Decree-Law 308-A/75 which determines the ex lege loss of Portuguese nationality to citizens from Portuguese ex-colonies who did not fulfil the requirements to hold Portuguese nationality. Given the difficulties in enforcing this law, there were cases where, due to an administrative error, certain people saw their nationality registration recorded as valid even when, according to the law, they had lost it. In these cases, the citizen in question cannot be blamed for false registration, and the Courts consider the declaration of nullity as invalid because it amounts to an abuse of the law (See the Court of Appeal sentence of 29 January 2004). This is not the case when false registration is due to a citizen’s own action: in such cases the declaration of nullity and cancellation of the registration operates retroactively and withdraws Portuguese nationality from the person in question (legally, it is as if nationality had never been acquired). See the Supreme Court of Justice decision of 18 December 2003. RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2020/1 - © 2020 Author 25