Descendants of Jews expelled from Portugal during the Inquisition are rushing to formalize their requests for Portuguese nationality by September 1, when new rules come into force that should make the benefit unfeasible for most candidates.
After that date, the government will require proof of contemporary ties, such as inheritance of real estate and regular trips to the country throughout life. Before, certification of Sephardic ancestry was the main requirement of the process.
Less than four months before the new rules come into force, law firms, genealogists, immigration advisors and social media groups have registered a significant increase in consultations. Between the 10th and 27th of April alone, the CIL (Community Israelita de Lisboa) received more than 10,000 requests for certification of Sephardic descent, according to a survey by the report based on the numbering of the processes.
TR Advogados reported a 150% increase in requests for such assistance in the first three months of 2022, compared to the same period of the previous year. With a strong presence in the segment, the consultancy Portugal for All says that demand has more than doubled since the announcement of the changes. In the consultancy Clube do Passaporte, the proportion of consultations made by descendants of Sephardic people jumped from 60% to 70% of the total number of consultations.
Activity on nationality and genealogy discussion forums has also skyrocketed. São Paulo businesswoman Valeria Mendes is one of those trying to submit the application — and obtain the necessary documentation — before the new requirements. “I have two cousins ​​who have already obtained citizenship, so the hardest part, which was doing the genealogical mapping, is done”, she says. “My question now is whether, with the large number of requests, I will be able to obtain the mandatory certification in time.”
The speed of certification processes, by the way, is one of the great doubts among specialists. To obtain the document, candidates submit a genealogical file proving their connection with the group expelled from the Iberian Peninsula in the Inquisition. The material is then analyzed by a Jewish community, and today only the Lisbon community issues the certificates. With the increase in demand, the deadline for the completion of the processes is uncertain.
Many lawyers say that if the document is not ready by the time the new rules take effect, they will submit applications even without it. For the processes still being prepared by the CIL, the idea is to attach all the protocols, the family tree and other information proving the ancestry.
“It’s a risk, but our legal certainty is based on the principle of ample defense. In other words, the process is not dismissed outright for lack of a document without an option for defense and contradictory”, evaluates Portuguese-Brazilian lawyer Raphaela Souza, a partner at consultancy Portugal for all. “The rules are new and so there are still no concrete cases for this situation.”
In the interpretation of Angela Theodoro, partner at TR Advogados and partner of the LO Baptista office, only nationality applications submitted with complete documentation are guaranteed to be completed. “The simple fact of submitting the request to obtain the certificate to the Israeli community by August 31 will not have the power to prevent the production of the effects of the new regulation.”
The changes were introduced by the government in a decree published in March. The decision to make it difficult to access Portuguese nationality through the Sephardic route came after Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, owner of the British football team Chelsea and very close to President Vladimir Putin, obtained a Portuguese passport through the mechanism.
Immersed in controversy, the billionaire’s naturalization process is the subject of two investigations in the country. The rabbi responsible for certifying Abramovich’s Sephardic bond, Daniel Litvak, head of the Israeli Community of Porto, was even arrested by the Portuguese Judiciary Police in an investigation into irregularities in the process of the oligarch and other businessmen.
The Israeli Community of Porto denied any irregularities, but announced in March that it would no longer carry out the analysis and certification of Sephardic ties. Until then, the entity was responsible for almost 90% of the documents issued.
Granting Portuguese nationality to descendants of Sephardic Jews expelled from the Iberian Peninsula in the 16th century was introduced into the law in 2015 and quickly gained popularity.
By 2021, the country had already granted 56,685 nationalities through the mechanism. Although the Ministry of Justice has not yet provided the division by nationality, thousands of Brazilians have already benefited from the law, created as a form of historical reparation.
